Rome: More than 40 years after the mysterious accident of an Italian passenger plane that killed 81 people, the case is making headlines again.
Former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato blamed France for the incident, in Saturday's edition of La Repubblica daily, and demanded an apology. Amato said the plane was hit by a stray French missile.
The actual plan was to kill the then Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, on board a fighter plane.
An Itavia plane crashed in the Mediterranean Sea near the small Italian island of Ustica, on June 27, 1980, and none of the 81 people on board survived. To this day, it is not clear what actually happened.
In addition to the accidental shoot-down theory, there is also speculation about an air battle between aircraft from the Libyan Air Force and NATO aircraft, as well as a bomb hidden on board.
There have already been several court cases regarding the incident, without reaching any clarity.
Amato, now 85, was involved in the case in the mid-1980s within the government, before becoming prime minister from 1993-1992 and 2001-2000.
Amato, who is now without a party affiliation, said the “most likely alternative” was that the passenger plane was mistakenly shot down by a French fighter jet.
Amato appealed to current President Emmanuel Macron to apologize on behalf of France. “It does not seem to me that continued silence is the solution,” he said.
The current right-wing government in Italy viewed these statements with interest.
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni made “important statements that deserve attention.”
At the same time, she made it clear that these were Amato's "personal conclusions", not the view of her government.
Her deputy, Matteo Salvini, called on Paris to comment.
Bulgaria A truck carrying 80 migrants was seized near Sofia
Bulgarian authorities seized a truck containing 80 illegal immigrants on the Thrace Highway, 8 km from the capital, Sofia, according to Bulgarian National Radio.
The police continue to identify the refugees and search for the truck driver who fled.
Earlier, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov announced that the flow of illegal immigration through Bulgaria in the summer months increased by about 57% compared to the same period last year, and that about a thousand people are trying to cross the border into Bulgaria through Turkey illegally.
Last February, the authorities found a truck containing the bodies of 18 migrants about twenty kilometers from Sofia.
Bulgaria has recorded an increase in the number of clandestine migrants recently, despite the barbed wire along the 234 km border with Turkey.
The Swedish Liberal Party demands the deployment of NATO bases in the country
The leader of the Swedish Liberal Party, Johan Persson, called for the deployment of NATO bases in Sweden after it joined the alliance.
“This demand aims to enhance the security of the Swedish people from the external threat,” Persson said on Sveriges Radio.
He added, “Now we will have a completely different task ahead in our part of the world, in NATO.” And that will mean the need for permanent NATO bases to protect freedom in peacetime as well...Sweden and NATO have been partners since the 1990s. ".
Sweden and Finland applied to join the alliance in May 2022 against the backdrop of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Finland became the 31st member of NATO on April 4, while Hungary and Turkey oppose Sweden's request, which they have not yet agreed to .
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