incidents

Anyone who has a holiday in Rome coming up has been issued a warning. One holidaymaker who has just been to the Italian capital told people to be on ‘high alert’ when visiting

A holidaymaker in Rome has issued a stark warning to fellow tourists heading to the Italian capital after enduring a horrifying experience during her break. Caroline Jansson turned to TikTok to reveal she had been “robbed of all of her personal belongings” and urged others visiting the city to stay alert to their surroundings.

“I’ve just been with the police and they told me they [thieves] specifically target tourists,” she began in a video. She went on, explaining that those with hire cars should stay especially watchful after learning at the police station that numerous others had fallen victim to luggage theft straight from their rented vehicles.

“I talked to one woman who turned around to take a picture and she had her handbag stolen,” Caroline continued.

“There was another man who had his wallet and passport stolen out of his hand – so be very vigilant and look out for each other and each others’ suitcases because literally everything we had with us for the trip is now gone.”

Caroline revealed that consequently, she had lost numerous valuables including her iPad and two laptops in the European hotspot. Luckily one of those was a MacBook, enabling her to trace and find it inside one of the pinched bags – only to discover it had been abandoned in a ditch with no trace of her other belongings.

“We’re going to continue talking to the police and see how it goes,” Caroline said, before issuing a heartfelt plea to her followers to keep an eye out for her luggage if they happen to be in Rome.

In response, another tourist shared their own experience of theft in Rome. “We were robbed in the Rome train station,” they revealed. “Luckily an officer noticed this guy with a bag that didn’t match his look and we got it back. We were so lucky.”

A second person also revealed: “We were robbed, had our van smashed and they stole phones, iPads, handbag, money, camera. Police not interested. We were in a secure patrolled car park.”

Whilst a third TikTok user warned: “A group of three tried to pickpocket me and my husband on a very crowded bus. Just be careful and keep your belongings close to you and be aware.”

The UK government’s foreign travel advice section offers the following guidance for those visiting Rome, meanwhile.

“Thefts from parked cars happen in Rome, particularly in the Colosseum area, Ostia, Milan and Pisa. Thieves also target coastal areas and towns, and motorway service stations. Avoid leaving luggage in your vehicle – even out of sight in the boot – for any length of time.

“Thieves may use a variety of methods to distract you or encourage you to stop your car, including asking for help or directions or pointing out a fictional fault with your car.”

To reduce your personal risk:

• keep sight of your belongings at all times
• beware of thieves using distraction techniques
• avoid carrying all your valuables together in handbags or pockets
• leave spare cash and valuables in a safe place such as a hotel safe

NEW YORK — When a black teen-ager was killed in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn last summer after a run-in with a gang of whites, mayoral candidate David N. Dinkins made it clear what New York should expect from its top leader: “The tone and climate of the city does get set at City Hall.”

The perception that Dinkins could soothe racial tensions was probably the single biggest force behind his election as New York’s first black mayor. The last few weeks have brought a series of racial problems that have put the mayor under intense pressure to deliver on the expectations that he built.

“Though we cannot eliminate racial and ethnic friction overnight, we must take the first steps. Our beginning will, of course, be marked by small–sometimes indirect–steps. But even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” Dinkins said Monday.

But the mayor who exults in his city as a multi-ethnic “gorgeous mosaic” is feeling the cut of its sharp edges.

Each day seems to bring worse turmoil. Dinkins appears besieged, encircled by his detractors and undercut by the expectations that he himself raised. Some black leaders have gone so far as to publicly call him a traitor.

Dinkins faces two potentially explosive controversies in Brooklyn: As two juries have deliberated almost a week in the Bensonhurst slaying of Yusuf Hawkins, angry demonstrators have rallied each day outside the Brooklyn courthouse, and some of their leaders warn that violence is inevitable if the panels return anything less than a guilty verdict.

Meanwhile, blacks in Flatbush continue a four-month boycott of two Korean grocers that started with a dispute between one of the grocers and a black woman customer. While it is far from clear who was at fault in the original incident–the woman claims to have been beaten and the grocer contends that he merely pushed her to prevent her from shoplifting–it unmistakably tapped long-festering bitterness. Demonstrators have chanted such epithets as “Korean bloodsuckers” outside the stores, and have spat at customers who try to shop there.

A few blocks from the store, a group of more than a dozen blacks on Sunday beat three Vietnamese whom they apparently mistook for Korean.

Elsewhere in the city, smaller disputes add to the tension. A black City University professor is preaching black supremacy, while a white faculty member at the same school is saying that blacks are less intelligent and more prone to commit crime than whites. A group of white students at St. John’s University in Queens stands accused of raping a black woman. And Jimmy Breslin, one of the city’s most prominent columnists, has been suspended by New York Newsday after making racial comments about another staff member.

Dinkins’ low-key and cautious approach, which had initially seemed a soothing balm to the abrasion of former Mayor Edward I. Koch, now is being criticized as weakness and indecisiveness.

Roy Innis, national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, said in an interview Monday: “We’ve got to have a commitment to telling the hard truth. David Dinkins is not strong enough to do it.”

Innis accused Dinkins of “reverse racism” for failing to denounce the grocery store boycott that is “reeking with raw and naked, palpable racism.” He attributed Dinkins’ reluctance to the mayor’s association with Sonny Carson, the self-proclaimed “anti-white” leader of the boycott, who worked for the Dinkins campaign before being dismissed for anti-Semitic remarks.

Other blacks, however, have accused Dinkins of pandering to whites, particularly after the mayor made a rare foray onto prime-time live television last Friday to appeal for tolerance. “We must repress our rage,” the mayor said.

“He is a lover of white people and the system. And last night, he bashed black people,” said C. Vernon Mason, a lawyer who has been involved in a number of racial cases. “He ain’t got no African left in him. He’s got too many yarmulkes on his head.”

Mason made his comments at a rally Saturday, where he called the mayor “a traitor,” and some people in a crowd of hundreds chanted, “Judas, Judas.”

Many of Dinkins’ critics seem to suggest that as a black, he should automatically hold sway over New York’s black community–a view that does not recognize the diversity of opinion and outlook among blacks in the city.

One source in Dinkins’ Administration noted that the mayor has alienated some factions, who say they are disappointed in the number of blacks he has appointed to key posts at City Hall. Others have not forgiven Dinkins’ denunciation of the Rev. Louis Farrakhan, the black Muslim leader who once described Judaism as a “gutter” religion.

Dinkins’ Friday night address won high marks from many quarters, however. Former Mayor John V. Lindsay described it as “superb.”

Nonetheless, any hopes that it might have turned the tide were dashed less than 36 hours later, when the three Vietnamese were beaten by the group of blacks who thought they were Korean. Police on Monday arrested two people in connection with the assault, which Police Commissioner Lee Brown said was not related to the boycott.

Dinkins and several state legislators Monday held a news conference to announce state legislation aimed at crimes committed by groups, and to make a new push for a bill to stiffen penalties for crimes that are motivated by bias.

Anti-Muslim incidents in person have increased by 150 percent – and by 250 percent online — according to an independent report.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said his government will “carefully consider” the recommendations of an independent report which found that anti-Muslim incidents in the country have “skyrocketed” since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

During a media briefing at the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Sydney on Friday, Albanese said targeting Australians based on their religious beliefs was an attack on the country’s core values.

“Australians should be able to feel safe at home in any community … we must stamp out the hate, fear and prejudice that drives Islamophobia and division in our society,” he said.

Aftab Malik, who has been serving as the government’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia since last October, was appointed to the three-year role to recommend steps to prevent anti-Muslim hatred. The appointment came as Australia had been experiencing a surge in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.

The independent report, released on Friday and Malik’s first since assuming the position, said the normalisation of Islamophobia has become so widespread in Australia that many incidents are not even getting reported.

“The reality is that Islamophobia in Australia has been persistent, at times ignored and other times denied, but never fully addressed,” said Malik, appearing alongside Albanese.

“We have seen public abuse, graffiti … we have seen Muslim women and children targeted, not for what they have done, but for who they are and what they wear.”

The 60-page report’s 54 recommendations to the government include a review of counterterrorism laws and procedures to investigate potential discrimination.

Malik also recommended a wide-ranging inquiry into Islamophobia to investigate its main drivers and potential discrimination in government policies.

Islamophobia had intensified since the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 and had become entrenched, said Malik.

Islamophobic incidents in person had skyrocketed by 150 percent — and by 250 percent online — since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Malik said.

The Australian government has acknowledged steep rises in both Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents in Australia.

Jillian Segal was appointed envoy to combat anti-Semitism in July 2024.

Segal recommended, in her first report two months ago, that Australian universities lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students, and that potential migrants be screened for political affiliations.

According to the 2021 Australian Census, 3.2 percent of the Australian population is Muslim.

Islamophobia has also risen across Europe, fuelled by political parties touting a populist anti-immigration stance.