Italy

MILAN (AP) — Italian vessels have recovered five bodies and rescued 674 people packed on a fishing boat adrift in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, the Italian Coast Guard said Sunday, while European charities reported saving more than 500 more.

Some of the survivors had to be plucked from the sea in the Italian operation Saturday that was carried out 120 miles (190 kilometers) off the coast of Calabria by a Navy mercantile ship, three Coast Guard patrol boats and a financial police boat. All of those rescued were brought to ports in Calabria and Sicily.

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Draghi resigned Thursday after his ruling coalition fell apart, and the country’s president dissolved Parliament, which paves the way for new elections although no date was set.

The moves dealt a destabilizing blow to Italy and Europe at a time of inflation and economic uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

MILAN, July 20 (Reuters) - Fire brigades in Tuscany on Wednesday battled for a second day to control a wildfire that has forced hundreds to evacuate, while a blaze in northeast Italy spread to Slovenia and threatened to leave the city of Trieste without power and water.

Wildfires have broken out in several parts of Italy this week as temperatures keep rising.

ROME (AP) — Pleas were piling up Sunday in Italy aimed at persuading Premier Mario Draghi to stay in office instead of resigning as he tried to do last week after being let down by a populist coalition partner.

Hundreds of mayors have signed an open letter. Union leaders and industrialists, who often have opposing agendas, have been united in pressing Draghi to keep on governing. Italy and other European nations are facing soaring energy costs, steep inflation, surging COVID-19 cases and the war in Ukraine. In addition, a severe drought is parching Italy.

ROME (AP) — Italy’s top criminal court has rebuffed prosecutors’ efforts to revive the trial of high-level Egyptian security officials in the 2016 torture-slaying of an Italian doctoral student.

The Court of Cassation ruled in Rome on Friday evening that there were no grounds to appeal a lower court decision last year that the trial couldn’t go forward because the defendants hadn’t been officially notified of the charges and the trial date.

ROME, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella rejected a resignation offer of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, after meeting him late on Thursday night.

Draghi decided to formally resign after the second largest force in his coalition -- the Five Star Movement (M5S) -- boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill to combat soaring prices in the Senate earlier in the day.

In an official statement after their meeting at the Quirinale Palace, Mattarella's office said that "the president has not accepted the resignation."

ROME, July 13. /TASS/: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the countries participating in talks on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear deal have developed a draft that everyone agrees with 90%, including the United States.

ROME, July 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — The number of people affected by hunger rose to 828 million in 2021, an increase of 46 million from the previous year, the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report on Wednesday.

The 2022 edition of “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) report — drafted by the FAO and four other UN agencies — carries fresh figures on nutrition and food accessibility at the global level, including the latest estimates of the costs and affordability of a healthy diet.

CANAZEI, Italy (AP) — Rescuers using drones resumed the search Tuesday for an estimated 13 hikers unaccounted-for following a powerful avalanche in northern Italy that killed at least seven people and is being blamed in large part on rising temperatures that are melting glaciers.

After rain hampered the search Monday, sunny weather on Tuesday allowed helicopters to bring more rescue teams up to the site on the Marmolada glacier, east of Bolzano in the Dolomites mountain range, even as hopes dimmed of finding anyone alive.

MILAN, July 4 (Reuters) - An Italian judge on Monday ruled that Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Paul Haggis should be released from house arrest while authorities continue to investigate allegations that he raped a woman, his lawyer told Reuters.

"Our request to revoke house arrest was accepted by the judge without further measures, so Mr. Haggis is free," said Michele Laforgia, his lawyer, adding that he still did not know if his client wanted to leave Italy.