Italy

30 October 2023; MEMO: Pope Francis on Sunday called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza amid escalating violence and a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave, reports Anadolu Agency.

The pope, addressing a crowd of the faithful in St. Peter’s Square in Rome during his Sunday Angelus, urged the world to join in prayer for the resolution of the serious situation in Gaza.

He also appealed for the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

POZZUOLI, Italy, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The talk in shops and coffee bars in Pozzuoli, a port town outside Naples, is not about soccer or politics, but of the fear that has gripped residents since a supervolcano sparked a swarm of earthquakes.

Over the past weeks the government has been planning for a possible mass evacuation of tens of thousands of people who live around the vast volcanic area known as the Campi Flegrei, or Phlegraean Fields, from the ancient Greek word for burning.

ROME, Oct 23 (Reuters) - All of the three people with dual Italian-Israeli citizenship who went missing after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Hamas militant group have died, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.

"Unfortunately Nir Forti has also died. He was the last of the 3 missing Italian-Israelis," Tajani said on X, the social media platform. "Dying at the age of 29, brutally killed by terrorists, is profoundly unjust," he added.

19 October 2023; MEMO: Italian writer and journalist, Romana Rubeo, said Israel’s attacks on civilian settlements, hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip constitute a war crime, accusing international organisations and the media of protecting Israel, Anadolu Agency reports.

ROME, October 19. /TASS/: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi has noted a decrease in the number of attacks in the vicinity of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).

He noted that the IAEA is fulfilling a containing role, acknowledging, however, that it had failed to achieve the more ambitious goal of completely demilitarizing the area around the ZNPP.

ROME, Oct 19 (NNN-XINHUA) — Italy on Wednesday temporarily suspended the European Union’s Schengen rules for open travel, reactivating dormant border controls with Slovenia amid heightened tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

As of late Wednesday, some other European Union (EU) states also announced similar moves, due to concerns over extremist violence and migration.

ROME, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will become an honorary citizen of Rome by early next year following a vote this week by its local assembly, the city's former mayor Virginia Raggi said on Thursday.

Assange, 52, has been in London's high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019 and is wanted in the United States over the release of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables in 2010.

His supporters see his prosecution as a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.

ROME, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Two people were arrested on terrorism charges in the northern Italian city of Milan on Tuesday. One of them is an Egyptian national and the other an Italian citizen of Egyptian origin, the Italian authorities said.

The two are charged with participating in a conspiracy to promote terrorism and with incitement to commit terrorism. Both were spotted for their activities on social media chat groups related to Islamic terrorism, the Interior Ministry said.

ROME, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The Italian government is planning for a possible mass evacuation of tens of thousands of people who live around the Campi Flegrei super volcano near Naples, officials said on Thursday.

The new measures, which include a scheme to check on the strength of buildings in the area after months of repeated earthquakes, will be discussed at a cabinet meeting later in the day, a government statement said.

ROME, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Italian authorities have impounded a vessel operated by a Spanish charity, the group said on Thursday, after it carried out multiple rescues of migrants stranded in the Mediterranean.

The Open Arms group said in a statement it had completed three rescues on Saturday picking up 176 people at sea, which included more than 90 unaccompanied minors. The boat docked on Wednesday in the central Italian port of Carrara to disembark the migrants.