Italy

ROME, March 19. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov will hold consultations in Rome with US Special Envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams on the situation in the Latin American country.

MILAN (AP) — The directors of Italy’s premier opera house, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, are meeting to decide whether to accept controversial funding from Saudi Arabia.

The meeting Monday came amid media reports last weekend that at least some of the 15 million euros ($17 million) had been deposited into an escrow account pending approval of the funding.

02 Mar 2019; DW: Anti-racism demonstrators gathered in their thousands outside the northern Italian city's cathedral. Their anger focused on Italy's controversial right-wing interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

Tens of thousands of people took to Milan's streets on Saturday to protest against what they said are racist policies promoted by the national government.

28 Feb 2019; DW: There are 25 million visitors to the city of Venice in northern Italy each year. Of these about 14 million stay just for a day, and often bring their own picnics.

With no visible benefit for local restaurants and bars, and costs of cleaning up after the visitors growing every year, councilors have decided to put a price on entry.

10 Feb 2019; DW: Hundreds of thousands of Italians marched through the streets of Rome on Saturday to protest the populist government's economic policies. Under the banner "A Future for Work," Italy's largest trade unions hoped to bring attention to the country's long-stagnating economy and lack of full-time employment opportunities, especially for young people.

ROME, February 6. /TASS/. Vatican is ready to mediate the Venezuelan crisis if it receives requests from both sides, Pope Francis said during a news briefing aboard the papal plane flying from the United Arab Emirates to Rome, Italy’s ANSA news agency has reported.

When asked about a letter sent to him by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the pontiff admitted not reading it yet.

"We’ll see what can be done," he said, adding that he viewed the Holy See’s mediation as a last resort, when all other means of settling the crisis have proven to be futile.

Caracas, January 31; GANASHAKTI: On Thursday the Italian Government withdrew from the position assumed by the European Parliament and informed that it does not recognize Juan Guaido as "president in charge" of Venezuela.

"Italy does not recognize the self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido," Italy's Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Manlio Di Stefano, said.

The senior official explained that Italy is "totally against" that a country or a group of countries "can determine the internal policies" of a sovereign State.

31 Jan 2019; AFP: The Italian economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2018, plunging the country into a technical recession, official data showed Thursday.

The 0.2 percent contraction -- following a 0.1 percent fall in the third quarter -- will put pressure on the populist government in the eurozone's third largest economy, which took power in June on the back of big-spending electoral promises.

31 Jan 2019; DW: The latest standoff between Italy and the EU over sea rescues has ended with 47 migrants landing in Sicily. The German charity Sea Watch now fears it could be prosecuted and its boat impounded.

A charity rescue ship with 47 migrants aboard arrived at a Sicilian port on Thursday after spending two weeks at sea while Italy demanded other European states take them in.

ROME, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- In the impressive setting of the Gardens of Sallust, a 1st-century-B.C. pleasure garden complex in northwest Rome, Italian actors performed Monday short monologues describing multiple risks faced by refugee girls who dropped out of school.

The performance marked the official opening of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) fundraising campaign for the education of refugee girls across the world.