Return to home
2016 Jan 9, Italian
police opened a murder investigation after Ashley Olsen (35) of
Summer Haven, Florida, was found dead in Florence, her neck bruised
and scratched. Cheik Tidiane Diaw (27), who had arrived in Italy
from Senegal in recent months, was arrested Jan14 at his brother's
apartment after DNA evidence linked him to the murder. On Dec 22
Tidiane was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 1/10/16)(AP, 1/14/16)(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Jan 13, Italian police
arrested 11 people for allegedly running an illegal online gaming
business which garnered millions of euros in bets every day.
(Reuters, 1/13/16)
2016 Jan 14, Swiss authorities
said they have returned to Italy 45 boxes of ancient Etruscan art
stolen during illegal excavations and stashed away for more than 15
years, including two rare sarcophaguses.
(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 16, In northwest Italy
a pre-dawn explosion blamed on a gas leak has killed five people in
the apartment building where they lived in Arnasco.
(AP, 1/16/16)
2016 Jan 23, In Italy tens of
thousands demonstrated in almost 100 cities to urge the government
to grant gay and lesbian couples civil unions and recognize their
families.
(SSFC, 1/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 25, Italy and Iran
signed billions of dollars of business deals at the start of a visit
to Europe by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani aimed at rebuilding
his nation's ties with the West after years of economic sanctions.
(Reuters, 1/26/16)
2016 Jan 25, Giulio Regeni
(28), an Italian Cambridge University PhD student, mysteriously
disappeared in Cairo. On Feb 3 his corpse was found on the outskirts
of Cairo. Regeni's body was stabbed repeatedly and exhibited
cigarette burns and other signs of torture. Regeni had written
articles critical of the Egyptian government, An autopsy later
showed he was interrogated for up to seven days before he was
killed.
(AFP, 2/4/16)(AP, 2/11/16)(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Jan 29, Italian anti-mafia
police nabbed fugitive mobster bosses Giuseppe Ferraro (47) and
Giuseppe Crea (37), after discovering them "living like animals" in
a mountain hideout stocked with an arsenal of weapons.
(AFP, 1/29/16)
2016 Jan 30, Hundreds of
thousands of people protested in Rome's Circus Maximus arena against
a civil unions bill for same-sex couples, a hot-potato issue for PM
Matteo Renzi's government.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Feb 8, President Barack
Obama and Italian President Sergio Mattarella met to discuss efforts
to fight the spread of the Islamic State in Libya.
(AP, 2/9/16)
2016 Feb 19, Italian author
Umberto Eco (b.1932) died at home in Milan. His books included the
best-selling medieval thriller, "The Name of the Rose" (1980). The
book was adapted for the big screen by Jean-Jacques Annaud in 1986,
starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater.
(AP, 2/20/16)
2016 Feb 23, It was reported
that Italy has agreed that US forces can use an airbase in Sicily to
launch drone strikes against Islamic State targets in Libya on a
case-by-case basis.
(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 29, Italian police
raided an abandoned slaughterhouse near Rosarno in Calabria that
African migrant farmworkers use as a dormitory, part of a recently
launched crackdown on labor exploitation.
(AP, 2/29/16)
2016 Mar 8, Swiss authorities
said they have arrested 15 people suspected of belonging to the
powerful Italian 'Ndrangheta crime organization, and are holding
them pending extradition.
(AFP, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 12, In the Italian
Alps six backcountry skiers died in an avalanche, others were
rescued and emergency workers were still looking for more possible
victims.
(AP, 3/12/16)
2016 Mar 18, Italian ships
picked up some 600 migrants and recovered one body, as European
leaders met in Brussels to try to stem the flow of migrants to the
continent.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 19, Italy's coast
guard said more than 900 migrants were rescued in four separate
operations in the Strait of Sicily.
(Reuters, 3/19/16)
2016 Mar 24, Egyptian police
reportedly identified people linked to the murder of Italian student
Giulio Regeni, after killing four members of a criminal gang and
finding the victim's passport at one of their apartments.
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 27, Italian
authorities announced the arrest of Djamal Eddine Ouali (40), an
Algerian man who was part of a counterfeiting ring that provided
forged documents to people involved in the Paris and Brussels
terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 3/28/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 30, Italian policed
arrested a nurse (55) on suspicion of murdering 13 elderly patients
in the intensive care ward where she had worked for decades. The
alleged murders all took place in 2014 and 2015, although she had
worked there for many years prior to that.
(AP, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 6, It was reported
that Chinese author Cao Wenxuan and German illustrator Rotraut
Susanne Berner have been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Prize
for children's literature during the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
(AP, 4/6/16)
2016 Apr 6, Italy's coast guard
rescued more than 300 migrants from a packed boat in which they had
traveled hundreds of km (miles) from Egypt to the Strait of Sicily.
(Reuters, 4/7/16)
2016 Apr 11, In Italy a clutch
of banks and other financial institutions agreed to create a fund
called Atlante to bail out troubled rivals and thus allay fears of a
systemic crisis in Italian banking.
(Econ, 4/16/16, p.61)
2016 Apr 12, Italian PM Matteo
Renzi became the highest-ranking European leader to visit Tehran
since its nuclear deal with world powers. Renzi began a two-day
visit to the Islamic republic aimed at restoring ties that before
sanctions had seen Italy ranked as Iran's top European trading
partner.
(AFP, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 12, Gianroberto
Casaleggio (b.1954), Italian entrepreneur and political activist,
died. He and Beppe Grillo co-founded the Five Star Movement (M5S) in
2009.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianroberto_Casaleggio)
2016 Apr 14, Britain, France,
Germany, Italy and Spain agreed to share information on company
ownership to make it harder for criminals and tax cheats to avoid
the law.
(SFC, 4/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 17, Italians voted in
a referendum on the duration of offshore drilling concessions in
territorial waters, as nine regional governments sought to wrestle
some influence over energy policy from the central government in
Rome.
(AP, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 28, Italian police
arrested four people suspected of conspiring to join Islamic State
in the Middle East in a probe that revealed a plan to carry out a
militant attack in Italy.
(Reuters, 4/28/16)
2016 May 2, A UN arbitration
court ruled that India should release Italian marine Salvatore
Girone, who has been detained in Delhi for more than four years, and
allow him to return home.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 5, Italian Premier
Matteo Renzi hailed the new Alfa Romeo sedan by Fiat Chrysler, which
he says will add 3,400 jobs in Italy and symbolizes the country's
economic potential.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 5, In Italy Renato
Soru, a leftist politician and chairman of multinational telecoms
company Tiscali, was handed a three year jail sentence for tax
evasion. Soru Soru, who founded Tiscali in 1998, is the head of PM
Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) in Sardinia and a PD member of
the European Parliament.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 11, Italy's parliament
gave a green light for the introduction of gay civil unions in the
last major Western country not to legally recognize same-sex
relationships.
(AFP, 5/11/16)
2016 May 21, Italy’s PM Matteo
Renzi (41) launched his campaign to win an October referendum on
constitutional reform, staking his political future on an attempt to
finally give Italy stable governments.
(Reuters, 5/21/16)
2016 May 25, The Italian navy
said a large wooden fishing boat overcrowded with migrants capsized
off the coast of Libya, with some 550 people rescued and five found
dead so far. An estimated 100 people were missing from the
smugglers' boat.
(Reuters, 5/25/16)(AP, 5/29/16)
2016 May 25, Italy's Mount
Etna, Europe's highest and most active volcano, erupted spewing red
torrents of lava into the sky.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)
2016 May 25, The European
Union's agency for judicial cooperation said a Portuguese national
and a Russian were arrested in Rome last week on suspicion of being
involved in espionage for hire.
(AP, 5/25/16)
2016 May 26, Italian officials
said another migrant boat has capsized in the Mediterranean off the
coast of Libya. Some 20 bodies were spotted in the sea. Officials
said 88 people had been rescued. Later estimates by police and
humanitarian organizations ranged from around 400 to about 550
missing in the sinking of a wooden fishing boat being towed by
another smugglers' boat from the Libyan port of Sabratha.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)(AP, 5/26/16)(AP, 5/29/16)
2016 May 27, The Italian navy
vessel Vega rescued 135 migrants and picked up 45 bodies in the
Mediterranean.
(AP, 5/28/16)
2016 May 28, Italian coast
guard and navy ships, aided by an Irish naval vessel, saved more
than 500 migrants from smugglers' boats in the Mediterranean off
Libya.
(AP, 5/28/16)
2016 May 29, In Italy Rome
student Sara Di Pietrantonio (22) died before dawn after Vincenzo
Paduano (27) first set her car afire. Investigators said her
attacker used a cigarette lighter to set her face on fire after
dousing her with alcohol.
(AP, 5/30/16)
2016 May 31, French company
Technip signed a preliminary $500 million deal to upgrade a key
Libyan oil facility, along with Italy's Eni and Libya's state oil
company.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 Jun 5, In Italy an
anti-establishment movement was the favorite as voters headed to the
polls to pick a new mayor in Rome, among a handful of city hall
contests in urban centers that tested the prime minister's governing
Democratic Party. Virginia Raggi of the 5-Star Movement took 35.3
percent of the vote in Rome, trailed by Premier Matteo Renzi's
Democratic Party candidate Roberto Giachetti, with just under 25
percent. Since no candidate took more than 50 percent in balloting,
the top two face a runoff June 19.
(AP, 6/5/16)(AP, 6/6/16)
2016 Jun 8, Italian officials
said Medhanie Yehdego Mered (35), an Eritrean man suspected of
running a huge human trafficking network that sent thousands of
migrants to Europe, leaving many to die on the way, was extradited
overnight from Sudan to Italy. A woman claiming to be his
half-sister said he was just a simple carpenter.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)(AFP, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 8, Italian media
reported that a policeman has shot dead a migrant who stabbed him
during a brawl in the vast tent camp in San Ferdinando on the
outskirts of Rosarno.
(AFP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 9, Italian police
arrested two Ukrainians suspected of trafficking Syrians to Italy on
a sail boat, and launched a probe to find the criminal organization
ultimately responsible.
(Reuters, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 11, Italy’s
conservative Milan daily Il Giornal newspaper published Hitler's
political manifesto "Mein Kampf," angering Premier Matteo Renzi and
the country's tiny Jewish community. The daily is publishing volumes
exploring Third Reich history and defended its decision by arguing
that reading "Mein Kampf" is the "true antidote to the toxins of
national socialism."
(AP, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 11, Italy's coast
guard said it had picked up at sea 1,348 migrants in 11 rescue
operations between Sicily and North Africa, bringing the total
number of people saved over the past three days to more than 3,000.
(Reuters, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 11, Thousands of
people marched in colorful gay pride events in Croatia, Italy, and
Poland urging support for minority rights in the mostly Catholic
nations.
(AP, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 12, In Italy at least
3 people were killed and several others injured in Milan when a
residential building partially collapsed following an explosion due
to a suspected gas leak.
(Reuters, 6/12/16)
2016 Jun 19, Italians began
voting for mayors of their largest cities in a ballot that will test
PM Matteo Renzi's popularity. The anti-establishment M5S, founded by
comic Beppe Grillo, triumphed in the mayoral runoff elections.
Virginia Raggi (37), a lawyer from the 5-Star Movement with a
three-year stint as a city councilwoman, took 67.2 percent of the
vote in a two-person runof to become the first woman to head
Rome’s City Hall.
(Reuters, 6/19/16)(AP, 6/20/16)
2016 Jun 22, Italy's highest
court confirmed a lower-court decision making it easier for gays to
adopt a partner's biological child but the decision did not give
long-sought automatic recognition to the families of same-sex
couples.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 23, In Italy
Virginia Raggi, Rome's first female mayor, took office pledging to
raise more than a billion euros a year for flagging public services
with a crackdown on waste, mismanagement and corruption.
(AFP, 6/23/16)
2016 Jun 26, Ernesto Fazzalari
(46), Italy's second most sought-after fugitive, was captured as he
slept in his bed in a hideout in the Calabrian mountains after 20
years on the run. Prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho described
Fazzalari as "a merciless killer" and a protagonist of the 1991-1992
turf feud between 'ndrangheta clans that bloodied the Taurianova
town area.
(AP, 6/26/16)(SFC, 6/27/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 27, Italian police, in
a crackdown on the Lo Russo crime clan, arrested 24 suspects in an
alleged extortion scheme targeting bread sales in grocery stores,
supermarkets and street vendors.
(AP, 6/27/16)
2016 Jun 29, The Italian navy
said it has recovered the migrant ship that sank off Sicily April
18, 2015, with an estimated 700-800 people aboard in one of the
worst known tragedies of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.
(AP, 6/29/16)
2016 Jun 30, Italian
authorities significantly lowered the estimated number of migrants
who died in the April 18, 2015, shipwreck that spurred Europe to
beef up Mediterranean rescue efforts, suggesting the final death
toll could be around 500 rather than 800.
(AP, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 30, Italy’s coast
guard said 10 women died in a sinking boat packed with migrants off
the coast of Libya today and hundreds of other people were rescued
in two separate operations.
(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 30, Colombian, Italian
and US police seized 11 tons of cocaine and arrested 33 people today
and over the last few days from a mafia-linked ring which refined
the drug in the jungles of Colombia and smuggled it out in
containers of tropical fruits.
(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 30, In Italy Wisconsin
student Beau Solomon disappeared in Rome a day after arriving there.
On July 4 police discovered his body in the Tiber river in Rome. A
suspect identified as Massimo Galioto (40) was soon arrested.
(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 2, In Italy US Staff
Sgt. Halex Hale (24) was last seen at a friend's cookout in Sacile,
near Aviano Air Base north of Venice. His body, clad in a swimsuit,
was found on July 12 in a river in Sacile.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 4, Italian police
arrested 25 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians and an Italian who they said
belonged to an organization that had smuggled thousands of migrants
into Europe from Africa.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 5, In Italy Amedeo
Mancin, described as a local soccer club hooligan, beat Emmanuel
Chidi Namdi of Nigeria in the north-central town of Fermo when he
tried to defend his wife after Mancin insulted her with a racial
slur and started to drag her. Namdi was bludgeoned, fell into a coma
and died the next day.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 6, Italian police
arrested 11 people accused of crimes linked to public events,
including last year's Milan Expo, and channeling money they
collected to the Sicilian mafia.
(Reuters, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 12, In Italy at least
27 people were killed in a head-on collision between two passenger
trains in the southern Italian region of Puglia.
(AFP, 7/12/16)(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Italy convicted
Cosa Nostra "boss of bosses" Bernardo Provenzano (b.1933), who
reputedly led the Mafia's powerful Corleone clan, died in Milan. He
was captured in 2006 in Sicily following decades of hiding in the
countryside.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_Provenzano)(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 14, Qatar Airways
announced an agreement to purchase a 49-percent stake in Italy's
second largest carrier, Meridiana.
(AP, 7/14/16)
2016 Jul 15, Rescuers saved 366
migrants from rickety boats trying to cross the Mediterranean to
Italy but at least 20 people were reported to have drowned. The
survivors were mainly from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 18, In northern Italy
a court in Ivrea convicted former Olivetti executive Carlo De
Benedetti and 12 others of manslaughter and other offenses over
workers' deaths or illnesses blamed on asbestos exposure. The
industrialist received a 5-year-2-month prison term. He will not be
jailed while his appeals are heard.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 20, The Italian coast
guard coordinated five separate rescue operations that saved 567
migrants. The bodies of 21 women and one man were found in a pool of
fuel at the bottom of one smuggler’s boat.
(AP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 26, The Vatican and
the Bank of Italy signed a key cooperation agreement aimed at
regularizing their relations and ending years of Italian mistrust
over Holy See finances.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Aug 2, Italian financial
police arrested the former CEO of Veneto Banca and seized millions
in cash, shares and property as part of a wide-ranging
investigation.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 4, Italy's
anti-corruption authority (ANAC) confirmed that it is investigating
Rome's public rubbish management agency as concerns grew that waste
problems plaguing the capital could turn critical.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 24, A magnitude 6-6.2
earthquake struck central Italy. 17 deaths were confirmed in
Amatrice alone. The preliminary death toll was 38. The death toll
soon climbed to 290. A Polish geologist said it was caused by the
slow but constant under-surface movement of the African Plate toward
Europe.
(AP, 8/24/16)(AFP, 8/25/16)(AP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 29, The Italian
coastguard rescued some 6,500 migrants off the coast of Libya in one
of its busiest days of life-saving in recent years.
(AFP, 8/29/16)
2016 Sep 5, The Italian navy
rescued nearly 500 boat migrants off the coast of Libya and
recovered the bodies of six people who fell out of a leaking rubber
vessel.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 6, Italian police said
they had broken up a criminal network that smuggled mostly Syrian
refugees across the Balkans to Western Europe.
(Reuters, 9/6/16)
2016 Sep 7, Italian rescuers
brought more than 350 migrants to shore in Sicily, along with the
bodies of five women and two men who had died on the perilous
journey.
(Reuters, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 12, A government
source said Italy will set up a military hospital and deploy 300
doctors, nurses and soldiers in Libya at the request of the United
Nations-recognized government in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 13, In Italy Tiziana
Cantone (31) committed suicide after failing in a long legal battle
to get a pornographic video removed from the internet. On Sep 16
Italian prosecutors in Naples said they have opened an investigation
into possible charges of instigation to suicide.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, The European
Union's border agency Frontex said some 23,000 irregular migrants
arrived in Italy in August, most crossing the Mediterranean from
Libya on what has become the main immigration route into Europe.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 16, In Italy Carlo
Azeglio Ciampi (b.1920), former PM (1993-1994) and President
(1999-2006), died. He was a highly respected economist who helped
usher in the euro as treasury minister.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 21, Italian
prosecutors said they have dropped a money laundering case against
the son of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The allegation that
Bilal Erodogan, 35, was involved in money laundering while studying
in Italy last year was first made by Murat Hakan Uzan, an exiled
member of one of Turkey's richest families and an opponent of the
president.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 25, In Italy
protesters took to small boats in Venice this evening to demonstrate
against huge cruise ships being allowed to pass through the Italian
city's canals.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 26, Italian officials
warned that Switzerland could face consequences after voters in the
border canton of Ticino approved a referendum calling on authorities
to grant preference to Swiss workers over foreigners in employment.
(AP, 9/26/16)
2016 Sep 30, Investigators said
Italian police have found two Van Gogh paintings that were stolen
from an Amsterdam museum in 2002 hidden in a farmhouse near an
organized crime syndicate's Naples-area stronghold. Investigators
seized some 20 million euros ($22 million) worth of assets,
including farmland, villas and apartments, which they say are linked
to two Camorra drug kingpins, Mario Cerrone and Raffaele Imperiale.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Oct 3, Some 6,055 migrants
bound for Europe were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea off North
Africa and 22 found dead, one of the highest numbers in a single day
according to Italian and Libyan officials.
(AP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 5, Italian police
arrested Antonio Pelle, a fugitive top mob boss who escaped from a
hospital in 2011 — finding him at home in a bunker built between the
bathroom and his son's bedroom.
(AP, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 13, In Italy Dario Fo
(90), playwright and 1997 Nobel Prize laureate, died. His plays
included “The Accidental Death of an Anarchist” (1970).
(SFC, 10/14/16, p.D10)(Econ, 10/22/16, p.82)
2016 Oct 15, Shareholders of
Italy’s Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare de Milano approved their
merger. The new bank will be called Banco BPM.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.62)
2016 Oct 17, Italian PM Matteo
Renzi flew to the United States for a high-profile visit that he
hopes will boost his flagging campaign for a referendum on
constitutional reform.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 18, Pres. Obama threw
his support behind efforts that Italian PM Matteo Renzi is taking to
overhaul the country’s political system and enhance its economy.
Obama hosted Renzi for the final official visit and state dinner of
his presidency.
(SFC, 10/19/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 20, In Italy the Milan
city council bestowed honorary citizenship on the Dalai Lama over
the objections of Chinese Embassy, which said the gesture would have
a negative impact on bilateral relations and regional cooperation.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 23, Italian officials
said that 14 bodies have been recovered in a two-day period on
smugglers' boats packed with migrants. In all 5,700 migrants were
rescued from dozens of small boats and rubber dinghies over the
previous two days.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 26, In central Italy a
pair of strong earthquakes struck late today in the same region hit
by a deadly quake in August. The only death in the aftermath was
attributed to a heart attack in a 73-year-old man.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 30, Italy's most
powerful earthquake in 36 years stuck the country's mountainous
center, panicking shell-shocked residents for the third time in two
months and flattening a world famous 600-year-old basilica. The 6.6
magnitude quake hit near the small mountain town of Norcia. There
were no reports of anyone dying.
(AFP, 10/30/16)
2016 Nov 15, In Italy more than
1,000 people marched under torchlight through the Medieval center of
Soave where the mayor is fending off plans to house more than 100
migrants.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 15, A group of 188
Eritreans headed to Germany from Italy as the first tranche of 500
that Germany pledged to take monthly from Italy.
(SFC, 11/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 22, Italy's coastguard
said that 1,400 people had been saved in 12 separate migrant rescue
operations over the last 24 hours with least eight people dead and
an unknown number missing.
(AFP, 11/22/16)
2016 Dec 4, Millions of
Italians voted in a knife-edge constitutional referendum that left
PM Matteo Renzi sweating on his future and the rest of Europe braced
for the fallout if he is forced to quit. PM Renzi won just over 40
percent of the vote in the referendum, a far worse result than polls
had predicted.
(AFP, 12/4/16)(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 7, Italian Premier
Matteo Renzi said he would resign this evening now that Parliament
has approved the 2017 national budget, a step required by the
nation's president before he would let the leader step down. Pres.
Mattarella had asked him to stay long enough to secure passage of
the budget.
(AP, 12/7/16)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.51)
2016 Dec 11, Italian Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni was tapped to form a new, Democrat-led
government and end a political crisis so the country can quickly
tackle pressing problems.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 12, Italian energy
company Eni said it would sell a 30 percent stake in an offshore
Egyptian gas field to Rosneft. The Russian company will pay $1.125
billion for the holding in the Shorouk concession, which contains
the giant Zohr gas field, and $450 million to cover past
expenditures on the project.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 13, Italy convicted
Mohammed Ali Malek (28), a Tunisian man accused of being the captain
of a migrant boat that sank on April 18, 2015, killing almost 700
people. He was found guilty of multiple manslaughter and
people-smuggling and sentenced to 18 years in jail. The court also
sentenced Syrian Mahmud Bikhit (26) to five years in prison on
charges of people-smuggling. Survivors said Bikhit had been Malek's
cabin boy.
(Reuters, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, Italy's largest
bank, UniCredit, said it will unload 17.7 billion euros ($18.8
billion) in soured loans, raise billions in new money and shed
thousands of jobs as it seeks to re-launch the company under new
management.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 14, Italian PM Paolo
Gentiloni won the backing of the fragmented Senate, allowing his
government to formally take office as a new threat emerged to the
legacy of predecessor Matteo Renzi.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 16, The governments of
Italy's two biggest cities came under judicial scrutiny, with
Milan's mayor suspending himself from his duties and a top aide in
Rome's administration put under arrest. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala
was under investigation in a case involving tender bids at last
year's Expo world fair. Raffaele Marra, an aide to Mayor Virginia
Raggi of the 5-Star Movement, was arrested on suspicion of
corruption linked to a 2013 real estate deal.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 17, Rome's Mayor
Virginia Raggi was stripped by her populist Five Star Movement (M5S)
party of the power to make "important decisions" after a close
advisor was arrested for suspected corruption.
(AfP, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 19, An Italian court
convicted an Italian woman and her Albanian husband in absentia on
terrorism charges for traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State
group. This was the first trial in Italy involving foreign fighters
operating inside the war zone.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, A draft report
released by a European Parliament probe accused France, Italy and
Spain of trying to slow down the introduction of tougher auto
emissions tests despite knowing that the old ones were causing more
pollution.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 23, In Italy
Anis Amri, the Tunisian man suspected in a deadly attack on a
Christmas market in Berlin, was killed early today in a shootout
with police in Milan during a routine patrol outside a train
station.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 30, Italy said it will
seek to deport more migrants who have no right to be in the country
and will open new detention centers to hold them before their
expulsion.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Italy ranked as the
world’s 8th biggest economy, just ahead of Brazil.
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.68)
2017 Jan 1, In Italy a bomb
squad officer in Florence lost an eye and had to have a hand
amputated after a suspicious package he was examining exploded
before dawn.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 4, Italy vowed to
increase deportations of migrants whose asylum requests have been
rejected, after a riot in a reception center sparked by the death of
a young woman.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 9, Italy's
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement voted to cut its ties with the
anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) and to hook up instead with the
Liberals in the European Parliament. The liberal group rejected the
request, ending a short-lived courtship.
(Reuters, 1/9/17)(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 10, UKIP founder Nigel
Farage said Farage said that all differences with 5-Star had been
resolved and that Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement has
backtracked from plans to quit the UKIP grouping in the European
Parliament.
(Reuters, 1/10/17)
2017 Jan 10, Italian police
announced the arrest of a London-resident nuclear engineer and his
sister on suspicion of running a cyber snooping operation targeting
politicians, public bodies and companies. Media cited charge sheets
which identified them as Giulio Occhionero (45) and his sister
Francesca Maria Occhionero.
(AFP, 1/10/17)
2017 Jan 18, In Italy four
powerful earthquakes, magnitude 5.1-5.7, reverberated through the
Amatrice area still recovering from deadly tremors last year. More
than 130,000 homes were without electricity.
(AFP, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 18, In Italy the
four-star spa Hotel Rigopiano in the central Abruzzo region was
struck by an avalanche following earthquakes in the region. At least
30 people were missing, including at least two children. By Jan 21
rescuers found 11 survivors, but 24 people remained missing. By Jan
26 the final death toll reached 29 as all remaining bodies were
pulled from the rubble.
(AP, 1/19/17)(AFP, 1/20/17)(Reuters,
1/22/17)(SFC, 1/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 20, In northern Italy
a bus carrying Hungarian students home from a school ski trip to
France slammed into a highway barrier and burst into flames just
before midnight, killing at least 16 people. 39 others survived, but
some were seriously injured.
(AP, 1/21/17)
2017 Jan 23, Pope Francis
blasted the "money stained with blood" and "evil power" wielded by
Italian organized crime as he met the heads of the country's
anti-mafia squad.
(AFP, 1/23/17)
2017 Jan 24, In central Italy a
helicopter ferrying an injured skier off the slopes crashed into a
mountainside and killed all six people aboard in the Abruzzo area.
(AP, 1/24/17)
2017 Jan 25, Hundreds of
Italians whose homes were devastated in a series of deadly
earthquakes protested in Rome at the slow pace of government aid as
the death toll from the Jan 18 avalanche-hit hotel rose to 24.
(AFP, 1/25/17)
2017 Jan 30, Italian police
said they had dismantled a major people smuggling network
responsible for trafficking hundreds of people across Europe.
(AFP, 1/30/17)
2017 Jan 31, Italian police
arrested three citizens on suspicion of smuggling helicopters and
surface-to-air missiles into Libya and Iran between 2011 and 2015 in
violation of international embargoes.
(Reuters, 1/31/17)
2017 Jan 16, It was announced
the Italy’s Luxottica, a maker of fancy specs, will merge with
Essilor, a French producer of eye lenses.
(www.essilor.com/en/investors/essilor-and-luxottica/)(Econ, 1/21/17,
p.54)
2017 Feb 1, Italy launched a
new fund to help African countries control their borders, in the
latest of a slew of measures pushed by the European Union to stop
migrants reaching Europe.
(Reuters, 2/1/17)
2017 Feb 4, In Italy dozens of
the illegal fliers appeared mysteriously around Rome picturing a
stern-looking Pope Francis, a list of accusations against him, and
the words "Where's your mercy?".
(AFP, 2/6/17)
2017 Feb 5, Italy's premier
emphasized the significance of NATO and outlined a new agreement
between Italy and Libya to fight human trafficking during a phone
call with U.S. President Donald Trump.
(AP, 2/5/17)
2017 Feb 10, Italy adopted
measures to accelerate the asylum process, easing pressure on
shelters and speeding deportations of those whose appeals are
rejected.
(Reuters, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 11, Police in Sicily
confiscated four olive companies, farmland, villas and other
property that anti-Mafia prosecutors contend belong to the business
empire of Italy's top Mafia boss, who has been on the run for more
than 20 years.
(AP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 14, An Italian court
convicted a Moroccan-born man and his wife on charges of
international terrorism in connection with an Islamic State plot to
carry out attacks in Rome during the Holy Year in 2016. Abderrahim
Moutaharrik, and his wife, Salma Bencharki were sentenced to six
years and five years in jail, respectively.
(AP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 16, In Italy taxi
drivers in Rome, Milan and Turin staged wildcat strikes to protest
proposed legislation they say will favor Uber and other car-sharing
services.
(AP, 2/16/17)
2017 Feb 19, Italy's ex-prime
minister Matteo Renzi resigned as head of the center-left Democratic
Party (PD), triggering a leadership battle as the country's ruling
party grapples with the threat of a split.
(AFP, 2/19/17)
2017 Feb 20, A Portuguese court
ordered police to extradite former CIA agent Sabrina de Sousa to
Italy, where she is due to serve a four-year prison sentence. De
Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted for kidnapping suspect Osama
Moustafa Hassan Nas, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on
Feb. 17, 2003.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 21, Investigating
magistrates in Italy froze millions of euros worth of assets
belonging to prominent banker Giampietro Nattino, who they believe
used the Vatican bank and another Holy See financial department for
market manipulation.
(Reuters, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 21, Thousands of
Italian taxi drivers protesting legislation they say will favor Uber
clashed with riot police, intensifying a weeklong cab strike that
has crippled transportation in Rome, Milan and Turin.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 24, Italian police
said nearly 100 staff at the Loreto Mare hospital in Naples have
been questioned in connection with a widespread absenteeism scandal,
including a doctor who skived off to play tennis.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 28, The Italian
foreign ministry said in a statement that an inspection had found
"irregularities" in granting visas at its consulate in the Iraqi
city of Irbil and that the head of the visa section has been
replaced. Visa-seekers, including Syrians, Arab and Kurdish Iraqis,
had allegedly paid as much as 10,000 euros ($10,600) for visas
instead of the actual 90-euro ($96) fee.
(AP, 2/28/17)
2017 Mar 2, In Italy three
skiers were killed in an avalanche in the northern Alps. Another
five people were injured at Plan de la Gabba.
(AP, 3/2/17)
2017 Mar 2, In southern Italy
two African workers were killed late today after fire broke out at a
camp housing hundreds of migrants who pick fruit and vegetables near
Foggia.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)(AP, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 9, In Italy an
overpass collapsed onto the A14, the main Adriatic coast highway,
crushing a car and reportedly killing two people inside.
(AP, 3/9/17)
2017 Mar 10, Fugitive Italian
mobster Giulio Perrone, who had been living in Mexico under a false
identity, was jailed in Rome after being extradited from Mexico. He
had been tracked down by Italian police on Facebook.
(AFP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 11, Italian riot
police moved in to quell violent protests in Naples sparked by the
first major rally in the southern city by the anti-immigrant
Northern League leader.
(AP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 21, In Italy Don Luigi
Ciotti, an anti-mafia priest campaigner, kicked off a day of
national protest against organized crime, urging Italians to resist
the mob and denouncing recent threats against him as cowardly.
(AP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 22, In southern Italy
police in Calabria detained Santo Vottari (45), a fugitive
mobster, who authorities say is the boss of an 'ndrangheta crime
clan involved in a feud that culminated in a 2007 gangland-style
massacre in Germany.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 25, On the 60th
anniversary of the founding of the EU, 27 European leaders signed a
document in Rome enshrining a pledge to give member nations more
freedom to form partial alliances and set policy when unanimity is
out of reach.
(AP, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 25, In Italy a woman's
body was found stuffed in a suitcase that was floating at a marina
in the Adriatic port of Rimini.
(AP, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 28, A Gambian boy (16)
was rescued by a Spanish frigate after a rubber boat packed with 147
migrants sank in the Mediterranean shortly after leaving Libya a few
days earlier. The sole survivor was transferred to an Italian Coast
Guard ship. 140 others disembarked at a different port March 30 and
several identified the boy as having been on the same boat. Aid
groups said this reduced the death toll to five.
(Reuters, 3/29/17)(Reuters, 3/31/17)
2017 Mar 29, Italy's parliament
gave final approval to a law outlining comprehensive standards of
care for unaccompanied migrant children arriving in Italy, including
a strict prohibition of turning them away at the border.
(AP, 3/29/17)
2017 Mar 30, Italian police
arrested three Kosovans in the lagoon city of Venice after one was
caught on a phone intercept proposing they bomb the famed Rialto
bridge while others lauded the recent attack in London. A minor was
also detained.
(AP, 3/30/17)
2017 Apr 3, Italy-based
Menarini-Silicon Biosystems, Inc. announced it has completed the
agreement to purchase all the assets and relevant business related
to the CELLSEARCH® Circulating Tumor Cell System from Janssen
Diagnostics, LLC. The acquisition includes the CELLSEARCH®
Circulating Tumor Cell Test — the first and only clinically
validated blood test cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration
for detecting and enumerating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to help
manage patients with metastatic breast, prostate, and colorectal
cancers.
(http://tinyurl.com/yckqtdel)
2017 Apr 9, In Italy former
Mexican governor Tomas Yarrington was arrested for alleged
involvement in laundering drug money after a five-year manhunt. He
led the northern state of Tamaulipas from 1999-2005 and is being
sought by the United States for alleged drug money laundering.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 9, Italian Gabriele
Del Grande (34) was clapped in cuffs by Turkish police during
interviews with people who had fled Syria for a book he is writing
on the conflict and the birth of the Islamic State (IS) group.
Grande was released after two weeks and returned home on April 24.
(AFP, 4/19/17)(AP, 4/24/17)
2017 Apr 10, The new US
administration of Donald Trump scuppered efforts by the Group of
Seven (G7) industrialized countries in Rome to reach a common stance
on energy when it asked for more time to work out its policies on
climate change.
(Reuters, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 11, G7 industrialized
nations meeting in Rome urged Russia to pressure the Syrian
government to end the six-year civil war, but rejected a British
call to impose new sanctions on Moscow over its support of President
Bashar Assad.
(AP, 4/11/17)
2017 Apr 13, In Italy the
takeover of AC Milan was completed, with Silvio Berlusconi selling
the club to a Chinese consortium, after 31 years in charge. The deal
valued Milan at 740 million euros (about $800 million) and required
the investors, led by businessman Yonghong Li, to spend 350 million
euros ($372 million) over three years on improvements.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 15, In northern Italy
Emma Morano (117), the oldest person in the world, died at her home
in Verbania.
(SSFC, 4/16/17, p.A3)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.74)
2017 Apr 19, UNESCO awarded its
prestigious Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize to migrant rescue
association SOS Mediterranee and Lampedusa Mayor Giuseppina
Nicolini, whose tiny Italian island is on the frontline of the
refugee crisis.
(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 20, US Pres. Donald
Trump met with Italy’s PM Paolo Gentiloni for talks on trade and
security.
(SFC, 4/21/17, p.A5)
2017 Apr 21, Italy handed the
Libyan coast guard the first two of 10 boats to rescue migrants from
foundering smugglers' boats, as part of a strategy Rome hopes will
reduce the huge numbers of the rescued from reaching Italian shores.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 22, Veteran Italian
cyclist Michele Scarponi (37) was killed after colliding with a van
while out training on his bike, plunging the cycling world into
mourning.
(AFP, 4/22/17)
2017 Apr 24, In Italy some
two-thirds of Alitalia employees in a referendum nixed the
industrial plan the government had linked to the airline’s survival.
Alitalia has been losing 2 million euros ($2.2 million) daily and
faced bankruptcy.
(AP, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 30, Italians voted for
a new Democratic Party chief. The primary was expected to return
Matteo Renzi to its leadership.
(AP, 4/30/17)
2017 May 2, A prosecutor based
in Sicily told Italian senators his office has found no links or
contacts between migrant smugglers and humanitarian organizations
operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 3, Italian health
authorities announced they would recall up to 7,000 children in
northern Italy to be re-vaccinated after determining that some
children didn't receive the necessary doses. A nurse, identified by
authorities only as P.E., is accused of having botched thousands of
vaccinations from 2009-2015, intentionally or not.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 7, Two groups of
survivors told the Italian and Libyan coastguards that hundreds
drowned when their rubber boats began to deflate before rescuers
arrived. At least two boats sank over the weekend. As many as 245
migrants were feared to have died in the Mediterranean.
(Reuters, 5/8/17)(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 10, Italian police
said they have found indirect links between Islamic militants and a
Somali-run migrant trafficking and money transfer ring that was
busted in overnight raids in southern Italy.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 10, In Italy three
sisters, ages 4, 8 and 20, died after their camper burst into flames
as they slept, in what news reports said might have been an
intentional attack aimed at Roma, also known as Gypsies.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 12, In Italy G7
finance ministers began two days of talks on the global economy,
taxation and terrorist financing in the southern city of Bari.
Officials raised concerns about risks to global growth from the
Trump administration's policy proposals including tax reform.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 13, In Bari, Italy, G7
financial leaders pledged stronger cooperation against cyber-crime
and not to use foreign exchange to gain competitive advantage, but
stuck to their cautious wording on trade, their final communique
showed.
(Reuters, 5/13/17)
2017 May 15, Italian police
arrested 68 people, including a priest and the head of a Catholic
volunteer group called "Mercy," accusing them of being in cahoots
with a major mafia clan that skimmed millions in public funds
destined for one of Italy's biggest migrant welcome centers.
(AP, 5/15/17)
2017 May 18, In Italy Ismail
Hosni (20) stabbed a policeman and two army officers in Milan after
they asked to see his identity papers.
(Reuters, 5/19/17)
2017 May 19, Italy's government
declared a new law making a series of childhood vaccinations a
condition of school inscription in a move triggered by a spike in
measles cases.
(AFP, 5/19/17)
2017 May 20, Comic Beppe
Grillo, the head of Italy's populist 5-Star Movement, led thousands
in a 15-mile march to demand a guaranteed minimum income for
citizens.
(AP, 5/20/17)
2017 May 20, The Italian coast
guard said some 2,100 migrants have been rescued at sea to be
brought to safety in Italy over the last 24 hours. Some 5,000
migrants bound for Italy were rescued in waters off the coast of
Libya over the last 48 hours by Italian and Libyan coastguards.
(AP, 5/20/17)(AFP, 5/20/17)
2017 May 23, US Pres. Donald
Trump arrived in Rome following his Middle East visit.
(AP, 5/23/17)
2017 May 23, The US government
filed a civil lawsuit accusing Italy-American Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles NV of using software to bypass emission controls in
diesel vehicles.
(AP, 5/23/17)
2017 May 25, Italy's culture
minister promised to fight a court ruling that removed the directors
of five museums credited with helping boost revenues after years of
poor management. The administrative court for the Lazio region,
which surrounds Rome, had ruled that the evaluation process was
confused and opaque, and questioned the hiring of foreigners to some
of the posts.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 25, An Italian court
opened the way for a class action lawsuit against automaker
Volkswagen over its emissions scandal.
(AP, 5/25/17)
2017 Jun 1, The European
Commission said it had agreed to in principle to a bail-out by the
Italian government of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest
bank.
(Econ 6/10/17, p.74)
2017 Jun 6, Authorities in
Sicily said they have detained 15 people accused of running a
high-end migrant smuggling racket that planned to bring to Italy
even people sought by Tunisian authorities for alleged links to
jihadist groups.
(AP, 6/6/17)
2017 Jun 11, Italy held mayoral
elections in some 1,000 towns and small cities across the country.
The anti-establishment populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) suffered a big
setback after failing to make the runoff vote in almost all the big
cities being contested.
(AP, 6/11/17)(AFP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 11, In Italy G7
environment chiefs meet for potentially difficult talks 10 days
after Donald Trump sparked a rift with US partners by pulling out of
the Paris climate change accord.
(AFP, 6/11/17)
2017 Jun 12, In Italy a two-day
meeting of environment chiefs from the Group of Seven club of
industrialized democracies ended with the US again disassociating
itself from a statement underlining the importance of implementing
the 2015 Paris deal on curbing carbon emissions.
(AFP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 16, Italians and
tourists alike struggled to get around as a nationwide transport
strike forced the cancellation of Alitalia flights, the closure of
subway stations and the suspension of bus service.
(AP, 6/16/17)
2017 Jun 19, In Italy Carla
Fendi (79), one of the five sisters who transformed the family
leather goods business into a global luxury fashion house long known
for its furs, died following a long illness.
(AP, 6/20/17)
2017 Jun 23, The European
Central Bank declared that Italy’s Banca Popolare di Vicenza and
Veneto Banca were failing or likely to fail. Two days later the
Italian government pronounced them dead.
(Econ 7/1/17, p.61)
2017 Jun 25, People in more
than 100 Italian towns and cities voted to pick municipal mayors in
a run-off ballot. Center-right parties hammered their center-left
rivals in the mayoral elections, putting pressure on the ruling
Democratic Party (PD) ahead of a national vote due in less than a
year.
(Reuters, 6/25/17)( Reuters, 6/26/17)
2017 Jun 26, Three migrants
died off the Libyan coast this evening, during Italian-led rescue
operations in which thousands more were pulled to safety from
rickety boats.
(Reuters, 6/27/17)
2017 Jun 28, Former CIA agent
Sabrina de Sousa said she is returning to Italy this week to serve a
three-year sentence for taking part in the kidnapping of a Muslim
cleric in Milan 14 years ago.
(AP, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 28, A cyber-attack
wreaked havoc around the globe, crippling thousands of computers,
disrupting operations at ports from Mumbai to Los Angeles and
halting production at a chocolate factory in Australia. ESET, a
Slovakian company that sells products to shield computers from
viruses, said 80 percent of the infections detected among its global
customer base were in Ukraine, with Italy second hardest hit with
about 10 percent. The malware seemed to be a variant of past
campaigns, derived from code known as Eternal Blue believed to have
been developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
(Reuters, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 29, Italy's Premier
Paolo Gentiloni pressed his European Union allies to take in more
migrants, saying the relentless arrival of tens of thousands on
Italy's shores is putting his country under enormous strain.
(AP, 6/29/17)
2017 Jul 3, France, Germany and
the European Union pledged more money for Libya's coast guard and
more support for Italy to cope with a surge of migrant arrivals from
Africa.
(AP, 7/3/17)
2017 Jul 5, Italian Finance
Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said the government is taking control of
bank Monte dei Paschi under a relaunch plan agreed by European
officials that includes the disposal of a massive 28.6 billion euros
($32.5 billion) in bad loans.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, Italian authorities
arrested Eli Bombataliev (38) of Chechnya on terror charges. He was
accused of fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria and
participating in a deadly attack on foreign and Russian journalists
in Chechnya.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 7, Former Italian
prime minister Matteo Renzi, the head of the ruling Democratic
Party, said Italy should allow only a "fixed number" of migrants
into the country as it grapples with a wave of people arriving by
sea from North Africa.
(AFP, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 7, In Italy part of a
four-storey apartment block in Torre Annunziata, near the port city
of Naples, collapsed. Over the next 24 hours eight bodies were
pulled from the rubble.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 11, In Italy Chloe
Ayling (20) was reportedly abducted after coming to Milan for a
photo shoot, apparently a phony setup. She was drugged by her
abductor and held in a small town in the northwestern Piedmont
region. The suspect dropped her off near the British Consulate in
Milan on July 17. On July 18 Lukasz Pawel Herba, a Polish citizen
living in Britain, was arrested in the kidnapping of the British
model.
(AP, 8/5/17)(AP, 8/8/17)(SFC, 8/8/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 11, Iran Railways said
it has signed a preliminary agreement with Italy's state railway to
construct two high-speed links in Iran. Four memoranda of
understanding were signed worth some $1.36 billion.
(AP, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 20, In Italy a Rome
court convicted dozens of defendants in a wide-ranging corruption
trial that revealed a system of kickbacks and intimidation to gain
control of city contracts, but acquitted all of the defendants on
key charges of mafia-style association. Massimo Carminati (59) was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. His right-hand man and fellow
defendant Salvatore Buzzi (61) was handed a 19-year jail term.
(AP, 7/20/17)(AFP, 7/20/17)
2017 Jul 23, Vatican
authorities began to turn off some 100 fountains, including two
Baroque masterpieces in St. Peter's Square, due to a prolonged
drought affecting the tiny city state and the city of Rome which
surrounds it.
(Reuters, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 28, Italy approved
sending Italian naval ships to help the Libyan coast guard combat
migrant trafficking following a request by the North African nation.
(AP, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 28, Italy's parliament
gave final approval to a new program making a slate of childhood
vaccinations mandatory for school children up to age 16.
(AP, 7/28/17)
2017 Aug 2, The Italian
parliament gave the go-ahead to a naval mission aimed at boosting
the Libyan coastguard in its fight against human traffickers and
further reducing the number of migrant arrivals on Italy's coasts.
(AFP, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 2, Italian authorities
impounded a German NGO's migrant rescue boat on suspicion of
facilitating illegal immigration. The Iuventa was operated by the
Jugend Rettet organization.
(AFP, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 2, Qatar said it has
concluded a 5 billion euro deal with Italy for seven navy vessels,
part of a military cooperation agreement between the two countries.
(Reuters, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 5, In Italy Cardinal
Dionigi Tettamanzi (b.1934), once seen as a possible contender to
become pope, died. A prolific writer, Tettamanzi helped Pope John
Paul draft some of his encyclicals and was seen by some Vatican
watchers as a potential candidate to replace the Polish pontiff when
he died in 2005.
(Reuters, 8/5/17)
2017 Aug 9, In southern Italy
four men were shot dead in an apparent gangland killing. Mario
Luciano Romito, a well-known local crime boss, and his
brother-in-law Matteo De Palma were traveling together when a car
drew alongside and fired at them. Police said two other victims,
believed to be farmers, were targeted because they had witnessed the
attack in the Puglia region.
(Reuters, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 11, Police in
southeastern Italy arrested four suspects late today and seized
weapons to head off more gangland-style murders in a region popular
with vacation-goers where four people were killed.
(AP, 8/12/17)
2017 Aug 13, The Italian
government welcomed Libya's decision to bar foreign vessels from a
stretch of water off its coast. Libya's navy last week ordered
foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone"
for migrants headed for Europe, saying the measure was aimed at
non-governmental organizations it accuses of facilitating illegal
migration.
(AFP, 8/13/17)
2017 Aug 14, In Italy Maurizio
Diotallevi (62) confessed to authorities to killing his sister,
Nicoletta Diotallevi (59), whose hacked-off legs were accidentally
found in a Rome trash bin while her head and remaining body parts
were later discovered in a garbage container on another street.
(AP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 16, British police
arrested Michal Konrad Herba (36), the brother of Lukasz Pawel
Herba, a man accused of the recent abduction of British model Chloe
Ayling in Italy, following a request from the Italian authorities.
(AFP, 8/16/17)
2017 Aug 21, Italy’s health
ministry said two of 114 tested egg samples have shown traces of the
insecticide fipronil, making the country the latest to become
embroiled in a Europe-wide scandal.
(AFP, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 21, In Italy an
earthquake hit the tourist-packed holiday island of Ischia this
evening, killing two people, injuring dozens and trapping three
young brothers who survived for up to 16 hours before being rescued.
(Reuters, 8/22/17)
2017 Aug 24, In Italy migrants
in a Rome piazza threw rocks, bottles and gas cans at police in riot
gear who were using water jets to clear out about 100 mostly
Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum-seekers as part of a security
operation criticized by humanitarian groups.
(AP, 8/24/17)
2017 Aug 27, Five mountain
climbers died in the Austrian Alps in Wildgerlostal on Mount Gabler,
east of Innsbruck. Two Italian mountain climbers died after falling
into a crevasse in the Italian Alps. A day earlier Another Italian
climber died after being hit by boulders in the Valtellina Alpine
area.
(AP, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 28, The leaders of
France, Germany, Italy and Spain met in Paris with counterparts from
Libya, Niger and Chad to discuss ways to curb illegal migration
across the Mediterranean Sea to European shores.
(AP, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug, In Italy anonymous
hackers broke into the 5-Star's web platform, called "Rousseau"
after the 18th century Swiss-born philosopher, and obtained secret
data on its members and donors.
(Reuters, 10/5/17)
2017 Sep 1, In Italy Chinese
artist Ai Weiwei’s documentary "Human Flow," premiered at the Venice
Film Festival. He used the film to make viewers see both the scale
and the humanity of the migrant crisis.
(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 2, Italian news agency
ANSA said that about 800 Algerians had reached Sardinia aboard
smugglers' boats directly from their homeland so far this year. Gov.
Francesco Pigliaru has asked Italy's government to work with
Algerian authorities to stop the flow.
(AP, 9/2/17)
2017 Sep 3, In Italy Guerlin
Butungu (20), Congolese asylum-hopeful who was rescued at sea and
brought to Italy in 2015, was nabbed aboard a train by police as the
last of a gang of four young males suspected of raping a Polish
tourist on a beach, beating her companion unconscious and raping a
Peruvian woman barely an hour later in the resort town of Rimini.
Three others were arrested a day earlier.
(AP, 9/3/17)
2017 Sep 3, In Uruguay
Rocco Morabito (51), a top crime syndicate boss convicted of drug
trafficking and on the run from Italy since 1994, was arrested in
Montevideo. He was living in a luxury villa in a seaside resort town
under an alias and using a false Brazilian passport.
(AP, 9/4/17)
2017 Sep 8, In Italy
prosecutors in Florence were investigating allegations by two US
students that they were raped by Carabinieri policemen who escorted
them home in a patrol car from a nightclub. The women accused the
officers of raping them early Sep 7 in their apartment building.
(AP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 10, In Italy
torrential rain triggered flooding that killed at least six people
in the Tuscan port of Leghorn, including a family of four who were
trapped by rising water in a basement. Two persons were reported
missing.
(AP, 9/10/17)
2017 Sep 14, In Italy fans of
the old Latin Mass descended on Rome for their 10-year anniversary
pilgrimage. In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI passed a law allowing greater
use of the Latin Mass.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 23, Italy's
anti-establishment 5-Star movement picked lawmaker Luigi Di Maio
(31) to lead the movement.
(Reuters, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 26, Italian police
arrested the mayor of a city near Milan on corruption charges as
part of an investigation into the infiltration of the 'ndrangheta
organized crime clan of southern Italy in the north's business and
political establishment. Police issued 27 arrest warrants, many
accused in the 'ndrangheta's cocaine trafficking operations and
hailing from the mob's Calabrian hub in San Luca.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 29, A London judge
said Polish-born Michal Herba (36), a man accused of being part of a
July plot to kidnap a British model in Milan, should be extradited
to face charges in Italy. Herba is also the brother of the model's
alleged kidnapper.
(Reuters, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 1, Italian Foreign
Minister Angelino Alfano said North Korea's ambassador to Italy will
be expelled from the country in protest over Pyongyang's recent
nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Italy, however, would not sever
its diplomatic relations with North Korea because he said it was
useful to maintain a channel of communication.
(Reuters, 10/1/17)
2017 Oct 1, Qatar Airways said
it has completed the acquisition of a 49 percent stake in Italy's
AQA Holding, the new parent company of Italy's second largest
carrier Meridiana.
(AP, 10/1/17)
2017 Oct 4, Italian police said
they have seized 11 million euros ($13 million) in assets and
arrested 37 people, including two Carabinieri officers, accused in a
Sicilian Mafia extortion racket involving fruit, fish and drugs.
(AP, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 7, In Italy Anis
Hanachi (25) was arrested on an international warrant issued by
France while riding a bicycle in the center of the northern city of
Ferrara. He is believed responsible for radicalizing his elder
brother Ahmed Hanachi, who stabbed two women to death on Oct 1 in
Marseille.
(AP, 10/9/17)
2017 Oct 11, The Italian
government won the first of three confidence votes on a fiercely
contested electoral law that would allow the formation of
multi-party coalitions before the ballot, a factor likely to hurt
5-Star Movement.
(Reuters, 10/11/17)
2017 Oct 12, The Italian
government won the last of three confidence votes it had called on a
contested electoral law that is likely to penalize the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in next year's election.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 19, In Italy a Spanish
tourist (52) was struck and killed in one of the aisles at the
Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence.
(AP, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 20, Meeting in Italy
G7 countries and tech giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter
agreed to work together to block the dissemination of Islamist
extremism over the internet.
(AFP, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 20, Italian news
reports said a Moroccan father and three of his four children have
died in an apartment fire in the northern lakeside city of Como.
Fire crews found flammable material inside the apartment, suggesting
the blaze might have been set intentionally by someone there.
(AP, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 22, Voters in the
northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto voted in referendums
on autonomy.
(AP, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 23, Political leaders
in northern Italy claimed an overwhelming mandate to seek greater
autonomy from Rome after referendums backed the party's autonomy bid
by more than 95 percent in Lombardy and Veneto. In Lombardy less
than half of the electorate turned out. The votes were legal, but
not binding on Rome.
(AP, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 24, Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles (FCA) reported a 50 percent increase in third quarter
net earnings, with all markets contributing to growth even as sales
were flat globally.
(AP, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 26, Italy's upper
house Senate approved a new electoral system that is expected to
handicap the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement at a forthcoming
national election and favor mainstream political blocs. The bill has
already been approved by the lower house and now only needs a green
light from the head of state to become law.
(Reuters, 10/26/17)
2017 Oct 30, The leaders of
India and Italy held talks in New Delhi and signed a slew of
agreements that mark a thaw in their relations following the fatal
2012 shootings of two Indian fishermen by Italian marines who
mistook them for pirates.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct 30, Montenegro’s
defense minister said the Greek and Italian air forces will protect
the airspace over the newest NATO-member state. Montenegro joined
NATO in June as the military alliance's 29th member.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Nov 3, An Italian court
said police have seized 50 million euros worth of Tramadol tablets,
a synthetic opiate, destined to be sold by the Islamic State (IS)
group in Libya to raise funds for attacks.
(AFP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 3, Britain, Canada,
Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands issued a statement late today
critical of Egypt’s detention of Ibrahim Metwaly, who was helping
investigate the 2016 murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni.
Metwaly was taken by airport security in September while heading to
Geneva to attend a UN conference on enforced disappearances.
(Reuters, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 5, Sicilians cast
their ballots in a regional vote seen as a barometer for Italy's
general election next year, with the populist Five Star Movement
(M5S) challenging a resurgent right as a divided left flounders.
(AFP, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 6, In Italy G7 health
ministers meeting in Milan issued a joint statement that says
“climate and environmental-related factors can aggravate existing
health risks and create new threats”.
(AP, 11/6/17)
2017 Nov 10, The Italian
government said the country will phase out the use of coal for
national electricity needs by 2025 as part of developing a
sustainable and competitive energy strategy.
(AP, 11/10/17)
2017 Nov 14, The Italian
diocese of Como defended its decision to ordain a seminarian accused
in a book and an investigative TV report of having engaged in gay
sex with a fellow teenager while both studied at the Vatican's youth
seminary.
(AP, 11/14/17)
2017 Nov 16, Italy's former
prime minister Silvio Berlusconi won an appeal against paying his
ex-wife alimony, as a court told Veronica Lario to repay checks
totaling some 60 million euros ($70 million). Berlusconi had
insisted Lario was wealthy enough to support herself with her
portfolio of 16 million euros, family jewels and publishing house.
(AFP, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 17, In Italy Mafia
boss Salvatore "Toto" Riina (87) died in a hospital in Milan while
serving 26 life sentences as the mastermind of a bloody strategy to
assassinate Italian prosecutors and law enforcement trying to bring
down the Cosa Nostra.
(AP, 11/17/17)
2017 Nov 24, Italian police
launched a campaign to reduce the murder rate against women on the
eve of the UN-backed International Day for the Elimination of
Violence Against Women. Femicides now account for 37 percent of the
total compared to 24 percent a decade ago.
(AFP, 11/24/17)
2017 Dec 1, The Palestinians
accused the organizers of the Giro d'Italia cycle race of being
"complicit in Israel's military occupation" by starting the 2018
race from Jerusalem.
(AFP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 6, In Italy Mattia Del
Zotto (27) was arrested on suspicion he poisoned his entire family
with a chemical once used to kill rodents, leading to the deaths of
his grandparents and an aunt, and the hospitalization of five
others.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 8, Britain, France,
Germany, Sweden and Italy called on the United States to put forward
detailed proposals for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and
described as "unhelpful" a decision by President Donald Trump to
recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
(Reuters, 12/8/17)
2017 Dec 9, Italy's governing
Democrats led a rally in Como to warn about fascism making a
comeback in the nation that once suffered under fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini and which is now seeing a rash of right-wing
protests against migrants.
(AP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 9, Libya said it will
set up a joint commission with Italy in a bid to fight back against
people traffickers and tackle the problem of illegal migration
following talks in Tripoli between Italian Interior Minister Marco
Minniti and Libya's PM Fayez al-Sarraj.
(AFP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 14, Italian police in
Sicily searched the homes and businesses of known allies of mobster
Matteo Messina Denaro (55), looking for hidden bunkers where the
fugitive godfather may be hiding.
(AFP, 12/14/17)
2017 Dec 15, In Spain Norbert
Feher (36) of Serbia killed three people, including two Civil
Guards, who were investigating a Dec. 5 shooting that injured two
people in Teruel province. Feher was arrested the next day. Italy
had already issued a European arrest warrant for Feher for homicides
and home invasion robberies.
(AP, 12/15/17)
2017 Dec 17, The remains of
Victor Emmanuel III, who reigned as Italy's king through two world
wars and died in exile in 1947, were flown back from Egypt for
reburial at a family mausoleum near Turin.
(Reuters, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 19, Police in southern
Italy said they have arrested seven people on charges of trafficking
Nigerian women for prostitution.
(AP, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 20, In Italy the
current and former CEOs of oil giant Eni were ordered to face trial
on corruption charges for the alleged payment of bribes over the
$1.1 billion sale of one of Africa's richest oil blocks in Nigeria.
CEO Claudio Descalzi and his predecessor Paolo Scaroni were among 15
defendants who will face trial in Milan.
(AP, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 22, Italy organized a
first airlift of refugees from Libyan detention centers after coming
under international criticism for helping the Libyan coast guard
block migrants from leaving by boat.
(AP, 12/22/17)
2017 Dec 24, Italian PM Paolo
Gentiloni said he would propose to parliament transferring some of
the country's 1,400 troops stationed in Iraq to Niger to fight
people smuggling and terrorism.
(Reuters, 12/24/17)
2017 Ian Campbell authored “The
Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy’s National Shame.”
(Econ 7/22/17, p.66)