Nobel Prize

The migrant routes to Europe have changed and now Italy is pressuring the rest of the EU to help with the high number of migrants that arrive on its shores or are being picked up by rescue vessels in the Med. Most of the migrants now depart from restive Libya.

China's jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has been granted medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last month, his lawyer told AFP on June 26.

Liu, who had about three years of his 11-year sentence to serve, was diagnosed on May 23 and was released days later, said lawyer Mo Shaoping.

Bob Dylan has completed his Nobel course requirements. The Swedish Academy announced on June 5 that it has received the mandatory lecture from the 2016 literature winner, enabling Dylan to collect 8 million Swedish kronor ($922,000) in prize money. 

Authorities evacuated a makeshift camp at the site of the old Athens airport in Elliniko on Friday, moving hundreds of migrants to another venue in Thiva, north of the capital, where conditions are said to be better.

After months of uncertainty and controversy, Bob Dylan finally accepted the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature at a jovial, champagne-laced ceremony on April 1, the Swedish Academy announced.

The American singer was awarded the prize in October but failed to travel to pick up the award, or deliver the lecture that is required to receive the 8m kroner ($900,000;£727,000) prize.

The academy said it would meet Dylan, 75, in private in the Swedish capital, where he is giving two concerts.

He will not lecture in person but is expected to send a taped version.

Refugees and migrants are dying in Europe's sudden cold snap, and governments must do more to help them rather than pushing them back from borders and subjecting them to violence and confiscations, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

The number of migrants and refugees who have perished while trying to cross the Mediterranean this year has passed 5,000, the United Nations said Dec. 23 after two more deadly shipwrecks.     

A problem in the electric radiators in the Souda refugee hotspot in Chios, is causing continues and extended power cuts. The situation is really bad as the weather is quite cold and many refugees, including families, are exposed to very low temperatures.

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan admitted in the Nobel Prize speech he penned that he was always so caught up in his musical endeavors that he had never stopped to consider whether his lyrics had any literary merit.