Rome

Troop deaths shock country: Italy’s commitment to the war in Afghanistan appeared to waver this week after six Italian soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul. “It seems impossible to export democracy,” said Umberto Bossi, head of one of the parties in the ruling coalition. “I hope that our boys will be home by Christmas.” The attack marked the single greatest loss for Italy’s 3,000 troops in Afghanistan, bringing their death toll to 21. Thousands of people crowded into St. Paul’s Basilica for a televised state funeral, and the nation observed a minute of silence. Like Germany, Italy has a constitution that prohibits troops from firing unless fired upon; its troops are in Afghanistan as peacekeepers.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Calais, France

Refugee camp bulldozed: After years of British complaints, France this week dismantled a refugee shantytown near the English Channel port of Calais. Thousands of illegal immigrants from all over the world cluster in illegal camps around Calais, waiting to be smuggled across the channel to Britain, which offers better social benefits and job prospects than other EU countries. The camp that was raided this week, a tent village known as “the Jungle,” housed mostly Afghans, and French authorities said they would soon clear out nearby Iraqi and African camps as well. British Home Secretary Alan Johnson praised the French action, saying that closing the camps “will disrupt illegal immigration and people-trafficking routes.” Last year alone, British

authorities stopped 28,000 migrants trying to cross the English Channel.