Italy

19 April 2024; AP: CAPRI, Italy; The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, Italy’s foreign minister said.

28 March 2024; MEMO: Pope Francis has expressed his support for Catholics in the Holy Land as Easter approaches. He assured them, “You are not alone.”

The statement came following a meeting with two peace activists, Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, who both lost their daughters, ages ten and 13, because of the war.

03 March 2024; MEMO: Pope Francis on Sunday urged efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza, saying, “Enough, please”, Anadolu reports.

“I carry in my heart with pain the suffering the people of Palestine and Israel,” the pontiff said in his weekly Angelus message.

He called for an end to the conflict, saying the immense destruction causes pain and has terrible consequences for the small and defenseless.

ROME, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors on Tuesday placed a lawmaker from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party under investigation after a bystander was injured by a shot fired from his gun at a New Year's celebration.

Emanuele Pozzolo, who is a member of Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, said the small revolver from which the bullet came belonged to him but has denied discharging the weapon himself.

ROME, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Italy has experienced a record-setting number of extreme weather events in 2023, a year that is set to be the warmest in more than 150 years, reports said on Thursday.

According to the climate observatory run by the environmental lobby group Legambiente, Italy reported 378 severe weather events in 2023, an increase of 22 percent compared to last year -- ranging from heatwaves to drought and from hailstorms to floods and extreme winds, which were directly responsible for at least 31 deaths.

ROME, Dec 16 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Italian police arrested more than 40 people on Friday during an operation against youth gangs in the country’s 14 cities, according to a press release.

A police report posted on the Genova24 website this Friday stated that a quarter of them were minors, accused of drug trafficking, assaults, and other crimes.

The cities affected by those criminal groups are Arezzo, Bari, Catania, Genoa, Milan, Modena, Naples, Palermo, Padua, Pescara, Reggio Emilia, Rovigo, Salerno, and Verona.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, not in the grottoes of the Vatican like other popes, so he can be near his favorite icon of the Madonna.

Francis, who turns 87 on Sunday, also said he never thought about resigning this year despite a series of health scares. He said he has a trip confirmed to Belgium next year and visits under consideration to Polynesia and his native Argentina.

ROME (AP) — A fire broke out in a hospital on Rome’s outskirts, killing at least three people and forcing the overnight evacuation of the smoke-filled facility and its nearly 200 patients, officials said Saturday.

The blaze began in the ground floor emergency room of the St. John the Evangelist hospital in Tivoli at around 11 p.m. Friday, which was a holiday in Italy. The flames spread to a few other wards, “but the smoke went everywhere,” said chief prosecutor Francesco Menditto.

ROME, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Italy has officially informed China that it is quitting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), dismissing fears the move might sour relations and damage the Italian economy, government sources said on Wednesday.

Italy in 2019 became the first and so far only major Western nation to join the trade and investment programme, ignoring warnings from the United States that it might let China take control of sensitive technologies and vital infrastructure.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis said Wednesday he was feeling “much better” after a two-week bout of bronchitis but again asked an aide to read his remarks.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, told his weekly general audience that he still gets tired if he speaks too much.

Francis, who turns 87 on Dec. 17, came down with the flu on Nov. 25 and was forced to cancel a planned trip to Dubai to participate in the U.N. climate conference. He later revealed he had been diagnosed with an acute case of infectious bronchitis that made breathing difficult.