Word: libya
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...Megrahi, the sole person jailed for the deaths of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, had served just eight years of a 27-year sentence. After all their grieving, the victims' loved ones had to watch al-Megrahi land in Tripoli, Libya, to rapturous crowds and the embrace of a delighted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the country's leader. The White House called the homecoming "disgusting," and London let it be known that it had asked Gaddafi to keep al-Megrahi's arrival...
Beleaguered Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill insisted he alone freed al-Megrahi, but suspicions are likely to linger--especially given the West's careful wooing of Gaddafi since international sanctions ended in 2004. Within hours of a visit to Libya by then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2007, Britain's BP inked a $900 million oil-and-gas-exploration deal. More recently, in July, Prime Minister Gordon Brown met Gaddafi during the G-8 summit in Italy. And a week before al-Megrahi's release, John McCain led a group of fellow Senators in trade talks with Gaddafi, tweeting...
Every week, around a thousand people chance the hazardous journey across the Mediterranean hoping to escape violence and persecution at home and start a new life in Europe. Many don't make it - just a fortnight ago, 73 Eritreans perished on a passage from Libya to Italy. And those who do make it are rarely welcome: countries including Malta, Spain and Italy say they cannot cope with the influx of refugees, and sometimes have to send them back...
...take. Countries that open their doors will get money from the European Refugee Fund - $5,700 per refugee - and support from the newly created European Asylum Support Office, which would meet regularly to define resettlement priorities. The E.U. would also work closely with transit countries outside Europe, mainly Libya and Turkey, so that asylum seekers can apply for resettlement before attempting any precarious journeys. (Read: "Documents Reveal British Role in Lockerbie Bomber's Release...
...could ease the burden on some of the E.U.'s border states. Last year, more than 30,000 people are believed to have made the boat journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa, just 70 miles (113 km) from Tunisia. Earlier this year, Italy signed a controversial agreement with Libya allowing Italian authorities to automatically send would-be immigrants back to Libya without screening them for asylum claims - a move that arguably breaches the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention...