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75 Migrants Rescued from Crippled Boat Crossing from North Africa to Europe

A fisherman reaches the small harbour on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)
A fisherman reaches the small harbour on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)
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75 Migrants Rescued from Crippled Boat Crossing from North Africa to Europe

A fisherman reaches the small harbour on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)
A fisherman reaches the small harbour on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

A group of 75 migrants crossing to Europe from North Africa has been rescued from a crippled boat south of the island of Crete, Greek authorities said Friday.
The coast guard said the migrants, who are believed to have set off from eastern Libya, were picked up in the Mediterranean Sea by a merchant ship after issuing a distress call. Their nationalities were not immediately known. The vessel, escorted by a coast guard patrol boat, was taking them to a port in southern Crete, The Associated Press reported.
The long voyage from Libya to Crete has emerged this year as a new route for people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia to seek a better life in Europe. People who have completed the crossing told Greek authorities they paid smuggling gangs up to 9,000 euros ($9,800) each for the passage.
More than 3,500 people have made the crossing so far this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency, out of a total of 42,000 who entered Greece illegally — mostly reaching the eastern Aegean Sea islands in small boats from Türkiye.
The crossing from Libya takes at least two days, while a fast smuggling boat from Türkiye can reach the eastern islands in well under an hour, provided it can dodge frequent coast guard patrols.
Italy remains the main European destination for illegal migration, with more than 51,000 arrivals so far, and is followed by Spain.

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Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Japanese Organization of Atomic Bombing Survivors

Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
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Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Japanese Organization of Atomic Bombing Survivors

Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award was made as the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapon is under pressure,” The Associated Press reported.
He said the Nobel committee “wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.”
Hidankyo chairperson Tomoyuki Mimaki, who was standing by at the Hiroshima City Hall for the announcement, cheered and teared up when he received the news.
“Is it really true? Unbelievable!” Mimaki screamed.
Efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honored in the past by the Nobel committee. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the peace prize in 2017, and in 1995 Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”
This year's prize was awarded against a backdrop of devastating conflicts raging in the world, notably in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.
“It is very clear that threats of using nuclear weapons are putting pressure on the important international norm, the taboo of using nuclear weapons,” Watne Frydnes said in response to a question on whether the rhetoric from Russia surrounding nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine had influenced this year's decision.
“And therefore it is alarming to see how threats of use is also damaging this norm. To uphold an international strong taboo against the use is crucial for all of humanity,” he added.
Alfred Nobel stated in his will that the peace prize should be awarded for "the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Last year’s prize went to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her advocacy of women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty. The Nobel committee said it also was a recognition of “the hundreds of thousands of people” who demonstrated against “Iran’s theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women.”
In a year of conflict, there had been some speculation before the announcement that the Norwegian Nobel Committee that decides on the winner would opt not to award a prize at all this year.
The Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). Unlike the other Nobel prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, founder Alfred Nobel decreed the peace prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel season ends Monday with the announcement of the winner of the economics prize, formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.