Italy

ROME, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Over 46 million Italians are being called to the polls on Sunday and Monday in a nationwide constitutional referendum on cutting the number of lawmakers in the country's parliament.

Reducing the number of lawmakers is a key platform plank of the Five Star Movement, which currently rules Italy in coalition with the center-left Democratic Party in the government led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

20 Sep 2020; MEMO: Italian authorities handed over a historical inscription that dates to the ancient Lycian era to the Turkish foreign mission after decades of judicial wrangling about ownership, the Turkish envoy to Rome said Saturday, Anadolu reports.

The historical inscription is 1,800 years old and depicts the regret of parents whose sons committed theft. It was smuggled out of Turkey to Italy and was found by Italian authorities during a raid in 1997.

MILAN (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi left hospital on Monday after overcoming coronavirus, saying he had survived “the most dangerous challenge” of his life.

“I said to myself, with satisfaction, ‘You have got away with it again’,” a smiling Berlusconi told reporters at the gates of Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, where he was admitted on Sept. 3, after testing positive for COVID-19.

ROME, Aug 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A fishing boat carrying nearly 370 migrants landed overnight on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where the main holding centre is already overcrowded, prompting the local mayor to call for a general strike to push the government take action.

Italy has been struggling in recent months to deal with daily arrivals of hundreds of migrants to its southern shores, a task complicated by security measures imposed by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

ROME (Reuters) - A rescue boat funded by British street artist Banksy has issued urgent calls for help, saying it is stranded in the Mediterranean and overloaded with migrants who it has been unable to bring ashore.

The Louise Michel, named after a French feminist anarchist, started operating last week. It is trying to find a safe port for the 219 migrants it has picked up off the coast of Libya since Thursday.

ROME, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Tuesday that starting "a new Cold War" is to reverse the course of history and kidnap the whole world.

Wang made the remarks at a press briefing here with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio after their talks.

Responding to a question regarding China's comments on the so-called "new Cold War" that China and the U.S. are possibly heading into, Wang said China does not intend to engage in such a Cold War and is firmly against any hype about a so-called "new Cold War."

ROME (AP) — With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.

Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at over 35,000.

09 Aug 2020; MEMO: Flavio Insinna, host of the popular Italian TV show “L’Eredità” will have to deliver this statement next time he goes on the air: “International law does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.”

ROME, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Italy's cabinet on Friday gave green light to a new decree containing new supportive measures worth 25 billion euros (29.4 billion U.S. dollars) to address the COVID-19 emergency and encourage economic recovery.

The decision on the extra spending had been taken by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's cabinet in a previous meeting on July 23 and authorized by parliament on July 29.

ROME, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Italy's new Genoa Saint George Bridge, which replaces the viaduct that collapsed two years ago and killed 43 people, was inaugurated in the northwestern port city of Genoa on Monday.