ROME: Italian police said on Saturday they suspected arsonists had struck rail infrastructure near the northern city of Bologna, triggering major disruptions to train traffic on the first full day of the Winter Olympic Games.
The fire hit a track switch and severed electrical cables used to detect train speed, causing delays of up to two hours for high-speed, Intercity and regional services at one of Italy’s busiest rail hubs.
The blaze was “presumably deliberate” but had not been claimed, a spokesperson for the police said, adding that transport police and the anti-terrorist Digos force were on site and investigating.
The fire targeted the line between Bologna and Venice, but also caused knock-on problems for traffic between Bologna and Milan, and routes to the Adriatic coast.
Milan is a co-host for the Winter Games alongside Cortina, which is reachable via train from Venice.
At the 2024 Summer Olympic Games staged in Paris, saboteurs struck France’s TGV high-speed train network in a series of pre-dawn attacks across the country, causing travel chaos ahead of the opening ceremony.
Italy’s state-owned railway Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) said that despite the disruption, trains were still running.
Suspected arson hits Italian rail network near Bologna, police say
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Suspected arson hits Italian rail network near Bologna, police say
- The fire hit a track switch and severed electrical cables used to detect train speed
- The fire targeted the line between Bologna and Venice
Sweden plans to tighten rules for gaining citizenship
- The country has for years struggled to integrate migrants, with many not learning the language and living in disadvantaged areas with higher crime and jobless rates
STOCKHOLM: Sweden said Monday it planned to tighten rules to acquire citizenship, introducing “honest living” and financial requirements, a language and general knowledge test and raising the residency requirement from five to eight years.
If approved by parliament, the new rules would enter into force on June 6, Sweden’s national holiday, and would apply even to applications already being processed.
Migration Minister Johan Forssell, whose right-wing minority government holds a majority with the backing of the far-right Sweden Democrats, told reporters it was currently too easy to acquire Swedish citizenship.
“Citizenship needs to mean more than it does today,” he said.
“Pride is something you feel when you’ve worked hard at something. But working hard is not something that has characterised citizenship.
“It has been possible to become a citizen after five years without knowing a single word of Swedish, without knowing anything about our Swedish society, without having any own income.”
Referring to a case that recently made headlines, he said: “You can even become one while you’re sitting in custody accused of murder.
“This obviously sends completely wrong signals, both to those who do right by themselves and those who are already citizens.”
Following a large influx of migrants to Sweden during the 2015 migrant crisis, successive left- and right-wing governments have tightened asylum and migration rules.
The country has for years struggled to integrate migrants, with many not learning the language and living in disadvantaged areas with higher crime and jobless rates.
Under the new rules, those who have criminal records — in their home country or in Sweden — and who have served their sentence would have to wait up to 17 years before being allowed to apply for citizenship, up from the current 10 years.
In addition, those deemed to not adhere to “honest living” requirements would not be granted citizenship.
That could include racking up mountains of debt, being served restraining orders or even having a drug addiction.
Applicants would also have to have a monthly pre-tax income of 20,000 kronor ($2,225), excluding pensioners and students.
The citizenship tests would be similar to those used in neighboring Denmark and the United States, the government said, with the first tests due to be held in August.
