ALBANIA: Italy’s government formally opened two centres today where it plans to process male migrants who have been intercepted in international waters.

The opening had been delayed for several months because crumbling soil at one centre needed to be repaired.

Italian ambassador Fabrizio Bucci said the two centres were ready to process migrants.

GREECE: A group of 75 migrants crossing to Europe from North Africa has been rescued from a crippled boat south of Crete, authorities said today.

The coastguard 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. 

NORWAY: Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ group Nihon Hidankyo was announced today as the winner of the 2024 Nobel peace prize.

The group of survivors of the 1945 US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was awarded the prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for its efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

KOREAN PENINSULA: Pyongyang has accused Seoul of flying drones to its capital to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again. South Korea denied the allegation.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement torday that South Korean drones had been detected over Pyongyang on October 3 and on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

The ministry accused the South of violating North Korea’s “sacred” sovereignty and threatening its security. It described the alleged flights as a “dangerous provocation.”