Italian Interior Ministry

The government of Montenegro has said it will receive up to five refugees and migrants who disembarked at a port in Sicily after the Italian authorities kept them on the ship for days.

Montenegro confirmed on Wednesday that it has been approached by Italy and asked to take in a number of migrants and refugees, to help end a 10-day standoff with a ship docked off the Italian coast at Catania.

The government in Podgorica said it was still mulling whether to take the mostly African-origin migrants and refugees, but has not yet taken a stance.

Romania's Interior Ministry on Thursday denied that three Roma sisters - burned alive on Wednesday in a horrific incident when their camper in Rome was set on fire as they slept, were from Romania.

The Italian press agency AGI, had said that the three girls, aged four, eight and 20, were of Romanian origin.

Romanians living in Italy said they fear another wave of xenophobia after the deputy head of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Luigi di Maio, a member of the Eurosceptic Five Star Movement, claimed in a Facebook post that "Italy has imported 40% of Romania's criminals".

Humanitarian groups operating rescue ships off the coast of Libya picked up more than 700 migrants out of seven flimsy and overcrowded boats on April 5, the Italian Coast Guard said.

Another 900 migrants have been rescued from stricken boats off Libya, the Italian Coast Guard said Dec. 28, three days before the end of what is already a record year for arrivals at the country's southern ports.

Most of the latest batch of migrants were picked up overnight from two wooden boats travelling together and around 40 people were rescued from another boat at dawn.

Matteo Renzi in Bruxelles - Photo: Governo Italiano

BELGRADE - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has announced his resignation after exit polls showed he had lost the constitutional reform referendum.

Albanian police on Wednesday arrested Baki Coku, saying he was the subject of an international warrant issued by Interpol Roma and was suspected of belonging to an organization "whose goal was to carry terrorist acts.

"His arrest was carried out with the aim of extradition [to Italy] and was part of an international anti-terror operation," the Albanian police added.  

Around 400 migrants are feared dead after their boat capsized off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Italian coast guard rescued 144 people from the boat on Monday and initiated an air and sea operation with the hope of finding other survivors.

Albanian police on Wednesday said they had arrested 38-year-old Alban Haki Elezi, from the village of Frakull, near the town of Kavaja in central Albania, acting on an Interpol warrant issued by the Italian authorities.

"His arrest was carried out based on a warrant issued by Interpol Rome and a ruling issued by a court in Brescia, on suspicion of terrorist acts," the statement said.