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A man who opened fire on a meeting of apartment block residents in a coffee shop in northern Rome has killed three people, including a friend of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, the Guardian reported.

The suspect, 57, had been in a series of disputes with the residents’ association, a witness told Italy’s Rai News.

“He came into the room, closed the door and shouted ’I’ll kill you all’ and then started to shoot,” Italian news agency Ansa quoted another witness as saying. Residents managed to overpower and disarm him before police arrived.

Three other people were wounded in the shooting, with at least one of them suffering serious injuries.

Hours after shooting, Meloni posted on Instagram what appeared to be a recent picture of herself alongside Nicoletta Golisano, one of the victims, saying she was a friend, according to the Guardian.

“It is not right to die like this,” Meloni wrote of the woman, who she said had a husband and 10-year-old child. “Nicoletta was happy, and beautiful, in the red dress she bought for her 50th birthday party a few weeks ago. For me she will always be beautiful and happy like this.”

Police have not commented on the motivation for the shooting and Meloni’s post did not suggest it was political.

The prime minister said a shooting range from which the suspect had taken the gun used in the attack had been closed and placed under investigation by the authorities.

The mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, called an emergency security meeting for Monday after what he called “the grave episode of violence that has struck our city”.

When Ganga Parki returned home from school one day, she was surprised by a large number of guests laughing and dancing in the front yard. Soon her surprise turned into a shock when she found out that the people were there to celebrate her marriage of which she was unaware.  The 13-year-old broke down in tears and told her mother that she didn’t want to get married. Parki’s family members tried to persuade her to get married, telling her that the event had already been fixed. But the teenager stood her ground. The wedding was ultimately canceled. The incident took place in Doti district six years ago. Parki, now 19, says the incident changed her life. She is now a member of an adolescent club that actively prevents child marriage. She and her fellow club members educate parents and teenagers in their communities about the consequences of child marriage. The club was established as part of ActionAid Nepal’s local rights program to offer a variety of managerial support and training. Through eight adolescent clubs, eight youth groups, and seven child clubs in Dipayal Silgadhi Municipality, Shikhar Municipality, and KI Singh Rural Municipality of Doti, about 400 children, adolescents, and youths are actively involved in the fight against child marriage. They engage in community outreach programs like door-to-door campaigning and perform street dramas to discourage underage marriage.  “Some people claim that we are stopping child marriages out of jealousy because no one has come to us with a marriage proposal,” says Bimala Pariyar, one of the club members.   But criticisms and pushbacks have not deterred these youth activists. Thanks to their tireless campaigning and support from officials who are now pushing for a law at the local level to prohibit child marriage.  According to Bigyan Dewal, a former youth focal point person for Equity Development Center, Doti, Dipayal Silgadhi Municipality has created a draft version of the anti-child marriage ordinance and other local authorities are also committed to follow suit. The club has already prevented 13 child marriages in Doti. And most youngsters who were rescued from getting married off by their parents are now in school and actively involved in anti-child marriage campaigns.   Besides preventing child marriage, the club also gathers update on the situations of minors who were married as children and offer counseling to both parents and children. “Initially, nobody was in support of this youth-led campaign. But soon after they managed to prevent 11 child marriages, the local representatives were on their side,” says Dewal. Today, the club enjoys the support from local police, elected officials  and some parents. Some local units have even started allocating funds to empower the youths. For instance, in the fiscal year 2020/21, K.I. Singh Rural Municipality allocated Rs 50,000 for capacity building of youths and prevention of child marriage.  Many youngsters in Palpa are also involved in the fight against child marriage. In collaboration with ActionAid Nepal and with assistance from the ActionAid Denmark Global Platform, the Youth Fellowship Leadership Development Project was established in the Bagnaskali Rural Municipality in 2019. The project has involvement of youths and coordination with the local government to organize various campaigns to prevent and stop child marriage. Four child weddings have already been prevented as a result of the campaign, and one lawsuit has been filed. Bagnaskali Rural Municipality-1 in Palpa saw zero incident of child marriage this year compared to 10 in 2021.  This was possible due to teenage interventions, such as color analysis, orientation, and peer counseling. Through color analysis, 86 individuals this year who were most at risk of child marriage received counseling. About 500 adults from 398 families were also taught about the risks of child marriage. The members of the club, Yuva Sangam, led the initiative and gathered information on the hotspots for child marriage. In collaboration with the police, they formed a youth club to educate young people about the legal system in the battle against child marriage. To show the consequences of such dangerous practices, they included teachers and health professionals in their campaign.  “Everyone in our area now knows that child marriage is a bad thing. They have heard the testimonies of those who got married as children,” says Manoj Sharma, a club member.  Ishira’s parents married her off at a young age. But she was lucky enough to continue her studies. Today, she is an active member of the club that has been preventing child marriage in her area.  Srijana Gaire, another club member, says despite awareness campaigns, child marriage is still a fairly common practice because many people still think that it is normal.  “It will be easy to reduce child marriage if all municipal governments were to strongly support our campaigns,” she says. Bagnashkali Rural Municipality is one of the local units where the partnership between local government and youth activists against child marriage is bearing desired results. In the fiscal year 2021/21, the rural municipality allotted Rs 20,000 to keep the youth campaigns against child marriage running.  In Bajura district, too, a network of girl clubs is fighting against child marriage. It intervened and stopped four unlawful marriages this year in wards 3, 4 and 9 of Budhinanda Municipality.  Youth clubs in Siraha district are also writing a success story by lowering child marriage incidence with their campaignings in places like Dhangadhimai and Lahan. These clubs are supported by the local governments, ActionAid partner organization Dalit Janakalyan Youth Club, Women’s Rights Forum and other social organizations.   The same goes for Parsa, where local youths in some villages are campaigning against child marriage in areas where the practice is common. Based on one survey, they have achieved a 70 percent success rate in child marriage prevention.

An Armed Police Force constable died when a bus belonging to the Modern Indian School hit a scooter he was riding on in Kirtipur on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as Subash Chandra Ratal. The bus (Ba AAA 2908) heading towards Kirtpur from Chobar hit the two-wheeler at around 9 am today in Kirtipur Municipality-6, police said. Critically injured in the incident, Ratal breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Vayodha Hospital, Dinesh Mainali, spokesperson at the District Police Office, Kathmandu, said. Police said that they have impounded the bus and arrested its driver for investigation.    

Narayan Sigdel, a 35-year-old migrant worker from Nawalparasi, Gandaki province, went to Qatar in 2017. He was working in Al Bayt Stadium until March 2020, when he got deported. Before leaving for Qatar, Sigdel paid Rs 80,000 to take his foreign employment process forward. He says he gave money to Orion Overseas Pvt Ltd, located in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu. “The company took Rs 65,000 while the rest of the money was used for health check-ups, insurance and orientation,” he says.  Ranjan Nepali, 25, wife of Shree Krishna Nepali, 26, from Gorkha, Gandaki province, who died in a road accident in August 2022 in Qatar, says that her husband left home with Rs 120,000. “He told me it was for the application process,” she says. He left for Qatar in 2018.  There are many like Sigdel and Nepali who have paid anywhere between Rs 50,000 to Rs 300,000 to recruitment agencies, although the Nepal government announced the ‘free-visa, free-ticket’ scheme in June 2015. The scheme states that migrant workers will only have to pay for insurance, medical check-up, and pre-departure orientation training, which amounts to Rs 8,000.  The manpower agencies will be allowed to take a maximum of Rs 10,000 only if the employers are reluctant to pay the service charge. The visa and round-trip flight tickets are supposed to be the responsibility of the employers. This policy applies to seven countries: Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia.  Free-visa, free-ticket—which can also be understood as Employers Pay Model—dates back to 2007, when Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar, which stated workers will not have to pay a single paisa during the recruitment process (excluding fees for health check-ups, insurance and pre-departure orientation). However, in 2010, the government announced that manpower agencies could take Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 from the applicants. The 2015 scheme changed that, at least on paper. The ground reality remained the same.  Jeet Bahadur Magar, chairperson, Nepal Manpower Pvt Ltd, a recruitment company, admits that the agencies, including his, have not followed the rule. He claims there is no other way but to take money from migrant workers to run their businesses.  To put this into context, it becomes necessary to understand how the foreign employment process has been going on so far. Most of the manpower agencies are competing amongst themselves on who gets the maximum demand for human resources from employers, be it Nepali or international recruitment agencies. Ideally, the employers are supposed to pay a certain amount of service charge to these companies, and bear the cost of visas and tickets. But instead, manpower establishments have been paying potential clients to get more business in the future. The cash for this dubious transaction comes from the applicant’s pocket.  “Many agencies follow the same method and potential employers only reach out to those companies that pay them for their demands,” says Magar. “No employer will work with companies who will ask for a service charge even though that is the legal process.” Many recruiters are also reluctant to pay for the visas and round-trip flight tickets because of the trend set by Nepali recruitment agencies.  Even though people are aware of the ‘free-visa, free-ticket’ scheme, they have no other option but to pay the amount asked for by the manpower companies, says Maya Kumari Sharma, former ambassador of Nepal to Qatar. “They don’t have good opportunities to work in their own country so there’s nothing they can do but cough up the money somehow,” she says. And indeed, people choose to go abroad after being turned down for jobs in Nepal. Nepali says that her husband left for Qatar when he was 21 years old. He wanted to send money back home. Though she was involved in farming and husbandry, it wasn’t enough to sustain the family. “He was the only breadwinner in the family,” she says. Her husband would not have left her to live alone in Gorkha had he seen any other possibilities for them to make a living, she adds. One of the many reasons why Sharma believes the government hasn’t taken any action is because many of these recruitment agencies have political connections. “Their political affiliation is their shield. So they carry on with their illegal activities while the workers suffer,” she says. Umakanta Acharya, director general, Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), agrees with Sharma. “Nepal has a longstanding history of political influence in every sector. It’s not just the manpower agencies,” he says. “Even when we have tried to take action, they have been protected by their political clout.”  On the other hand, if the workers were to take legal action, they don’t have substantial evidence. The agencies, out of fear of getting caught, only make vouchers that round off to Rs 10,000, even when the bills are much higher. Magar verifies the claim. “The workers are faced with a take it or leave it situation, with the agencies always safeguarding themselves,” he says.  Acharya adds there are several complaints lodged at the DoFE. But with no substantial evidence to prove that the agencies have taken money amounting to more than what is legally allowed, there is nothing the department can do. “All we can do, that too in a handful of cases, is help the workers get their money back, and fine the manpower agency,” he says. Since there is no legal provision to shut down the company, the cycle continues.  There are other alternatives for the government to look into the works of manpower companies, which the authorities have, so far, conveniently chosen to ignore. “Many manpower company owners have invested in several properties. The investment isn’t justified by the money they should be earning legally,” says Roshan Sedhai, an independent journalist who has reported extensively on the plight of migrant workers. Acharya says it’s the Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DoMLI) that needs to take the necessary actions against the agencies but there’s been nothing but silence on that front.  Hari Thapa, chairperson, National Network of Safe Migration (NNSM), an organization working for Nepali migrant workers, says an elaborate investigation should be launched, failing which a simple inspection at the airport would be enough to open a pandora’s box. Acharya says the DoFE initiated an investigation but nothing came out of it due to lack of substantial evidence.  Acharya believes one of the many reasons behind the failed investigation is different departments working in isolation rather than in collaboration with one another. There are issues of money laundering, breach of government policy, as well as human rights violation, none of which fall under the jurisdiction of the same government office. Unfortunately, until and unless there is one department to look into all the issues, Acharya says, migrant workers will continue to suffer at the hands of these unscrupulous manpower agencies.