Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/28/2011

The exodus from Libya has begun. Several hundred refugees have reportedly left Libya heading for Sicily, traveling in flimsy dinghies and inflatable boats. At least one boat was lost at sea. The immigrant crisis on Lampedusa has become acute, and the Italian government is planning to relocate several thousand refugees to the mainland — if they do not have any diseases that require quarantining.

In Syria, confrontations between the security services and demonstrators are ongoing, with more reports of soldiers firing into the crowds. In Yemen, a munitions factory that had been taken over by the rebels exploded while the occupiers were attempting to haul off the weapons. Some reports say that as many as 110 people were killed.

In other news, plutonium has been detected in the soil in the area around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, although the level is negligible, and no threat to health. Radioactive water is leaking from the plant through a tunnel, and officials fear that it may eventually find its way into the sea.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to AA, AC, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, CSP, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Lurker from Tulsa, Takuan Seiyo, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.