Marco Minniti

 Italian police on Thursday arrested five Tunisians as part of what they said was a major operation against suspected supporters of Islamist terrorism in central and southern Italy, reported Reuters.

The swoop is the latest in a series of similar raids this month, coming as Italy steps up the number of foreigners it expels.

Europe's top human rights organization asked Italy for more information on its work intercepting migrants at sea, warning that any moves to return them to Libya would break international treaties.

A key pillar of the Italian government's effort to stem the politically toxic issue of people crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to southern Italy is in danger of collapse as a result of a bloody power struggle in the key Libyan port of Sabratha, the epicentre of human trafficking to Italy, The Guardian writes.

In his eight months in office, Marco Minniti, the austere Italian interior minister, has overseen a huge reduction in the number of African migrants and refugees reaching Italian shores from Libya, reported The Guardian. 

At the last count in August, the figure was 87% down on the previous year.

It is one of the most secretive organizations in the world, with power passed through blood ties and family loyalty. But Italy's ruthless 'Ndrangheta mafia may have met its match.

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.

The Tunisian man suspected of carrying out the deadly Berlin truck attack was shot dead by police in Milan on Dec. 23, Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti said.
The minister told a press conference in Rome that Anis Amri had been fatally shot after firing at police who had stopped his car for a routine identity check around 3a.m. (0200 GMT).

At the German government’s daily press conference the ministerial officials are coming under huge pressure to explain why Anis Amri was able to move freely in Germany and plan his attack under the nose of authorities, particularly following the emergence of the footage showing that he was monitored entering an Isis (Islamic State)-associated mosque in Berlin on 14 and 15 December and again leav

German police special forces arrested two Kosovo-born men in the city of Duisberg on suspicion of planning to attack the Centro shopping mall in Oberhausen in the west of Germany, police said in a statement on Friday.

The brothers, aged 28 and 31, were born in Kosovo, according to Reuters news agency.

Anis Amri, the suspect behind Monday night’s terror attack in Berlin, has been killed in a police shootout in Milan, according to an unconfirmed report by Panorama, an Italian news magazine.

Panorama reported that Amri pulled out a gun and began shooting at the officers.