A sea rescue by Proactiva Open Arms in October 2016. Photo: Aris Messinis/AFPA three-month-old baby has died after being picked up by rescuers at sea off Libya, because bad weather and a lack of boats made a medical evacuation impossible, aid organizations said on Thursday. Over 1,600 migrants have ...

The Italian Antitrust Authority fined six travel websites more than €4 million on Wednesday for lack of transparency and unfair practices, including adding credit card fees and charging customers premium rates for telephone inquiries. The biggest penalty was for volagratis.it, which was fined €2.2 m...

Bad weather in Turin, 2011. Photo: Olivier Morin/AFPItaly was lashed by winds of over 100 kilometres an hour on Wednesday, causing trees to topple, disrupting transport and whipping up waves several metres high. Gales that began sweeping in from the Atlantic on Tuesday night were felt all over the w...

Italy's current law makes ten vaccinations compulsory and free of charge for all children. Photo: Fred Tanneau/AFPTwo Italian populist parties running in elections in March are promising to scrap a compulsory vaccination law, a hot-button issue after a measles outbreak claimed four lives last year. ...

A crime scene in Naples. Photo: Mario Laporta/AFPInterior Minister Marco Minnitti was in Naples on Tuesday to discuss the city’s problems with gangs of criminal teenagers, who have been blamed for a rising number of violent attacks. Naples’ youth gangs are “a phenomenon that can no longer be tolerat...

Police inspect a train between Milan and Paris. Photo: Piero Cruciatti/AFPFrench police discovered the partially bu ed body of a man on the roof of a train travelling from northe Italy to southe France. His body was found as the regional train arrived early on Sunday mo ing in Menton, in the south o...

A Northe League supporter in Milan. Photo: Paco Serinelli/AFPAttilio Fontana, the leading candidate to gove Italy’s most populous region, says he made a slip of the tongue when he claimed that migration threatened to wipe out “our white race”. Fontana, a member of the far-right Northe League who is ...

Silvio Berlusconi discussing his tax proposal on TV. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFPA promise of a flat tax by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday sparked sharp reactions from opponents ahead of a general election and head-scratching among economists. Campaigning ahead of a general election...

A rough sleeper in Rome. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFPPolice in Zevio near Verona have questioned two teenagers, one 13 and the other 17, who allegedly set fire to a car in which a homeless man had taken shelter. The man, 64-year-old Ahamed Fdil, was found dead inside the vehicle on the evening of Decembe...

If Twitter users were elected, the socks-and-sandals combo would be outlawed. Photo: Federico Bezzi/TwitterIt’s election season in Italy, and promises are cheap. Want to go back to jobs for life? We’ll get rid of reforms. Think pensions were better in the old days? We’ll scrap the cuts. Sick of payi...

A rubbish truck in Rome. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFPThe region of Abruzzo has agreed to accept up to 39,000 tonnes of rubbish from Rome to help ease a garbage crisis in the capital. Rubbish has been piling up on Rome’s streets since Christmas, when Romans had more to throw away than usual and collect...

Ryanair desks at Rome's Ciampino airport. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFPThree Italian air transport unions on Wednesday announced their intention for a nationwide strike for Ryanair staff on February 10th, expressing disappointment after the first meeting with management of the Irish low-cost airline. T...

Italy's Ferrero is closing in on a $2.8-billion deal for Nestle's US confectionary business, Bloomberg said on Wednesday, amid signs a deal could be completed by Sunday. Nestle USA registered sales of some 900 million Swiss francs (€828 million, $900 million) in 2016, in a market worth an overall $8...

Roads to the Alpine resorts of Cervinia and Cogne in Valle d’Aosta reopened on Wednesday, freeing thousands of visitors stranded in the snowed-in ski stations. The road between between Valtou enche and Breuil-Cervinia, closed on Monday due to a high risk of avalanches, remains covered by a metre and...

Italy players after Sweden knocked them out of the World Cup play-offs. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFPOutgoing Italian football federation (FIGC) president Carlo Tavecchio said on Wednesday he did not expect a new coach to be appointed before next June. Italy have been without a coach since Giampiero Vent...

Juventus midfielder Blaise Matuidi. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFPSerie A club Cagliari will not be punished for racist chanting by their fans against Juventus midfielder Blaise Matuidi, the Italian league said on Tuesday. Matuidi revealed after Juve's 1-0 win in Sardinia on Saturday that he had been the ...

Workmen removing, then reinstating, Spelacchio's decorations on Tuesday. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFPFinally, some good news for Rome’s much-mocked Christmas tree: the balding spruce will be tu ed into a shelter for breastfeeding mothers after it is removed from the capital’s Piazza Venezia on Thursda...

An alpinist in mountains of Piedmont. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFPAuthorities in Piedmont have raised the avalanche alert to five, its highest level, wa ing of large, spontaneous snow slides. The risk in the region’s north-weste mountains is “very strong” in parts and “strong” in others, Italy’s envi...

A survivor arrives in Catania, Sicily. Photo: Giovanni Isolino/AFPTen migrants perished over the weekend and dozens are missing, including children, after their boat sank off the Libyan coast, aid organizations said on Monday. An inflatable boat loaded with men, women and children left Garabulli, 50...

The former editor of the Economist, an influential UK weekly which once slammed Silvio Berlusconi as "unfit to lead Italy", said Saturday the ex-premier could stop populists at the upcoming general election. "I've not changed my opinion: Berlusconi is still unfit to lead Italy," Bill Emmott said in ...