Category Archives: Italy

Migrant boat capsizes off Libya, killing 57, as regional toll for 2021 nears 1,000

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International Organization for Migration links rise in deaths to decrease in sea patrols

At least 57 people have died after a migrant boat capsized off the Libyan coast, taking the total death toll in the central Mediterranean in 2021 to almost 1,000 – four times as many as in the same period last year.

Flavio Di Giacomo, Italy’s spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said the shipwreck raised the death toll to 987. “Last year there were 272. We must no longer hesitate, and do everything to strengthen the system of patrols at sea,” he said.

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Violent hailstorm smashes windscreens and halts traffic in northern Italy – video

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A violent hailstorm in northern Italy brought part of the highway between Milan and Naples to a brief standstill on Monday. Hundreds of cars were damaged as the hail battered their windscreens, forcing drivers to pull up by the roadside, and causing authorities to close some of the route for a short time. A number of people were hurt, mainly by glass shards from cracked windscreens. No one is believed to have been seriously injured

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Covid: more EU states to restrict venue access for unvaccinated people

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Ireland and Italy among those joining France in requiring vaccine passes to enter bars and restaurants

An increasing number of European governments are planning to prevent unvaccinated people from being able to attend hospitality venues such as bars and restaurants this summer, as Emmanuel Macron celebrates the fruits of the recent announcement of the policy in France.

France on Monday passed the threshold of 40 million people having received at least one vaccine dose – close to 60% of the population. Macron tweeted: “Together we will defeat the virus. We continue!”

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Wildfires raging across south-west Sardinia force evacuations – video

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Firefighters are working to put out wildfires that have spread quickly across parts of south-western Sardinia, destroying 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of forest and forcing 1,500 people to be evacuated from their homes. On Sunday the EU sent four firefighting planes, including two Canadair planes provided by France, to support 11 aircraft working to extinguish the fires raging close to 13 towns. Efforts have been hampered by strong and hot winds

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Vatican reveals it owns more than 5,000 properties

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Real estate holdings published for first time show it owns 4,051 properties in Italy, 1,120 abroad

The Vatican has released information on its real estate holdings for the first time, revealing it owns more than 5,000 properties, as part of its most detailed financial disclosures ever.

The information released on Saturday was contained in two documents – a consolidated financial statement for 2020 for the Holy See and the first ever public budget for the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (Apsa).

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Ancient Roman road and dock discovered in Venice lagoon

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Find could prove there were human settlements in area centuries before city was founded

The discovery of the remains of a Roman road and dock submerged in the Venice lagoon could prove there were permanent human settlements in the area centuries before Venice was founded, researchers say.

Scuba divers discovered what appeared to be paving stones beneath the lagoon in the 1980s, but only after more recent research were the relics confirmed to have formed part of a road system.

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Italy imposes ‘green pass’ restrictions on unvaccinated people

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Government seeks to drive up vaccination rate amid resurgence in coronavirus infections

The Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, has urged all Italians to get Covid-19 jabs after his government approved restrictions on unvaccinated citizens as it scrambles to contain a resurgence of infections.

Draghi told a press conference on Thursday that the country needed to act quickly to avoid the kind of infection levels that are being seen in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, as well as to protect the economy.

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Sicilian towns face bankruptcy over Etna clean-up costs

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Italian government earmarks €5m to help villages get rid of volcanic cinders from erupting volcano

Dozens of Sicilian towns face bankruptcy due to the cost of cleaning up the volcanic ash left by Mount Etna, which has been erupting regularly since February.

The Italian government on Monday allocated €5m to compensate several villages struggling to pay to get rid of the volcanic cinders, the cost of which can reach more than €1m with every eruption.

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Infectious nightclubs: Covid outbreaks serve as risk alert

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Nightclubs across the world have been linked to outbreaks, leading some countries to open up to vaccinated clubbers only

They only wanted to enjoy themselves on the sunny Sardinian coast last summer after a tough two-month lockdown. But instead, young Italians, who had frequented nightclubs, returned home either with Covid-19 or laden with feelings of guilt, regret or anger at the authorities.

Nightclubs, such as those in Spain, France, the UK, Austria and Thailand, have triggered coronavirus outbreaks since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Italy likely to toughen Covid rules with curbs on unvaccinated people

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Government expected to bar unjabbed from some indoor venues and launch ‘green pass’ for travel

The Italian government is expected to impose restrictions on unvaccinated people as it scrambles to stem a resurgence in Covid-19 infections.

In a similar move to that seen in France, those not fully vaccinated could be barred from being served indoors at restaurants and bars and from entering stadiums, museums, theatres, cinemas, swimming pools and gyms.

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Italy bans cruise ships from Venice lagoon after Unesco threat

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Vessels weighing more than 25,000 tonnes barred from lagoon from 1 August

Italy has banned cruise ships from the Venice lagoon in what appears to be a definitive move welcomed by anti-cruise ship campaigners.

“We finally seem to have got there,” said Tommaso Cacciari, the leader of No Grandi Navi (No Big Ships), an activist group that has been protesting against the vessels for more than a decade.

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‘No peace without justice’: families of Italy’s mafia victims wait for closure

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Italy’s sluggish legal process under the spotlight as devastated relatives fight for cases to go to trial

Clinging to his son’s coffin, Vincenzo Agostino solemnly swore that he would not cut his hair or beard until justice was served. It was 10 August 1989, five days after two mafia hitmen on a motorbike had killed Antonino Agostino, a police officer, and his wife, Ida, who was five months pregnant.

The couple were shot dead in broad daylight on the seafront promenade in Villagrazia di Carini, a town about 20 miles from Palermo. Vincenzo witnessed his son’s agony as the killers fired a full magazine of bullets at him. He saw his daughter-in-law, who was shot in the heart, move closer to her husband in a vain attempt to console him.

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‘Mancini has been absolutely wonderful’: praise for manager as Rome unites behind Italy

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Italy fans came to tournament with low expectations, but their team’s unity and focus have impressed

Celebrations erupted across Italy as the national football team secured their win in the Euro 2020 final after a tense penalty shoot-out.

“It’s a unique emotion,” said Vincenzo Francavilla. “There’s such a big love for Italy.”

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Raffaella Carrà, Italian cultural institution and LGBT icon, laid to rest in Rome

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Thousands in streets to mourn television star, actor and singer as funeral is broadcast live on TV

In Italy’s week of mourning for Raffaella Carrà, one image summed up her universal appeal: a rainbow flag – the symbol of the LGBT movement – next to her coffin in a Catholic church.

Carrà, who died on Monday aged 78, was a cultural institution in her home country, regarded as its “best-loved woman”. The queen of light entertainment TV, she also acted and topped the music charts of Europe and South America with pioneering, sex-positive pop music.

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Football’s coming to Rome? Italy fans look to Wembley showdown

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Italians are excited for the Euro 2020 final against England: ‘If we play with the heart, we will win’

Tens of thousands of English football fans at Wembley tried to send a message to Italy on Wednesday night: Sunday’s Euro 2020 final will be hell for the Azzurri. Italians heard the deafening cheers of the home support loud and clear, but that chant, “It’s coming home”, screamed at the top of English lungs does not seem to have affected them greatly. They are far from intimidated.

“It’s coming home? Maybe the English fans meant ‘it’s coming to Rome’,” said Giovanni Mapelli, 14, from Monticello Brianza, near Milan, who plays for a local football team. Since England won a place in the final, he and his brother have been mocking his England-born-and-raised mother.

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Italian Covid victims’ families claim compensation from government

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Court in Rome hears lawyers say authorities moved too little, too late to tackle pandemic

A case brought by more than 500 families of Covid victims seeking a total of €100m in compensation from the Italian government has reached court, as the first hearing into continental Europe’s deadliest outbreak got under way in Rome.

Lawyers representing the relatives of coronavirus victims filed a dossier of more than 2,000 pages on Thursday containing hundreds of testimonies and evidence of “systemic negligence” by the Italian authorities, which allegedly caused the deaths of thousands of people.

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Italy v Spain: Euro 2020 semi-final – live!

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8 min: Spain aren’t dealing particularly well with Italy’s high press at the moment. Busquets, Garcia and Azpilicueta take turns to hesitate over clearances, nearly allowing the livewire Verratti in on a couple of occasions. Verratti is snapping away at their heels like billy-o. It’s very impressive, though you already get the sense he’s one mistimed lunge away from trouble.

6 min: Spain get a foot on the ball for the first time in the match, and stroke it around the back awhile. Italy’s fans give them the bird. All good pantomime stuff.

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Prosecutors examine claims Covid spread in Italy before official confirmation

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New evidence ‘could change the timeline of the pandemic in Italy’, say lawyers for victims’ families

Italian prosecutors are examining fresh evidence that suggests coronavirus was spreading in the country weeks before the first case of local transmission was officially detected as criminal investigations continue into continental Europe’s deadliest outbreak.

Lawyers representing the families of Covid-19 victims say the medical records of a man in his 50s who was admitted to a hospital with bilateral pneumonia at the end of January 2020 in Bergamo, the Lombardy province severely hit during the first wave of the pandemic, “could change the timeline of the pandemic in Italy”.

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Raffaella Carrà, Italian entertainment icon, dies aged 78

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Star of music, TV and film who had UK Top 10 hit in 1978 with Do It, Do It Again had been suffering an undisclosed illness

Raffaella Carrà, the pop singer and actor who was an entertainment icon in her native Italy, has died aged 78.

Her long-term partner, Sergio Iapino, announced her death, saying: “Raffaella has left us. She has gone to a better world, where her humanity, her unmistakable laugh and her extraordinary talent will shine forever.” He said she had been battling an unnamed illness for some time.

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Italy to investigate Libyan coastguard’s ‘attempted shipwreck’ of migrant boat

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Officials to be investigated after film appears to show patrol boat firing shots at a vessel carrying 64 people in the Mediterranean

Prosecutors in Sicily have launched an investigation against the Libyan coastguard after footage emerged appearing to show officials firing on a boat of migrant families in the Mediterranean Sea.

On 30 June, rescue workers from the German organisation Sea-Watch recorded the Libyan coastguard patrol vessel coming dangerously close to the small wooden boat and apparently firing shots in an attempt to force the 64 people onboard back to Libya.

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