France blocks train from Italy with migrants

A train carrying Tunisian immigrants from Italy was halted at the French border Sunday in an escalation of an international dispute over the fate of North African migrants fleeing political unrest for refuge in Europe. But France blamed what it said were hundreds of activists on the train planning a demonstration in France, and posing a problem to public order.

A spokesman for the Italian rail company, Maurizio Furia, told The Associated Press in Rome that the train carrying migrants and political activists who support them wasn't allowed to pass into Menton, France, from the border station of Ventimiglia. Italy lodged a protest with the French government, calling the move "illegitimate and in clear violation of general European principles" the Italian Foreign Ministry said. (AP)