Category Archives: Italy

Belgium becomes first EU country to ban sale of disposable vapes

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Products banned on health and environmental grounds, while Milan outlaws outdoor smoking

Belgium has become the EU first country to ban the sale of disposable vapes in an effort to stop young people from becoming addicted to nicotine and to protect the environment.

The sale of disposable electronic cigarettes is banned in Belgium on health and environmental grounds from 1 January. A ban on outdoor smoking in Milan came into force on the same day, as EU countries discuss tighter controls on tobacco.

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Italian journalist’s arrest in Iran alleged to be reprisal for detention of suspected arms dealer

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Cecilia Sala, 29, was detained in Tehran three days after US warrant used to hold Swiss-Iranian businessman in Milan

The arrest of a renowned Italian journalist in Iran is reportedly in retaliation for the detention of a Swiss-Iranian businessman and suspected arms dealer in Italy three days earlier, according to media reports quoting the US state department.

Cecilia Sala, 29, a war correspondent and reporter who works for the Italian newspaper Il Foglio and the podcast company Chora Media, was detained on 19 December while reporting in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and held in solitary confinement for a week.

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Italian journalist arrested and held in solitary confinement in Iran

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Il Foglio war correspondent Cecilia Sala taken in by police while reporting in Tehran, says Italy’s foreign ministry

An Italian journalist has been arrested while reporting in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and held in solitary confinement for a week, according to Italy’s foreign ministry.

Cecilia Sala, 29, a war correspondent and reporter who works for the newspaper Il Foglio and the podcast company Chora Media, was detained on 19 December, the ministry said, but her arrest was only made public on Friday.

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‘Everyone is crazy about tennis’: Sinner’s success inspires Italy to pick up rackets

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Italians are taking to the court with factors including the pandemic and broadcasting also said to be fuelling enthusiasm

At the age of 47, diehard AC Milan fan Ninni Licata has hung up his football boots in exchange for a tennis racket.

Like thousands of Italians in recent years, Licata has been unable to resist the lure of a game that for years had been relegated to the sidelines of the country’s national sports, overshadowed by football and Formula One.

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‘Everyone is crazy about tennis’: Sinner’s success inspires Italy to pick up rackets

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Italians are taking to the court with factors including the pandemic and broadcasting also said to be fuelling enthusiasm

At the age of 47, diehard AC Milan fan Ninni Licata has hung up his football boots in exchange for a tennis racket.

Like thousands of Italians in recent years, Licata has been unable to resist the lure of a game that for years had been relegated to the sidelines of the country’s national sports, overshadowed by football and Formula One.

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Italian nun arrested over links to powerful mafia network

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The nun is alleged to have been the conduit between the gang and its associates in prison

A nun was among 25 people arrested in Italy on suspicion of being part of a criminal gang with links to the country’s most powerful mafia network, the ’Ndrangheta.

The nun is alleged to have been the conduit between the gang and its associates in prison, prosecutors in Brescia, northern Italy, said on Thursday.

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Easey Street double murder and rape accused faces Melbourne court nearly 50 years after alleged attack

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Perry Kouroumblis was extradited from Italy and charged over the 1977 deaths of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett

An accused double murderer has faced a Melbourne court close to five decades after police allege he stabbed two women to death in a frenzied attack.

Perry Kouroumblis, 65, appeared bleary-eyed as he sat in the dock of the Melbourne magistrates court on Wednesday after arriving on Australian soil on Tuesday night.

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Man jailed for life for murder of university student that horrified Italy

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Brutal killing of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, triggered protests across country and cast grim spotlight on femicide in Italy

Filippo Turetta has been sentenced to life in jail for the murder of Giulia Cecchettin, a university student whose brutal killing cast a grim spotlight on femicide in Italy.

Cecchettin, 22, was stabbed more than 70 times before her body was wrapped in black plastic bags and dumped in a ditch close to a lake north of Venice in November last year. Her murder triggered protests across the country.

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Meloni says Italy aims to protect jobs after CEO of Fiat owner Stellantis quits

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Company is at loggerheads with Italian government, which claims it has not invested enough in the country

The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has said her government will try to protect jobs as political tensions mount with Fiat maker Stellantis after the abrupt resignation of its chief executive.

Meloni said she would attempt to “defend” employees in the carmaker’s Italian operations in the wake of the surprise exit of Carlos Tavares, its longstanding chief executive, who left after the company said “different views have emerged” between the executive and its board.

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Italian police and social workers leave Albania after staffing empty migrant centres

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Centres had been open for over a month but received just 24 asylum seekers, whose detention was deemed unlawful

Dozens of Italian police officers and social workers deployed by Italy’s far-right government in migrant centres in Albania have returned home, after it emerged that the facilities, praised as a model to reduce refugee arrivals, have been empty for weeks.

Just over a month after the much-publicised opening of the multimillion-euro detention centres for asylum seekers in Albania, which were supposed to receive up to 3,000 men a month, more than 50 police officers were moved back to Italy two weeks ago while dozens of social workers have left over the weekend, with their presence in Albania considered “needless”.

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Hungary invites Netanyahu to visit as world leaders split over ICC arrest warrant

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Viktor Orbán says he will not enforce ICC decision that requires court members to detain Israeli PM if he enters their country

Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said he will invite his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit in defiance of an international criminal court arrest warrant, as world leaders split over the ICC’s momentous decision.

The world’s highest criminal court issued warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri, commonly known as Mohammed Deif, who is believed to be dead, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Severed horse head found at Sicilian property, in echo of Godfather scene

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Local authorities think head discovered at businessman’s property may be part of mafia intimidation tactic

A severed horse’s head has been discovered at the property of a Sicilian businessman, in what local authorities believe may be a mafia intimidation tactic reminiscent of a scene from The Godfather.

The animal’s head was left on the seat of a digger owned by the man, a construction contractor in Altofonte, near the Sicilian capital, Palermo. The remains of a pregnant cow and its calf were also found at the site.

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Malian singer Rokia Traoré to be extradited from Italy to Belgium

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Italy’s highest court rejects musician’s appeal after she was arrested in Rome in June over child custody dispute

Malian musician Rokia Traoré, who was arrested in Rome last June over an international child custody dispute, will be handed over to Belgium in the coming days after Italy’s highest court rejected her appeal, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

Traoré, 50, a former goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR, was arrested on 20 June at Rome’s Fiumicino airport under a European arrest warrant.

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Thousands eager to escape Trump keen to snap up €1 Sardinian home, says mayor

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American applications would be fast-tracked although scheme is open to other nationalities, says mayor of Ollolai

The mayor of a small town in Sardinia has said thousands of Americans keen to escape Donald Trump have expressed an interest in moving there after he offered homes to them for as little as €1.

Francesco Columbu, the mayor of Ollolai, has staged similarly enticing initiatives in the past as a way to combat depopulation. He released more homes for sale after sensing he was on to a winner when Trump clinched a second term as US president in elections earlier this month.

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Take two: Biden makes it into G20 leaders’ photo after missing first one

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Summit leaders have reshoot in Rio after Biden, Justin Trudeau and Giorgia Meloni were no-shows the day before

The first time G20 leaders took their photo together at a summit in Rio, they forgot Joe Biden. On Tuesday, they had a reshoot – with the outgoing US president firmly back in the frame.

Biden; the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau; and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni all missed the photo on Monday due to what US officials called “logistical issues”.

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How a fatal bear attack led an Italian commune to rally against rewilding

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Brown bears, introduced into Trentino province 20 years ago, have begun to clash with the local human population

Franca Gherardini used to cherish the sublime views from her home in Caldes, a village surrounded by forests on the slopes of the Brenta Dolomites in northern Italy’s Trentino province.

But now she tries to shut out the scene as much as possible, rolling down the window canopy in the morning to avoid looking towards the area where her son, Andrea Papi, 26, was killed by a bear.

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Call for investigation into far-right EU politicians’ flights to Trump gala

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Transparency International writes to EU requesting inquiry into potential failure to declare travel and ticket expenses

An NGO has called for an investigation into five far-right members of the European parliament, warning of a potential failure to declare expenses for a trip to attend a gala dinner in New York headlined by Donald Trump.

Transparency International’s EU office has written to the parliament’s watchdog on MEP conduct requesting an inquiry into five politicians over a potential failure to declare travel and tickets to the black-tie gala hosted by the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) in December 2023.

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Campaigners in Italy urge pope to stop ‘sacrifice’ of 200-year-old tree for Xmas

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Twenty-nine-metre tall fir destined to be chopped down and transported to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican

Environmental campaigners in Italy’s northern Trentino province have started a campaign to stop the felling of a 200-year-old fir tree intended to form the centrepiece of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations.

The so-called “Green Giant” is 29 metres tall and is due to be chopped down next week in a forest in the Ledro valley before being transported to the Vatican and positioned in St Peter’s Square, where it will be unveiled on 9 December.

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Italian judges strike another blow against Meloni’s Albania asylum deal

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Far-right government angrily condemns ruling that seven men detained in Albania must be transferred to Italy

Italian judges have ordered seven men detained in a migration hub in Albania to be transferred to Italy, in another blow to a controversial deal between the far-right Rome government and Tirana aimed at curbing the arrival of asylum seekers.

The men arrived at the Albanian port of Shëngjin aboard a military vessel on Friday after being rescued in international waters while trying to make their way to Europe.

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Huge crime network forging Banksy, Warhol and Picasso uncovered in Italy

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Art police and Pisa prosecutor say 38 people being investigated, with about 2,100 fake artworks seized

Italian police have dismantled a Europe-wide forgery network suspected of producing sophisticated replicas of works by some of the world’s most famous artists, including Banksy, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Gustav Klimt.

Thirty-eight people had been placed under investigation in Italy, Spain, France and Belgium on suspicion of conspiracy to handle stolen goods, forgery and illegal sale of artworks, Italy’s art police and Pisa’s prosecutor’s office said in a joint statement on Monday.

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