By coincidence, the purchase was completed on the same day that Italian bureaucrats decided it was time to stop the exodus and initiated an international investigation into the illegal traffic, to be conducted by an unforgiving prosecutor named Paolo Ferri.

ECONOMIST: The hypocrisies of the antiquities world

Wilkinson, who has 70 caps and 1, 032 international points to his name, joins the exodus of English players who have left the Premiership to join the cash-rich French league which includes Riki Flutey, James Haskell, Tom Palmer and Iain Balshaw.

BBC: Jonny Wilkinson

The international outcry against Britain in the wake of the Exodus affair shamed London into cancelling its new policy.

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The American-based International Rescue Committee is one of several organizations that has been trying to help since the latest exodus began 10 days ago.

CNN: Latest Moslem refugees tell of horrors they've endured

For years the fear of a large-scale exodus from Myanmar, as happened in 1978 and again in 1991-92, has scuppered efforts by international agencies to nudge Bangladesh's government into improving the lot of the Rohingyas.

ECONOMIST: More grief for the Rohingyas