Migrant boat sinks off Tunisia, at least five dead

Tunisia’s coast guard said it recovered the bodies of five migrants on Thursday whose boat sank as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Crews were now searching for another five Tunisians that relatives had said were also on the boat that set off this week from the southern coastal community of Zarzis, the coast guard added.  Human traffickers are increasingly using Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as the Libyan coast guard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls. Many…

UN-AU Conference Showcases ICT Innovations to Attract Youth to Agriculture

-Discussing the role of ICTs in making the rural sector more attractive for young people, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva noted the need to “think beyond farm jobs,” and explore employment opportunities across entire agri-food value chains. -In a related initiative, FAO and its partners are supporting a series of #HackagainstHunger events to engage young people from different countries in Africa to find innovative solutions that address challenges in food and agriculture. A two-day conference on youth employment in agriculture has highlighted opportunities to tap the potential of Africa’s…

Newspaper keeps Italian heritage in Tunisia alive

Silvia Finzi yells in Tunisian Arabic to her secretary down the hall before turning to her colleague and switching to Italian. Sitting in her office on Avenue de la Liberté in downtown Tunis, Finzi sighs, lights a cigarette and apologizes, “A busy day,” she explains, in impeccable French. Finzi is one of the last of what she calls “la Tunisie plurielle” — the multi-ethnic Tunisia that prevailed for about a decade after the country gained independence in 1956. She descends from an Italian family that has lived in Tunisia for five generations. Once the country’s largest foreign community,…