Traffic restrictions are in place in parts of northe Italy in a bid to combat high levels of air pollution. A daytime traffic ban in Turin, where safe limits have been surpassed for 15 consecutive days, has been extended to include Euro 5 diesel cars despite rain being forecast. A similar initiative...

Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano meets Libya's unity gove ment Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in the Libyan capital Tripoli on December 23rd 2017. Photo: AFP. AFP [email protected] @thelocalitaly 24 December 2017 09:17 CET+01:00 The foreign minister of Italy, which has been helping Libya to combat il...

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 gove ment said on Sunday. The initiative would be part of an attempt by EU countries to address the deteriorating conditi...

The Italian Senate during a voting session on economic reform measures demanded by the European Union, in Rome on November 11th 2011. Photo: AFP. AFP [email protected] @thelocalitaly 24 December 2017 15:14 CET+01:00 A controversial bill that could grant Italian citizenship to about 800,000 children b...

New Year's Eve fireworks over Rome's Colosseum. Photo: Vincenzo PintoAFP However your 2017 was, Italy is a great place to see it out. You can expect everything from fireworks to feasts, music until dawn and more than one midnight kiss. The only thing you shouldn’t count on, in fact, is a quiet night...

Pope Francis waves from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica during the traditional "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas message. Photo: AFP. Pope Francis called for "peace for Jerusalem" and "mutual trust" on the Korean peninsula as he highlighted the suffering of children in conflicts across the world in his Ch...

Cardinal Oscar Oscar Maradiaga looks on during a visit to the Regina Pacis Centre in Amman, Jordan on May 18th 2014. Photo: Khalil Mazraawi/AFP Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, a key advisor to Pope Francis, on Friday rejected as "calumny" an Italian media report that he had for years received 35,...

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...

Callista Gingrich meets Pope Francis on December 22nd 2017. Photo: AFP/Osservator Romano Callista Gingrich, wife of the former House speaker Newt Gingrich, on Friday began her duties as the new US ambassador to the Vatican. Wearing a traditional black mantilla, she presented her credentials to Pope ...

A view over Naples. Photo: Gabriel Buoys/AFP A man has died and another person is injured after a blast in Naples, southe Italy. The blast is reported to have taken place in the easte part of the city and to have been caused by a cherry bomb, a kind of spherical firework. When police arrived at the ...

Amnesty protesters hold up a picture of Regeni and candles. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP Egypt's judiciary has submitted "new elements" in the investigation of the 2016 murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni, prosecutors from the two countries announced on Thursday. "The Egyptian investigation team ha...

Theresa May’s letter to UK nationals living in Europe on the progress of Brexit negotiations is likely to prompt us to save up Brussels sprouts for a New Year’s pelting ceremony at Downing Street, writes Laura Shields from citizens' group British in Europe. How should we, the 1.2 million British peo...

L-R: Katja Meier, Rosalind Pratt, Valeria Duflot. 2017 has been a significant year for some of Italy's biggest names, with a comeback apparently on the cards for Silvio Berlusconi and a dramatic disappointment for the national football team just two of the year's major stories. The Local has spent t...

A Christmas tree lasted just 24 hours in Naples' most famous shopping arcade before someone stole it. By Friday mo ing, only a few branches, some baubles and a stump remained of the tree installed the day before in the Galleria Umberto I.xa0 The thieves had removed the rest of the metres-high tree, ...

Italy seen from space in October 2017. Photo: Paolo Nespoli/European Space Agency/AFP A lot has happened in Italy this year. We take a look back at the news stories that shaped Italy in 2017 – including some you may have missed. EXTREME WEATHER It was a tragic start to the year in Italy, with one of...

A view over Como. Photo: Marcus90/Wikimedia Commons The mayor of the northe Italian town of Como has passed a controversial measure banning begging or camping out in the historic centre. Mayor Mario Landriscina signed the 45-day decree on Friday, which has a stated aimxa0to "protect urban decorum an...

Italian giant Eni and fellow petroleum company Shell will stand trial in Italy over allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria. A judge in Milan ordered Eni, Shell and key figures such as Eni chief Claudio Descalzi and his predecessor Paolo Scaroni...

Spelacchio the spruce, a sorry sight. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP A consumer group has demanded an investigation into possible abuse of public funds after the city of Rome spent nearly €50,000 on a lacklustre Christmas tree. Spelacchio – or "Baldy", as the tree has been dubbed – represents a "shamefu...

Christmas crowds on Via Condotti in Rome. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP Italy has ordered security to be tightened at busy Christmas and New Year's events across the country, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. Interior Minister Marco Minniti has instructed all local authorities to step up secu...

An Amazon distribution centre in the UK. Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/AFP AFP [email protected] @thelocalitaly 20 December 2017 17:32 CET+01:00 Workers at Amazon's distribution centre in Italy went on strike for about two hours on Wednesday to demand better pay and conditions, the second time workers hav...