MILAN // The Italian navy said on Friday it boarded and took control of a Sicilian fishing boat that had been seized earlier in the day by armed men off the coast of Libya.
The operation was conducted by military personnel operating in the area on migrant rescue duty. The statement did not say whether the Italian military encountered the armed men, but a Sicilian commercial fishing cooperative said the seven crew members were on their way back to port and appeared to be unharmed.
The incident came as Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi was expected to meet United States president Barack Obama on Friday.
Mr Obama is hosting Mr Renzi at the White House to compare notes on a range of issues, including Ukraine, Libya and ISIL militants.
The Italian navy said the fishing boat had been seized by armed men, apparently Libyan security forces, travelling on a tug boat around 90 kilometres north-west of the Libyan port of Misurata.
“The situation remains very serious and the level of alert for our fishermen is very high,” said Giovanni Tumbiolo, president of the COSVAP cooperative, which is based in the Sicilian port of Mazara del Vallo and includes 350 fishing vessels. He said it appeared to be an act of piracy related to a continuing dispute with Libya over fishing rights, and not related to smuggling of migrants from Libya to Europe.
“Our fishermen were operating legitimately in international waters,” said Mr Tumbiolo. “We don’t understand why we have to endure this fishing war that has been going on for the last eight to 10 years.”
The port of Mazara del Vallo is Italy’s most important fishing port, and one of the most productive in the world, bringing in 30,000 tons of fish a year.
The fishing cooperative said that other fishing boats operating in the vicinity had reported the seizure to port authorities. The crew, which had been fishing for shrimp, included three Italians and four Tunisians resident in Italy.
It was not clear if shots were fired, and there were no reports of injuries, said Francesco Mezzapelle, spokesman for the fishing consortium.
The consortium said there have been a dozen such seizures of Italian fishing vessels since 2005 when Libya asserted that its territorial waters extended more than 112 kilometres off shore — well beyond international agreements. One Italian boat seized in 2012 remains held in the Libyan city of Benghazi, although the crew members were released after a month, Mr Mezzapelle said.
The deteriorating security situation in Libya had heightened concern for the fishermen’s safety, he said. “We are very worried, and so are their families,” Mezzapelle said before the rescue operation.
Fighting in Libya has escalated to its worst levels since the 2011 civil war that ended with the overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Rebel groups that fought against him kept their weapons and militias mushroomed in number.
The country now has rival governments — the internationally recognised one in the eastern city of Tobruk, and an extremist-backed one in the capital, Tripoli. The two sides have been negotiating in Morocco to end the fighting.
In Washington, along with Middle East threats, Mr Obama and Mr Renzi are expected to discuss Europe’s economy, a pending trade pact between the US and Europe, climate change and energy security.
With Italy mired in a recession, Mr Renzi also comes seeking Mr Obama’s support for his economic programme, though it has yet to significantly improve the country’s fiscal outlook.
Italy also is struggling to manage the unprecedented number of migrants who aren’t hesitating to make the treacherous boat trip across the Mediterranean to flee instability in Libya and other parts of North Africa and the Middle East.
Police in Sicily reported on Thursday that Muslim migrants had thrown 12 Christians overboard during a recent crossing from Libya, and an aid group said another 41 were believed to have drowned in a separate incident. Those tragedies followed earlier reports of 400 people presumed dead in the sinking of a ship near the Libyan coast.
The deaths have spurred calls for a more robust search and rescue of the waters between Libya and Europe amid the surge in migration between the continents.
Mr Obama and Mr Renzi first met when the president visited Italy last year just weeks after the now 40-year-old prime minister took office.
* Associated Press
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
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What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”