Spain panned for ousting migrants

Madrid, Spain A leading human rights group accused Spanish authorities Saturday of violating the European human rights convention by expelling African migrants who had crossed into two Spanish enclaves in Morocco.

Amnesty International’s director for Spain, Esteban Beltran, said authorities expelled the immigrants without identifying them or considering their possible status as economic refugees or asylum seekers, in violation of the convention, which forbids the expulsion of any person to a country where they could be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.

In an effort to stem a desperate tide of hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans who have stormed razor-wire border fences along the Spanish territories in recent weeks, Spanish authorities have begun returning them to Morocco.

Hundreds of children suffer food poisoning

Kiev, Ukraine Nearly 360 schoolchildren in western Ukraine were hospitalized with food poisoning traced to a popular drink made of fermented milk, an emergency official said Saturday.

The first 299 children, aged 2 to 6, became ill Friday, possibly from food prepared at seven kindergartens in the Khmelnitsky region.

An additional 60 were hospitalized on Saturday, he said.

Four of the children were in critical condition.

Health Ministry official Tetiana Yurchenko said a preliminary investigation showed that the source of infection as a dysentery bacteria in kefir, the drink made of fermented milk.

The Defense Ministry sent in military medics and set up 60 beds in two military hospitals to help treat the children.

Last year, poor hygiene at state-run dairies caused an outbreak of food poisoning among more than 800 children in the country’s three regions, including the capital, Kiev.

Bug-ridden cars pulled from state railway

Rome Have an itch to travel?

After angry protests about bedbugs and ticks, Italy’s state railways said Saturday it is pulling 508 train cars out of circulation.

Consumer groups had urged travelers to refuse to show their tickets to protest the infestations. On Friday passengers stormed off a train crawling with bed bugs during a stop in Genoa along the Nice-to-Naples overnight run, and police had to be called to restore calm.

The railways, Trenitalia, said that 2,800 cars used for long- and medium-runs have gotten a clean bill from parasitologists and hygiene specialists.