The Local

Italy’s self-employed workers may have the right to paid time off when unwell, though the rules are not straightforward. , ...ادامه مطلب

The European Union has committed to resettling nearly 61,000 refugees in some of its member countries over the next two years. Around 20 percent of world's refugees have been welcomed by the bloc over the last three years. , ...ادامه مطلب

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti. Photo: AFP Up to 10,000 people stranded in refugee camps and detention centres in Libya could be relocated to Europe in 2018, the Italian govement said on Sunday. The initiative would be part of an attempt by EU countries to address the deteriorating conditions in Libya, where thousands of people are held captive in inhumane conditions.  "In 2018, up to 10,000 refugees will be able to come to Europe without risk, through humanitarian corridors," Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said in an interview with the newspaper La Repubblica. The announcement comes after a group of 162 "vulnerable" people, from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen, were evacuated from Libya and arrived by military plane in Rome on Friday. The group included single mothers, unaccompanied children and handicapped people, and was the first time refugees and migrants had been relocated directly to Europe by the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR). About 400,000 migrants are in Libya, including roughly 36,000 children, the UN children's agency UNICEF and the Inteational Organization for Migration (IOM) said earlier this month. &, ...ادامه مطلب

Italy Interior Minister Marco Minniti. Photo: AFP A group of 162 "vulnerable" refugees were flown directly from Libya to Italy on Friday for the first time, a day hailed as "historic" by Interior Minister Marco Minniti. "For the first time a humanitarian corridor has been opened from Libya to Europe. It's a start," Minniti said, adding: "Today is a historic day."  Those evacuated came from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen. They comprised families, single mothers, unaccompanied children and handicapped people, who were flown on a military jet. Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR's special envoy for the central Mediterranean, said: "For the first time, we have been able to evacuate extremely vulnerable refugees from Libya directly to Italy. Many of those evacuated spoke of great suffering and were kept prisoners by traffickers in inhuman conditions."  Libya has long been a transit hub for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, but people smugglers have stepped up their lucrative business in the chaos since the 2011 revolution. Libyan authorities have come under fire over migrant abuses since the airing last month of CNN footage of a slave mar, ...ادامه مطلب

This file photo taken on November 1st, 1938 shows Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (R) and King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy (L). Photo: France Presse Voir/AFP The body of Italy's controversial king Victor Emmanuel III retued to Italy on Sunday, amid a row over where the monarch who abetted dictator Benito Mussolini should be buried. Victor Emmanuel, who ruled from 1900 until his abdication on May 9th, 1946, died in exile in Egypt. Permission for his body to be brought back was granted to the House of Savoy by the president, and his remains were flown in from Egypt on Sunday, historian Aldo Mola told AFP. The king will be buried in the family's mausoleum, the Sanctuary of Vicoforte in northe Italy, according to Mola, who has helped organise the royal's retu. But his great grandson, feuding with relatives over who is the rightful heir to one of the oldest royal dynasties in the world, says Victor Emmanuel should be buried in the Pantheon in Rome alongside Italy's other kings. "We had been dreaming this day would go very differently. Justice will only be done when all of our sovereigns buried in exile are laid to rest in the Pa, ...ادامه مطلب

Pope Francis arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar on Thursday for the second stage of a visit that has been overshadowed by the plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees. PHOTO: MUNIR UZ ZAMA Pope Francis on Saturday said he wept hearing the plight first-hand of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, adding that this meeting was a condition set for his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Rohingya meeting was a highly symbolic gesture of solidarity with the Muslim minority fleeing violence in Myanmar, and the pontiff told joualists on his plane flying back to Rome that the refugees cried as well.   "I knew that I was going to meet the Rohingyas but I did , ...ادامه مطلب

Italian motorcycling ace Valentino Rossi has revealed he is afraid to stop racing and intends to tu to cars when his career on two wheels ends. The 38-year-old nine-time world champion -- who is driving a Ford Fiesta in Milan this weekend as he bids for a record sixth win at the Monza Rally Show -- said his dream was to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in France."I'm afraid of stopping. After the end of my career in MotoGP, I will have another ten years in the automobile sport," Rossi told Italy's Radio Deejay on Friday."I'll keep going as long as I'm competitive and feel like it, of course I'm a bit scared of normal life," continued Rossi, adding he has no time fo, ...ادامه مطلب

Rohingya refugees near Bangladesh's border with Myanmar. Photo: Fred Dufour/AFP Pope Francis will meet Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar in Dhaka when he visits the Bangladeshi capital next week, a Vatican spokesman said on Wednesday. , ...ادامه مطلب

Junventus' chairman Andrea Agnelli pictured last year. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP Juventus president Andrea Agnelli has been banned for a year for his role in the sale of tickets to fan groups, the Italian Football Federation said on Monday. Agnelli was also fined 20,000 euros ($23,770) while champions Juventus copped a fine of 300,000 euros ($356,000).Agnelli was accused of helping sell, ...ادامه مطلب

John Keats, by William Hilton/National Portrait Gallery. In Rome, the Keats-Shelley house where the British Romantic poets once lived hosted an art workshop for refugees, artists, and volunteers, to discuss what it means to leave one country for another. They discovered surprising parallels between Keats' jouey and their own, writes Dr Amanda Frances Johnson. The great sensualist Roman, ...ادامه مطلب

Italian police have arrested two men in Calabria, southe Italy over claims they paid farm workers according to their skin colour. The pair, who are brothers, face charges of labour exploitation aggravated by racial discrimination. According to investigators, the farm owners hired immigrants to work illegally on their farm in Amantea in Cosenza province. Between five and eight peopl, ...ادامه مطلب

A volunteer welcomes a man and baby after disembarking from a MOAS ship. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFPA Maltese charity which was the first to launch privately-funded migrant rescue missions in the Mediterranean said on Monday it was transferring its resources to help persecuted Rohingya in South East Asia. MOAS launched its lifeline for those attempting the perilous sea crossing from North Africa to , ...ادامه مطلب

Ai Weiwei, pictured here in 2016. Photo: Patrick Kovarik/AFPAn impatient toddler chides his mother for not being quick enough in getting him into his pair of newly-acquired boots. Finally they're on and he wriggles free to put the new footwear to good use: kicking his siblings and friends on the shins. He might be a refugee, detained in a transit camp with the rest of his family, waiting to hear w, ...ادامه مطلب

Amatrice in August 2017, a year after an earthquake killed nearly 300 people. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFPEuropean MEPs on Wednesday approved aid worth €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) to help repair damage caused by a series of deadly earthquakes in Italy this year and last. The Budget Committee of the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the payment from the EU Solidarity Fund, which helps me, ...ادامه مطلب

Italy is set to issue new guidelines on refugee evictions after the UN criticised the ousting of hundreds of people from a Rome building last week, local media reported Saturday. The unexpected eviction -- carried out when Rome is virtually deserted at the height of the holiday season -- was seen by commenters as a sign of hardening attitudes in Italy towards asylum seekers. On the moing of Augu, ...ادامه مطلب