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 6, In southern Italy
Maria Chindoma (44), the mother of three small children,
disappeared. In 2020 an informant told investigators that the
businesswoman had refused to sell her land to the mafia and was
kidnapped, murdered and fed to pigs after her body was ground up in
a threshing machine.
(The Telegraph, 1/7/21)
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 (19) 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), who lived in an
encampment under a bridge near where Solomon was last seen, was soon
arrested and accused of pushing Solomon in the river after a fight.
(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/5/16)(AP, 5/8/18)
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 6, In Italy a British
woman (50) was subjected to multiple rapes in the Hotel
Alimuri in Sorrento. In 2018 arrest warrants were issued for
five workers at the hotel. Investigators had seized the cell phones
of male personnel at the hotel and discovered that the suspects had
chatted about the attack and exchanged photos taken of the woman
while she was being raped. The employees had slipped her a date rape
drug, filmed and took photos of the assault. Some were identified by
tattoos on their bodies. In 2019 the five men were sentenced to
prison terms of between four and nine years.
(The Telegraph, 12/15/19)(AP, 5/14/18)
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 Oct 6, In Italy a Kent
woman (50) was subjected to multiple rapes in the Hotel
Alimuri in Sorrento. In 2018 arrest warrants were issued for
five workers at the hotel. Investigators had seized the cell phones
of male personnel at the hotel and discovered that the suspects had
chatted about the attack and exchanged photos taken of the woman
while she was being raped. The employees had slipped her a date rape
drug, filmed and took photos of the assault. Some were identified by
tattoos on their bodies. In 2019 the five men were sentenced to
prison terms of between four and nine years.
(AP, 5/14/18)(The Telegraph, 12/15/19)
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 3, In Italy two women
died in a soccer stampede in Turin. In 2019 four young men were
convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to just over ten
years in prison for using irritating spray to trigger panic so that
they could steal wallets and phones from fans who had jammed a
public square to watch a soccer match.
(SFC, 5/18/19, p.A2)
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 13, In Italy Ahmed
Fdil (64) was burned alive in a car in the town of Zevio, south of
Verona. Police later identified a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old as
the prime suspects in the fiery killing of the homeless Moroccan
man.
(AP, 1/12/18)
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)
2018 Jan 3, In Italy
surveillance footage of a theft at the Doge's Palace in Venice
showed one of the thieves calmly opening a showcase window, putting
the jewels in his pocket and sauntering off. The Al Thani Collection
hasn't revealed the pieces' value, but news reports estimate they
are worth millions of euros.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 6, The Italian coast
guard said at least eight migrants died and 86 were rescued from a
smugglers' foundering rubber dinghy in the waters off Libya. An aid
group said dozens of migrants could still be missing. A Libyan navy
spokesman said at least 25 migrants had drowned. The boat had been
carrying 150 migrants with many of the dead vanishing beneath the
waves.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 6, Norway’s justice
minister said that Najmaddin Faraj Ahmad (aka Mullah Krekar), an
Iraqi-born cleric suspected of enticing recruits to fight in Iraq
and Syria, will be extradited if a court in Italy convicts him.
Italian prosecutors allege that Krekar is behind Rawti Shax, a
European network aimed at violently overthrowing the government in
the Kurdistan region of Iraq and replacing it with a radical
caliphate.
(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 9, In Germany and
Italy 169 people, including mayors, businessmen and local
administrators, were arrested in a large anti-mafia blitz against
clan members who controlled restaurants, garbage collection and
funeral services.
(Reuters, 1/9/18)
2018 Jan 18, Italy ordered the
arrest of 33 people on suspicion of running a Chinese mafia group
involved in gambling, prostitution, and drugs and which dominated
the transport of Chinese goods across Europe.
(Reuters, 1/18/18)
2018 Jan 25, In Italy at least
three people were killed and about 12 seriously injured after a
packed Italian commuter train derailed near the northern city of
Milan.
(AFP, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 31, In Italy the
dismembered body of Pamela Mastropietro (18) was found in two
suitcases near Macerata. The teenager had run away from a drug
rehabilitation center on Jan. 29 and met a Nigerian asylum seeker,
Innocent Oseghale, the next day. Witnesses said they had earlier
seen Oseghale with the suitcases.
(AP, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 3, In central Italy
Luca Traini (28) opened fire on African migrants in the city of
Macerata, injuring six people in the racially motivated attack
before he was captured.
(Reuters, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 6, Italian financial
police raided the offices of Massimo Mantovani, a member of the Eni
management and the group's former legal director. Fifteen people
were arrested ion suspicion of having "adjusted" lawsuits in favor
of energy giant Eni.
(AFP, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 9, Turkish warships
stopped a rig belonging to the Italian energy firm ENI as it headed
toward an area southeast of Cyprus.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 16, Italian police
clashed with hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators in Bologna who
were trying to disrupt a planned campaign appearance by the head of
the neo-fascist Forza Nuova.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 24, In Italy students
opposing a neo-fascist party scuffled with police in Milan at one of
at least a dozen rallies being held across the country on the last
weekend for political action before the March 4 national election.
(AP, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 26, An Arctic storm
dubbed the "Beast from the East" saw temperatures across much of
Europe fall to their lowest level this winter and even brought a
rare snowstorm to Rome, paralyzing the city and giving its residents
the chance to ski, sled and build snowmen in its famous parks and
piazzas.
(AP, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 27, Rome’s Mayor
Virginia Raggi announced plans to ban diesel cars from the center by
2024. Rome has no major industries, so nearly all of the air
pollution in the Italian capital is caused by motor vehicles.
(Reuters, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 2, Police in western
Germany arrested a leading member of the Italian mafia who is wanted
in his home country since 2013.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 4, Italy held national
elections. More than half of the electorate backed populist,
eurosceptic parties. Partial election results showed 5-Star emerged
as by far the biggest party with about 32 percent of the national
vote. The center-left coalition took less than 23% of the vote; the
center-right coalition took 37%.
(AP, 3/4/18)(AP, 3/5/18)(Reuters, 3/5/18)(SFC,
3/7/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 4, Nigeria-born Tony
Iwobi became Italy’s first black senator in the parliamentary vote.
Iwobi arrived in Italy with a visa in 1976, and joined the Northern
League 24 years ago.
(AP, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 4, The archdiocese of
Naples said it has sent the Vatican a 1,200-page dossier compiled by
a male escort identifying 40 actively gay priests and seminarians in
Italy.
(AP, 3/4/18)
2018 Mar 5, In Italy a man (66)
shot an African street vendor to death in Florence, one of Italy's
most popular tourist destinations. Police found a suicide note in
the suspect’s apartment and that checks on social media had shown he
had a passion for guns.
(Reuters, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 7, It was reported
that between 10,000 and 30,000 Nigerian prostitutes are estimated to
be walking Italian streets, often to pay off the debts they incurred
to get there.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 14, Italian police
said they have dismantled a macrobiotic "sect" that denied its
followers contact with the outside world. Authorities said that
followers in the central Marche and Emilia Romagna regions were
manipulated to follow a rigidly controlled diet known as "Ma.Pi."
and that the weight of one follower plunged to 35 kilos (77 pounds).
(AP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 19, Italian
authorities impounded a migrant rescue boat operated by a Spanish
non-governmental organization Proactiva Open Arms on suspicion it
was aiding illegal immigration.
(AFP, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 24, Italian lawmakers
elected the speakers of both chambers of parliament following an
inconclusive March 4 election. Forza Italia Sen. Maria Elisabetta
Alberti Casellati, a longtime Berlusconi ally, became the first
woman to be elected Senate president. The 5-Stars' Roberto Fico was
elected president of the lower Chamber of Deputies.
(AP, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 27, Police in southern
Italy detained Mohy Eldin Mostafa Omer Abdel Rahman (59), an
Egyptian imam, who ran a cultural center where he allegedly preached
extremist and violent interpretations of Islam to children.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 30, Russia ordered new
cuts to the number of British envoys in the country, escalating a
dispute with the West over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.
Scores of foreign ambassadors streamed into the Russian Foreign
Ministry in Moscow to receive the notices given to 23 nations:
Albania, Australia, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Romania, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.
(AP, 3/30/18)
2018 Apr 2, Israel announced it
had reached a deal with the UN refugee agency to cancel a
controversial plan to deport African migrants and replace it with a
new one that will see thousands sent to Western countries. PM
Benjamin Netanyahu said that Canada, Italy and Germany will take in
some of Israel's African migrants under an agreement Israel reached
with the UN refugee agency.
(AfP, 4/2/18)(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 8, Pope Francis told
worshippers in St Peter's Square that he hoped Roma Day could foster
greater understanding of Roma culture through the "goodwill of
getting to know one another" and "mutual respect". Matteo Salvini,
the leader of Italy's far-right League, urged them to "steal less".
(AFP, 4/8/18)
2018 Apr 10, Italian
authorities said they have arrested 13 suspects in a high-speed
migrant trafficking ring operating between Tunisia and Sicily whose
members espoused radical jihadist views.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Apr 19, Italian police
claimed progress in closing in on Italy's most-wanted Mafia
fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, arresting 21 suspected associates
in western Sicily, including family members to whom he had given
leadership roles in the clan.
(AP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 20, In Italy Alagie
Touray (21), an immigrant from Gambia, was arrested as he was
leaving a mosque in Licola, near the southern city of Naples, after
local authorities received a tip off from Spanish intelligence. He
was suspected of planning an attack on behalf of the Islamic State
(IS) militant group.
(Reuters, 4/26/18)
2018 Apr 23, The Italian city
of Turin announced that has moved to fill a legal loophole by
registering three babies born to gay parents who conceived abroad
via artificial insemination.
(AP, 4/23/18)
2018 May 2, In Rome Giacomo
Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto (74), the interim leader of
the Order of Malta, the world's oldest chivalric order, was elected
as Grand Master for life. The influential mission was founded in
Jerusalem and recognized by the pope in 1113.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 8, Lawyers said
Nigerian migrants, who survived a deadly sea crossing last year,
filed a lawsuit last week against Italy for violating their rights
by supporting Libya's efforts to return them to North Africa.
(Reuters, 5/8/18)
2018 May 10, Italian
anti-terrorism police dismantled a suspected international network
that smuggled migrants across Europe and then funneled some of the
proceeds to Islamist militants in Syria.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 11, An Italian
tribunal lifted a ban on veteran center-right leader Silvio
Berlusconi from holding public office, meaning he could run to be
prime minister in the next national election.
(Reuters, 5/12/18)(AP, 5/12/18)
2018 May 17, Leaders of Italy's
far-right League and the 5-Star Movement agreed the basis for a
governing accord that would slash taxes, ramp up welfare spending
and pose the biggest challenge to the EU since Britain voted to
leave the bloc two years ago.
(Reuters, 5/17/18)
2018 May 17, Italy's
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the far-right League planned
to halt the sale of Italy's insolvent national airline Alitalia.
(Reuters, 5/17/18)
2018 May 18, Italy's two
anti-establishment parties promised to ramp up spending in a program
for a new coalition government, putting them on a collision course
with the European Union despite having dropped some of their most
radical proposals.
(Reuters, 5/18/18)
2018 May 21, In Italy the
League and 5-Star coalition asked Pres. Sergio Mattarella to appoint
Giuseppe Conte (54) to lead their mooted administration. Instead of
endorsing their choice immediately, the head of state played for
time, seeking further consultations.
(Reuters, 5/22/18)
2018 May 24, Italy's foreign
minister proudly announced the return to Italy of a young Pakistani
woman (19) who was taken by her family to Pakistan to have an
abortion against her will after she got pregnant by her Italian
boyfriend.
(AP, 5/24/18)
2018 May 27, Italy remained
mired in a political stalemate over the president's rejection of
Paolo Savona (81), the finance minister proposed by the populist
coalition. Anti-establishment forces abandoned their efforts to form
a ruling coalition after a standoff with President Sergio
Mattarella, who vetoed their choice of a eurosceptic as economy
minister.
(AFP, 5/27/18)(Reuters, 5/28/18)
2018 May 28, Italy's Pres.
Sergio Mattarella set a path back to fresh elections, appointing a
former International Monetary Fund official as interim prime
minister with the task of planning for snap polls and passing the
next budget.
(Reuters, 5/28/18)
2018 May 29, Italy's political
turmoil sent a wave of concern through Europe's 19-country currency
union, with serious tremors hitting the country's government debt
market.
(AP, 5/29/18)
2018 May 30, Italy's political
crisis moved into unchartered waters, as the head of state sought a
last-minute political compromise to end the three-month search for a
government and restore calm to financial markets.
(Reuters, 5/30/18)
2018 May 31, In Italy the
populist Five Star Movement and League parties reached a new
coalition deal reviving their plans to take power with Giuseppe
Conte at the helm. The role of economy minister was given to
Giovanni Tria.
(AFP, 6/1/18)
2018 Jun 1, Italy's President
Sergio Mattarella presided over a ceremony in which 18 ministers —
five of them women — were taking the oath of office to officially
form a government coalition of the 5-Star Movement and the League
party after three months of political deadlock. Italy Paolo Savona,
who was rejected as the economy minister by the president due to his
hostility to the euro, was instead sworn in as European affairs
minister in the country's new populist government.
(AP, 6/1/18)(AFP, 6/1/18)
2018 Jun 1, In Italy Sergio
Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler, announced a big investment push to
make more electrified cars, while acknowledging that traditional
engines will continue to dominate production for some time.
(AP, 6/1/18)
2018 Jun 3, Angry protests
rocked cities across Jordan overnight against IMF-backed austerity
measures including a new income tax draft law and price hikes, hours
after the government and unions failed to reach an agreement to end
the standoff.
(AFP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 5, Italy's new PM
Giuseppe Conte promised to bring radical change to the country,
including more welfare and a crackdown on immigration.
(Reuters, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 6, Italian police said
five Romanians have been arrested in Sicily for allegedly exploiting
other Romanians as unpaid farmworkers and prostitutes.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 9, The SOS
Mediterranee's vessel Aquarius rescued 629 migrants from human
traffickers' boats in the Mediterranean Sea. Italy and Malta refused
to let the ship dock. On July 11 Spain's PM Pedro Sanchez offered to
let it port in Valencia.
(AP, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 11, In Italy Lukasz
Pawel Herba, a Polish man, was sentenced to 16 years and nine months
in prison for kidnapping British model Chloe Ayling in Milan last
July.
(Reuters, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 12, Italian news
agency ANSA said local police have arrested five suspects accused in
the theft last year of paintings by the masters Rubens and Renoir
valued at 26 million euros ($30 million.) The paintings were stolen
in April 2017 from two art dealers in Monza, outside Milan.
(AP, 6/12/18)
2018 Jun 13, In northern Italy
finance police searched a bank as part of an investigation into
possible money laundering by the far-right League party.
(Reuters, 6/13/18)
2018 Jun 13, Rome's
long-delayed plans to build a new stadium hit another major obstacle
when nine people were arrested for alleged corruption linked to
bureaucratic matters involving the venue.
(AP, 6/13/18)
2018 Jun 14, Italy's far-right
agriculture minister said his government would not ratify an
EU-Canada free trade deal, claiming it does not protect his
country's farmers. The 2016 accord, which has yet to be ratified,
eliminates 98 percent of tariffs between the EU and Canada.
(AFP, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 15, Italy's
family-owned Missoni fashion house announced that Italian investment
fund FSI will take a 41.2 percent stake in the firm to help expand
the business and help usher the house toward an eventual public
listing.
(AP, 6/15/18)
2018 Jun 15, French President
Emmanuel Macron met Italy's new Premier Giuseppe Conte in Paris to
try to patch up relations after sparks flew between the two
countries over Rome's rejection of a migrant rescue ship. Both
leaders agreed to pursue changes to EU migration rules.
(AFP, 6/15/18)(SFC, 6/16/18, p.A4)
2018 Jun 16, Italy's Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini warned another migrant rescue mission off
the Libyan coast that it would not be allowed to land its "human
cargo" at an Italian port.
(AFP, 6/16/18)
2018 Jun 27, Rome's city
authorities began clearing 450 people out of an official Roma camp
weeks after the new far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini,
said Italy's Roma should be counted and, if they are foreign,
expelled.
(Reuters, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 29, Italy's hardline
interior minister Matteo Salvini announced that Italian ports would
be closed "all summer" to NGO ships which rescue migrants trying to
cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe.
(AFP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jul 7, In southern Italy
Pope Francis led a summit of Christian leaders In Bari on how to
promote peace in the Middle East and said building walls, occupying
territories and religious fanaticism would not resolve conflict in
the region.
(Reuters, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 8, Italy's Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini said the new government wants to prevent
ships operating for "international missions" from bringing migrants
rescued off Libya to Italian ports.
(AFP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 12, Italian PM
Giuseppe Conte said he had made no promises to increase Italy's
defense spending after US President Donald Trump said he had won
pledges from NATO allies to boost military expenditure.
(Reuters, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 15, Germany said it
had agreed with Italy to take in 50 of the 450 migrants aboard two
EU border agency vessels, matching similar pledges by France and
Malta.
(AFP, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 16, In Sicily about
400 migrants aboard two border patrol ships disembarked at the
Pozzallo port after a half-dozen European countries promised to take
some of them in rather than leave Italy alone to process their
asylum claims.
(AP, 7/16/18)
2018 Jul 21, In Italy Sergio
Marchionne (66) stepped down following 14 years heading auto giant
Fiat owing to serious health problems believed to be life
threatening. Jeep executive Mike Manley was chosen to replace him.
(AP, 7/22/18)(SSFC, 7/22/18, p.A6)
2018 Jul 23, Italy's foreign
minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said Rome will allow migrants rescued
by a European Union naval operation to land over the coming weeks
while EU nations figure out how to divide up new arrivals.
(AP, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 25, In Switzerland
Sergio Marchionne (66) died after unexpected complications from
surgery in Zurich. The charismatic and demanding CEO had engineered
two long-shot corporate turnarounds to save carmakers Fiat and
Chrysler from near-certain failure.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 26, Foreign Minister
Enzo Moavero Milanese said Italian defense spending will come in at
just 1.15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and will
fall further in 2019, undercutting US efforts to boost military
budgets.
(Reuters, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 26, Police in Rome
cleared nearly 400 people, including dozens of children, from a
shanty camp inhabited for years by members of the minority Roma
community, despite a European Union court ruling halting demolition.
(AP, 7/26/18)
2018 Aug 3, In Italy an
artificial beach along the Tiber was officially was inaugurated. But
thunderstorms and uncompleted details kept Romans waiting until Aug.
3 for a full day of sunbathing and beach volleyball near Marconi
Bridge. The Tiber River was too polluted for swimming and rats are
often seen in the water.
(AP, 8/5/18)
2018 Aug 6, Italian lawmakers
approved 10 new patrol boats and two larger ships for the Libyan
coast guard, as part of measures by the populist government to
control migration.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 6, In northwestern
Italy a huge landslide swept away several cars along a well-traveled
road, killing a couple trapped inside one, in a scenic valley near
the town of Courmayeur.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 6, In northern Italy
two trucks collided on a motorway near Bologna airport, sending a
huge ball of fire and billows of black smoke soaring into the sky.
At least one person was killed and around 55 were injured.
(Reuters, 8/6/18)
2018 Aug 7, Italy's Senate
approved a decree curbing temporary job contracts and penalizing
firms that move production abroad, passing the first major
legislation by the new government.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 8, Italian police said
gangsters dropped 25-kilo (55-pound) weights on the limbs of drug
addicts, alcoholics and other indigents in an insurance fraud racket
that faked car accidents to obtain hundreds of thousands of euros in
claim payments. Police said 11 persons, including a nurse suspected
of procuring anesthetics, were arrested in the crackdown on two
Palermo-based criminal organizations.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 8, In southern Italy
hundreds of crop pickers and labor union activists marched from a
shanty town to protest what they say is the exploitation of migrant
farmworkers. 16 farmworkers were killed on Aug 4 and Aug 6 while
riding in vans that collided with trucks.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 9, Italian police said
they found 20 tons of hash worth as much as 200 million euros ($232
million) in the fuel tanks of a Panama-flagged ship that was stopped
in international waters and escorted to Sicily. Italian finance
police seized the vessel in international waters on July 31 and
escorted it to Palermo. There the fuel tanks were drained and the
hash was discovered wrapped in sealed brown bags.
(Reuters, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 14, In Italy at least
39 people were killed by the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in the
port city of Genoa. Authorities later lowered the confirmed death
toll to 38 from 39. On August 18 the death toll rose unofficially to
42 with the discovery of four more bodies. The death toll was later
put at 43.
(Reuters, 8/14/18)(AP, 8/15/18)(AP, 8/16/18)(AP,
8/18/18)(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A3)
2018 Aug 19, In Italy the
search operation for those missing after the Morandi bridge
collapsed in the port city of Genoa ended overnight after the last
three bodies were found, bringing the official death toll to 43.
(Reuters, 8/19/18)
2018 Aug 20, In Italy sudden
heavy rain created a wall of water downstream from a gorge that
swept away tourists in the southern region of Calabria, killing at
least 10 people.
(Reuters, 8/21/18)
2018 Aug 24, Many of the 150
migrants stranded aboard a coast guard ship for a ninth day began a
hunger strike out of frustration that Italy won't let them disembark
in Sicily unless fellow European Union nations first pledge to take
them.
(AP, 8/24/18)
2018 Aug 25, Italy allowed 16
of the 150 migrants stranded on board a coastguard ship at a Sicily
port to disembark, as government officials face questioning over the
refusal to let all passengers off.
(AP, 8/25/18)
2018 Aug 28, Hungarian PM
Viktor Orban and Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini
launched an anti-migration manifesto, namechecking French Pres.
Emmanuel Macron as their adversary. Macron has blasted Italy and
Hungary for maintaining an uncompromising stance on migrants while
readily accepting EU development funding.
(AFP, 8/29/18)
2018 Sep 4, Italy's Transport
Minister Danilo Toninelli said the government will draw up new rules
for the concession of the nation's motorways, obliging the company
running the toll highways to reinvest most of their profits in
renovating the network. Toninelli reiterated that the cabinet was
determined to revoke concessions held by Autostrade per l'Italia to
operate toll highways after a bridge it managed collapsed last month
in Genoa.
(Reuters, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 6, An Italian judicial
source said prosecutors have placed under investigation the top
executives of Autostrade, the firm operating a bridge that collapsed
last month killing 43 people.
(Reuters, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, Starbucks opened
its first Italian café in Milan.
(SSFC, 9/9/18, p.D2)
2018 Sep 10, Italian
authorities unveiled the "epochal" discovery of hundreds of
Roman-era gold coins that were found last week during excavations to
build a new apartment building in the northern city of Como. Some
300 coins were believed to date from 474 B.C.
(AP, 9/10/18)
2018 Sep 10, In Geneva new UN
human rights chief Michelle Bachelet criticized the Italian
government for refusing entry to migrant rescue ships in the
Mediterranean operated by private charities. Hours later Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads Italy's anti-immigrant League
party, threatened to cut Italian funding for the UN.
(Reuters, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 18, Italian
prosecutors said the far-right League can repay some 45 million
euros ($53 million) it owes the state over the next 75 years, saving
the governing party from possible bankruptcy.
(Reuters, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 23, Panama's maritime
authority said it has begun procedures to remove the registration of
Aquarius 2 after Italy complained the boat's captain failed to
follow orders to return rescued migrants to Libya. Humanitarian
groups described Panama's move as shameful.
(AP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 24, Italy tightened
criteria for migrants receiving humanitarian protection as its
populist government deepened its crackdown on those seeking asylum.
(AP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 25, It was reported
that NY-based Michael Kors is buying the Italian fashion house
Gianni Versace in a deal worth more than $2 billion.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 28, The European Union
issued a stern warning to Italy's populist leaders following their
defiant pledge for increased spending and a sizeable budget deficit
that risks putting Rome on a collision course with Brussels.
(AFP, 9/28/18)
2018 Oct 1, Italian coffee
company Lavazza Group said it has acquired Virginia-based Mars
Inc.'s beverage division in an effort to expand its North American
presence.
(AP, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 2, Italy's leaders
refused to budge from new spending plans that have been spooking
investors, pushing the eurozone's third-largest economy on a
collision course with its EU partners.
(AP, 10/2/18)
2018 Oct 11, Italian PM
Giuseppe Conte visited Ethiopia. He was expected to discuss
migration, a sensitive topic in Italy, as well as investment
opportunities in Ethiopia.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 12, Italy's PM
Giuseppe Conte made a rare visit to Eritrea to support its
surprising new peace with neighboring Ethiopia as the international
community waits to see what happens next in one of the world's most
closed-off nations.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Students across
Italy demonstrated against the government's education funding plans,
in the first widespread show of dissidence against the new populist
government.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, A French police
van was seen driving into Italy to return recently-arrived migrants
to the town of Calviere. French authorities later admitted to
returning migrants to Italy in "error".
(AFP, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 13, In Italy women's
rights groups marched in protest in the northern city of Verona,
after the local council passed a motion to fund Catholic
anti-abortion groups.
(AFP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 14, Italy's Deputy
Prime Minister Matteo Salvini defended his decision to move hundreds
of migrants out of Riace, a southern Italian town widely seen as a
model of successful integration, as opposition groups accused him of
racism.
(Reuters, 10/14/18)
2018 Oct 15, Italy's cabinet
signed off on a draft budget that will hike the deficit at a time
when under EU regulations it should be falling, as well as boosting
welfare spending and cutting the retirement age.
(Reuters, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 18, Italy's PM
Giuseppe Conte defended the country's "beautiful" 2019 budget,
brushing off criticism of it from Brussels as European authorities
stepped up pressure for changes to a draft that breaches the bloc's
fiscal rules.
(Reuters, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 20, The leaders of
Italy's ruling coalition parties met to patch up a row over a
disputed tax amnesty which has threatened to undermine the
anti-establishment government.
(Reuters, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 22, Italy's populist
government responded to EU criticism of its budget with a vow to
stick to its public spending hike while scrupulously keeping to its
own deficit limits.
(AFP, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 23, The European
Commission rejected Italy's proposed budget — the first time it has
ever done so with a member state.
(AP, 10/23/18)
2018 Oct 24, Russian President
Vladimir Putin met with Italian PM Giuseppe Conte in Moscow. They
vowed to expand economic ties between their two countries despite
European Union sanctions against Russia.
(AP, 10/24/18)
2018 Oct 25, Italian
authorities said 3 suspects, two Senegalese citizens and one
Nigerian, were being held on suspicion of murder, group sexual
assault and handing out drugs in the death late last week of
16-year-old Desiree Mariottini.
(AP, 10/25/18)
2018 Oct 26, In Italy travelers
and commuters faced delays as several national trade unions staged a
24-hour strike, disrupting transport services as well as some public
schools.
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 27, In Italy thousands
of protesters rallied in the center of Rome over the capital's
decrepit infrastructure, as the legal woes of its mayor whetted
political appetites on the far right. Demonstrators said Virginia
Raggi, the city's first female mayor, was responsible for Rome's
pitiful transport service and woeful garbage collection.
(AFP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 28, In Italy former
party sympathizers set fire to the 5-Star flag in the southern town
of Melendugno to protest at the government's decision to endorse the
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will bring Azeri gas into Italy
via their coastline.
(Reuters, 10/29/18)
2018 Oct 30, In Italy the death
toll from fierce storms battering the country rose to at least 11,
as wild weather swept parts of Europe, leaving motorists and
tourists stranded. In Venice winds drove the high tide to more than
61 inches above average sea level, one of the highest levels ever
recorded.
(AFP, 10/30/18)(SFC, 10/31/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 31, Italian news
agency ANSA reported that prosecutors were focusing on whether the
remains found in an annex of the Holy See's embassy in Rome could be
linked either to Mirella Gregori, or to Emanuela Orlandi, two
15-year-old girls who went missing in 1983.
(AP, 10/31/18)
2018 Nov 1, In northern Italy
trees covering the mountainsides in the Dolomites range were reduced
to matchsticks, flattened by winds that tore through the Veneto
region as storms killed five people. The fatalities brought to 18
the number of people killed by bad weather in Italy since the start
of the week.
(AFP, 11/2/18)
2018 Nov 4, Rescuers said
floods killed 12 people on the island of Sicily, including nine
members of a single family, pushing Italy's week-long storm toll
beyond 30.
(AFP, 11/4/18)
2018 Nov 5, In Italy a
knife-wielding man held hostages in a northern post office, days
after receiving a 19-year jail term for a Mafia conviction.
Francesco Amato is one of 125 defendants convicted last week in
nearby Reggio Emilia in a trial about infiltration by the
'ndrangheta, a southern Italy-based organized crime group, into
businesses in the affluent Reggio Emilia region.
(AP, 11/5/18)
2018 Nov 6, Italy said it will
help Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, leave her country
because her life is in danger following charges of blasphemy against
Islam that put her on death row for eight years.
(Reuters, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 10, Rome's embattled
Mayor Virginia Raggi was found not guilty of a charge of lying over
a City Hall appointment, ending a months-long trial that had
threatened her political career.
(AP, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 10, North Korean
diplomat Jo Song Gil, disappeared with his wife after leaving the
North Korea's embassy in Italy without notice. On Jan. 3, 2019, it
was reported that he had applied for asylum to an unspecified
Western country and was in a "safe place" with his family under the
protection of the Italian government.
(AP, 1/3/19)(Reuters, 2/20/19)
2018 Nov 11, Italy's PM
Giuseppe Conte visited the Libyan city of Benghazi to meet military
strongman Khalifa Haftar ahead of talks aimed at stabilizing the
war-torn North African country.
(AFP, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 13, Italy's leaders
sought to affirm their commitment to a free press after journalists
protested against insults from prominent figures in the governing
5-Star Movement.
(SFC, 11/14/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 13, The International
Monetary Fund warned the Italian government that its plan to sharply
increase spending carries "substantial" risks and would leave the
country vulnerable to market turmoil.
(AP, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 14, Italian borrowing
costs nudged higher after the populist government resubmitted draft
budget proposals without the significant changes sought by the
European Commission.
(AP, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 15, Cardinal Gualtiero
Bassetti, president of the Italian bishops' conference, said that a
national advisory group of lay and religious experts is being
created to help dioceses educate personnel about protecting children
and to help bishops investigate abuse reports.
(AP, 11/15/18)
2018 Nov 15, In Italy a nurse
(48) reportedly killed her two young children, a boy of 7 and a girl
of 9, by lethal injection, then took her own life in the
northwestern mountain town of Aymavilles. The woman left notes
saying she couldn't bear the "weight of life's adversities".
(AP, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 17, Italy's coast
guard said it is searching for eight Algerian migrants who
apparently tried to swim to shore on Nov. 15 when the motor of their
boat failed off Sardinia's southwest coast. Two bodies were already
recovered.
(AP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 20, Italian
prosecutors said they have ordered the seizure of the Aquarius, a
migrant rescue ship, and accused the aid group Doctors Without
Borders of illegally disposing of 24 metric tons (26.5 tons) of
medical and contaminated waste accumulated during nearly 50 rescues.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Rome city
officials sent in 600 police officers to evict a purported crime
family from eight villas that were allegedly built without
authorization decades ago. Mayor Virginia Raggi accused the
Casamonicas of replacing public authorities in the area and of
"terrorizing" honest Romans.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The MUDEC museum
in Milan said it is hosting the first exhibit of street-artist
Banksy's works in an Italian public museum, just weeks after the
artist grabbed international attention by partially shredding one of
his works at a London auction. The exhibition will open to visitors
Nov. 21, 2018 through to April 14, 2019.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Kenya gunmen
kidnapped Silvia Costanza Romano (23) and shot and wounded four
people in Chakama, a small town south of the border with Somalia.
Romano was working as a volunteer with an Italian humanitarian group
when she was abducted. On Dec. 9 a suspect, identified as
Ibrahim Adan Omar, was arrested in Bangali town in Tana county.
Abductors eventually passed her into the hands of militants linked
to Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamic extremists. On May 10, 2020, she
returned home after 18 months as a hostage.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)(AP, 11/22/18)(AP,
12/11/18)(AP, 5/10/20)
2018 Nov 21, The Italian luxury
fashion house Dolce&Gabbana apologized for insulting remarks
about China it allegedly made in exchanges on Instagram but claimed
its accounts had been hacked.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 21, The European
Commission officially rejected Italy's big-spending budget, clearing
the path for unprecedented sanctions and deepening a bitter row with
Rome's populist government.
(AFP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 21, Italian
authorities arrested Issam Elsayed Abouelayem Shalabi (22), an
Egyptian man accused of supporting the Islamic State and planning go
to fight himself, saying he used social media chats to spread
jihadist propaganda.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 22, In China
Dolce&Gabbana goods disappeared from Chinese e-commerce sites as
the fallout grew over remarks insulting to China that were
apparently made by two of its Instagram accounts.
(AP, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 23, The co-founders of
Dolce&Gabbana apologized in a video on Chinese social media
after promotional videos seen as racist and subsequent Instagram
messages stoked a furor in one of the world's largest markets for
luxury goods.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 23, A judicial source
said human bones found at the Vatican's embassy in Rome belong to a
male who died more than 50 years ago, dispelling speculation they
might solve one of Italy's most enduring mysteries: the 1980s
vanishing of two teenage girls.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 26, Italian police
said they have detained five Egyptians accused of smuggling a
boatload of 264 migrants from Libya to Sicily.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 26, Italian filmmaker
Bernardo Bertolucci (b.1941), one of cinema's most talented
directors, died of cancer at his home in Rome.
(AFP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 30, Italy's national
anti-Mafia prosecutor, Federico Cafiero de Raho, said police have
arrested 30 suspected mobsters in a sweep against the Foggia
mafiosi, the country's so-called "fourth Mafia".
(AP, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 4, It was reported
that Italy's health minister Giulia Grillo has removed 30 doctors
and scientists from the ministry's public health advisory committee
as part of the "government of change" promised by the 5-Star
Movement and League, which opposes the previous Democratic Party-led
government's move to increase the number of mandatory vaccinations
to 10.
(AP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 4, Italian police
arrested new Mafia boss Settimino Mineo and dozens of other suspects
in a major swoop against a resurgent Cosa Nostra.
(AFP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, Police arrested
dozens of suspected mobsters in Europe and South America in dubbed
"Operation Pollina," a huge international swoop targeting Italy's
notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia clan. Police seized four tons of
cocaine, 120 kilos of ecstasy and two million euros (dollars) in
cash across Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and
Suriname.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Italy was informed
by North Korea that acting ambassador Jo Song Gil and his wife had
left the North Korean embassy in Rome on Nov. 10 and that their
daughter (17) had been repatriated on Nov. 14.
(Reuters, 2/20/19)
2018 Dec 8, Italian Deputy PM
Matteo Salvini filled one of Rome's main squares with tens of
thousands of flag-waving supporters in a rally that underscored the
growing predominance of his rightist League party.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 8, In Italy six
people, including five young teenagers, were crushed to death early
today following a stampede when a walkway leading out of the
Lanterna Azzurra nightclub in the town of Corinaldo collapsed.
Witnesses reported seeing a hooded man spray a substance like pepper
spray or tear gas into the crowd, triggering a panicked rush to the
emergency exits.
(AP, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 11, Italian Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini, arrived in Israel for a two-day visit that
has prompted criticism over his far-right policies and
anti-migration views.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 11, Rome's
longstanding garbage problems turned into an emergency after a huge
fire at the Salaria waste disposal plant blanketed the Eternal City
in smoke and forced authorities to scramble to find alternative
facilities to treat the capital's trash.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 12, Italy's PM
Giuseppe Conte told the European Commission he was lowering next
year's target to 2.04 percent of gross domestic product from 2.4
percent to avoid disciplinary action by Brussels.
(Reuters, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 12, Eight European
Union nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland,
Sweden and the United Kingdom) underlined their commitment to the
Iran nuclear deal while urging Tehran to stop its "destabilizing
regional activities" especially the launch of ballistic missiles.
(AP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 13, In Brazil Justice
Luiz Fux ordered the arrest of Cesare Battisti, an Italian communist
militant convicted of murder in his home country. The president
would have the final word over his extradition to Italy. Battisti
escaped from an Italian prison in 1981 while awaiting trial on four
counts of murder allegedly committed when he was a member of the
Armed Proletarians for Communism.
(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 17, The Vatican's
criminal tribunal convicted Italian builder Angelo Proietti of using
his accounts in the Vatican bank to launder money, and sentenced him
to 2½ years in prison. The decision was announced on Dec. 27. This
marked the first time the Vatican court had handed down a
money-laundering verdict since the city state criminalized the
offense in 2010 as part of its financial reform efforts.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 19, Italian PM
Giuseppe Conte heralded a budget deal with the European Commission,
saying the long-awaited accord allowed his government to honor its
main commitments and boost the economy.
(Reuters, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 19, It was reported
that Nepal's government has stopped eight Italian contractors from
leaving the Himalayan country in an effort to complete a critical
but much delayed water supply project for the capital.
(AP, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 20, In Italy police in
Rome searched the Tiber River for twin 6-month-old sisters after
recovering the body of their mother.
(AP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 21, Europol said that
police in Spain, Italy and Argentina took part in an operation that
broke up an international cocaine-trafficking gang. Almost 50
suspects were arrested.
(AP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 22, Italy's far-right
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Italian ports were closed to
hundreds of migrants rescued off Libya after a mother and newborn
baby were evacuated to Malta. A day earlier Proactiva Open Arms
rescued more than 300 migrants from three vessels in difficulty.
(AFP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 22, The Vatican
announced that Pope Francis has given the homeless of Rome a
Christmas gift of a new clinic in St. Peter's Square where they can
get free medical help.
(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 23, The Italian Senate
approved a national budget law early today that was tweaked after
the European Union objected to plans by Italy's populist government
to satisfy expensive campaign promises with a large deficit.
(AP, 12/23/18)
2018 Dec 25, In northwest Italy
two 57-year-old French tourists were found dead of carbon monoxide
poisoning in a two-room house in Monterosso Grana, a small mountain
town near Cuneo.
(AP, 12/25/18)
2018 Dec 25, In Italy Marcello
Bruzzese (51), the brother of a turncoat from an 'ndrangheta crime
clan family, was gunned down by two masked attackers near his home
in the Adriatic beach town of Pesaro.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 29, In Italy the city
officials of Venice passed a budget bill that will allow charging
all visitors to the city a new tax to help cover the costs of
keeping the tourist-thronged historic city clean and safe.
(AFP, 12/31/18)
2018 Dec 31, Italy's ruling
5-Star Movement expelled four parliamentarians from the party in an
effort to instill discipline in its ranks. The decision means the
ruling coalition, made up of 5-Star and the League, has just 167
seats in the 320-seat Senate.
(Reuters, 12/31/18)
2019 Jan 2, In Italy temporary
administrators were appointed to lead the country's 10th largest
lender, the struggling Carige, as part of a plan to avoid yet
another bank bailout.
(AP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 3, Italy's deputy PM
Matteo Salvini demanded the resignations of the rebellious leaders
of Florence, Palermo and Naples for refusing to obey a controversial
anti-immigration law.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 7, The two leaders of
Italy's ruling populist coalition threw their support behind the
"yellow vest" protesters roiling neighboring France.
(AFP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 7, Italy's populist
government stepped in to help guarantee struggling Banca Carige SpA,
bending to pressure despite the ruling 5-Star Movement's longtime
anti-bank bailout rhetoric.
(AP, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 9, Italy's far-right
Deputy PM Matteo Salvini, at a press conference in Warsaw, said he
wants his country and Poland to join forces to reshape Europe in his
quest for a euroskeptic alliance ahead of elections in May.
(Reuters, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 9, Forty-nine migrants
disembarked in Malta after spending more than two weeks stranded on
board rescue ships, ending a standoff in which European Union
countries had refused to offer them a safe port. An agreement
brokered by the European Commission calls for a total of some 300
migrants who have reached Malta in recent weeks to be redistributed
between eight EU countries, including Italy.
(Reuters, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 11, An Italian court
cleared the head of the Autostrade motorway operator of
responsibility in the deaths of 40 people in a July 28, 2013, coach
crash. Several others were jailed.
(AP, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 13, Italian officials
said former leftist guerrilla Cesare Battisti (64), on the run for
almost four decades after escaping prison following a murder
conviction, has been arrested in Bolivia and is expected to be
extradited to Italy.
(Reuters, 1/13/19)
2019 Jan 14, Former communist
militant Cesare Battisti, wanted in Italy for four murders in the
1970s, arrived in Rome after an international police squad tracked
him down and arrested him in Bolivia.
(AFP, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 15, Italian police
seized 644 kg of cocaine worth some 130 million euros ($148 million)
hidden in bags of Honduran coffee at the port of Livorno. This was
one of the largest drug hauls in Italy in recent years.
(AP, 1/30/19)(AP, 1/31/19)
2019 Jan 18, An Italian navy
helicopter plucked three survivors from a life raft after a rubber
dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya. Up to 117
migrants were believed to have died.
(AP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 22, In Italy
anti-mafia police said they had dealt a fresh blow to the Cosa
Nostra, arresting seven suspected rising-star mobsters after two of
the organized crime group turned state witnesses.
(AFP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 23, Italian
investigators in Genoa found 2.1 tons of Barcelona-bound pure
cocaine dispatched from Colombia's Turbo port. The drug, divided
into 1,801 blocks, traveled in a container that had been declared as
empty. Spanish police later arrested the alleged recipient of the
shipment in Barcelona with the help of Italian authorities in a
sting operation.
(AP, 1/31/19)
2019 Jan 24, Europe's top
rights court ordered Italy to pay thousands of euros in damages to
Amanda Knox, the American student acquitted in 2015 of the gruesome
killing of her British housemate after spending years behind bars.
(AFP, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 25, In the Italian
Alps a French flight instructor was one of two survivors in a midair
collision between a small tourist plane and a helicopter over the
Rutor glacier. The death toll from the deadly collision soon rose to
seven.
(AP, 1/26/19)(AFP, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 27, The state-owned
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. said it has signed agreements worth $5.8
billion with Italy's Eni and Austria's OMV for a share in the firm's
refining unit and for the creation of a new trading venture.
(AP, 1/27/19)
2019 Jan 28, The Netherlands
refused an Italian request to take in 47 migrants on a humanitarian
ship that is being blocked from Italian ports, saying there was a
need to distinguish between genuine refugees and economic migrants.
(Reuters, 1/28/19)
2019 Jan 30, Italy's PM
Giuseppe Conte said that 47 rescued migrants aboard the Sea Watch
NGO vessel could finally disembark after Italy and six other
countries (France, Germany, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Luxembourg)
agreed to take them in.
(AFP, 1/30/19)
2019 Jan 31, Italy's national
statistics agency said its economy, the third-largest in the
eurozone, contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.2 percent in the
fourth quarter of 2018. Following a 0.1 percent drop in the previous
three-month period that means Italy is in a technical recession.
(AP, 1/31/19)
2019 Feb 1, TIPH (Temporary
International Presence in Hebron) countries Switzerland, Sweden,
Norway, Italy and Turkey, condemned in a joint statement the Israeli
government's unilateral decision not to extend the observer force's
mission in the flashpoint city.
(AP, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 3, Four skiers went
missing in the Italian Alps. Their bodies were found the next day.
Two other Italian skiers were killed by avalanches, one in the Valle
d'Aosta region, the other in the Alto Adige (South Tyrol) region.
(AP, 2/4/19)
2019 Feb 4, Italy blocked a
joint European Union position to recognize Venezuela's National
Assembly head Juan Guaido as interim president.
(AP, 2/4/19)
2019 Feb 7, France's foreign
ministry recalled its ambassador to Rome for consultations over a
series of comments from Italy's deputy prime ministers, Luigi Di
Maio and Matteo Salvini. Salvini and De Maio have angered Macron in
particular by publicly supporting the "yellow vest" protesters who
have taken to the streets to denounce high living costs and a
perceived indifference by the government to rural and small-town
France.
(AFP, 2/7/19)
2019 Feb 8, In Italy engineers
started the delicate task of taking apart Genoa's Morandi motorway
bridge almost six months after its partial collapse during a storm
killed 43 people and injured dozens.
(AFP, 2/8/19)
2019 Feb 9, In Italy hundreds
of thousands of people demonstrated in Rome led by unions demanding
pro-growth policies from the populist government, the biggest such
protest in four years.
(AFP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 12, On the Italian
island of Sardinia shepherds were joined by
students on their fifth straight day of protests in a march in
Nuoro, where shopkeepers shut stores in solidarity. The shepherds
poured milk from large canisters onto streets to protest prices paid
by cheesemakers for their milk.
(AP, 2/12/19)
2019 Feb 14, Italian police in
Calabria nabbed fugitive kingpin cocaine dealer Francesco Strangio.
He hails from a feuding crime clan involved in the 2007 trattoria
massacre in Germany. Strangio had been on the run since a January
2018 conviction, carrying a 14-year prison term, for international
drug trafficking.
(AP, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 23, Strong winds
toppled trees and walls in Italy, causing at least three deaths and
forcing a cargo ship to run aground. Gale-force winds swept across
Croatia's Adriatic coast, damaging cars, shattering windows and
disrupting traffic.
(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Feb 25, In Italy Gianni
Alemanno, a former mayor of Rome (2008-2013), was sentenced to six
years in prison for his part in the infiltration of organized crime
into the capital. He immediately vowed to appeal.
(AP, 2/25/19)
2019 Feb 27, The EU expressed
concern about Italy's debt levels and warned the government in Rome
to push through measures to shore up the public finances.
(AP, 2/27/19)
2019 Mar 1, In Italy
Moroccan-born Imane Fadil (33), a former model and witness at Silvio
Berlusconi's sex trial, died at one of the city's hospitals. On
March 16 a newspaper suggested she may have been poisoned with a
radioactive substance.
(AFP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 2, In Italy tens of
thousands of people have marched in Milan against policies by the
populist government that they say promote racism.
(AP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 3, Members of Italy's
Democratic Party voted for a new leader in hope of reversing their
party's slumping popularity.
(AP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 5, Italian energy
company Eni said a crane toppled from a methane gas extraction
platform, plunging into the Adriatic Sea and killing the crane's
operator (63).
(AP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, In Italy a proposal
to use 15 million euros in Saudi Arabian government funds for
Milan's La Scala opera house came under fire because of anger over
the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(AFP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, Italy's high court
annulled an appeals court ruling that overturned a rape
verdict regarding a 2015 assault in which two Peruvian men
argued that the woman was too "masculine" to be a victim. A new
trial was ordered.
(SFC, 3/14/19, p.A2)
2019 Mar 6, Italy's populist
government opened its new minimum income welfare program, fulfilling
a key campaign promise of the 5-Star Movement to try to reduce
poverty and unemployment in the eurozone's third-largest economy.
(AP, 3/6/19)
2019 Mar 9, The Italian
Ambassador to Pakistan said that the bodies of British climber Tom
Ballard and Italian climber Daniele Nardi, who went missing on Feb.
24 while ascending Pakistan's Nanga Parbat, the so-called "Killer
Mountain," have been found. Their bodies were unlikely to be
recovered.
(Reuters, 3/9/19)
2019 Mar 18, Milan's Mayor
Giuseppe Sala said Italy's famed La Scala opera house will
immediately return 3 million euros ($3.4 million) sent to an escrow
account by Saudi Arabia. He did not rule out future dealings with
the kingdom despite concerns raised over its human rights record.
(AP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 20, The Italian
parliament blocked prosecutors from pursuing an investigation into
Deputy PM Matteo Salvini for abuse of power and kidnapping migrants.
(Reuters, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 20, Marcello De Vito,
president of Rome's city council and a senior figure in Italy's
ruling 5-Star Movement, was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes
in a widening corruption scandal centered on AS Roma's long-delayed
plans to build a new stadium.
(Reuters, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 22, Italy's Pres.
Sergio Mattarella told visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping that
China's new "Silk Road" linking Europe and Asia must be a "two-way
street," addressing concerns among Western allies that the colossal
infrastructure project is meant merely to amplify Beijing's global
influence.
(AP, 3/22/19)
2019 Mar 22, In Italy a
5-month-old baby was brought to a hospital in Bologna by helicopter
in cardiac arrest due to a home circumcision and soon died.
(AP, 3/24/19)
2019 Mar 23, Italy endorsed
China's ambitious "Belt and Road" infrastructure plan, becoming the
first major Western power to back the initiative to help revive the
struggling Italian economy. The signing ceremony was the highlight
of a three-day trip to Italy by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Italian firms also inked deals with Chinese counterparts worth an
initial 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion).
(Reuters, 3/23/19)
2019 Mar 25, Italian media
reported that former communist militant Cesare Battisti, jailed for
life over four murders carried out in the 1970s, has confessed to
the killings after decades of denying involvement.
(AFP, 3/25/19)
2019 Mar 26, The academy of
Italy's premier opera house, Teatro alla Scala, agreed to start a
conservatory for both girls and boys in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 27, The EU said it
will suspend ship patrols that have rescued tens of thousands of
migrants in the Mediterranean and brought them to Italy, amid deep
resistance by populist-led Rome. The rescues were part of the EU's
Operation Sophia which diplomats have decided to extend by six
months beyond its March 31 expiry date, but without new ship
deployments.
(AFP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 30, In Italy the
US-based International Organization for the Family began a 2-day
congress in Verona. The organization defines family as strictly
centering around a mother and father. A coalition of civic groups
mobilized against what they see as a counter-reform movement to
limit LGBT and women's rights.
(AP, 3/30/19)
2019 Mar 31, In Italy several
tens of thousands of people marched in support of the
ultra-Conservative World Congress of Families, on the final day of
their conference in Verona.
(AFP, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 1, Michigan-based
Kellogg Co. said it is selling its iconic Keebler cookie brand and
other sweet snacks businesses to Italy-based Ferrero for $1.3
billion. Kellogg said it is also selling its Mother's and Famous
Amos cookie brands, as well as its fruit-flavored snack, pie crust
and ice cream cone businesses.
(AP, 4/1/19)
2019 Apr 3, Rome's Mayor
Virginia Raggi pledged an investigation into possible inciting
racial hatred against the organizers of a violent protest that
rejected housing Roma families in a neighborhood government-run
center a day earlier. Raggi blamed both Casa Pound and Forza Nuova
for creating a hostile climate in the Torre Maura neighborhood, a
low-income area on the eastern edge of the capital. City authorities
moved several Roma families out of a public housing project in a
Rome suburb after violent protests by neo-fascist groups threatened
their safety.
(AP, 4/3/19)(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 3, The Italian news
agency ANSA reported that another infant boy died overnight near
Genoa as the result of a circumcision performed at home.
(AP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 8, In Italy
Euroskeptic populist parties formed a new and expanded right-wing
alliance that aims to become the strongest faction in the European
Parliament and seeks to radically transform European Union policies
on migration, security, family and environment. Italy's hard-line
interior minister, Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant League
party was joined by representatives of populist parties from
Germany, Finland and Denmark.
(AP, 4/8/19)
2019 Apr 12, It was reported
that Venice's population has declined rapidly from roughly 175,000
after World War Two to about 50,000 today. Remaining residents
complain that their city is being overrun by tourists while they
have to pick up the bill for cleaning and security. Squatters were
taking over unoccupied buildings in Venice in defiance of what they
say are high rents forcing families out of the city as tourism takes
over.
(Reuters, 4/12/19)
2019 Apr 19, In Italy serial
killer nurse Fausta Bonino was sentenced to life in prison for
killing four patients although police suspect she could have been
responsible for as many as 10 fatalities.
(AFP, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 26, Poland signed an
agreement with Italy's Leonardo to buy four AW101 helicopters for
its navy in a deal worth 1.65 billion zlotys ($428 million).
(Reuters, 4/26/19)
2019 May 2, Hungary's PM Viktor
Orban hosted hard-line Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and
the two main opponents to immigration in Europe toured razor-wire
fences at the Hungarian border.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 3, In Italy Norveo
Fedeli (74) was found dead inside his clothing store in Viterbo.
Police the next day arrested American Michael Aaron Pang (22) and
alleged that he killed the storekeeper by striking him with a stool.
(AP, 5/05/19)
2019 May 8, Italian PM Giuseppe
Conte dismissed Armando Siri, a junior minister involved in a graft
scandal. Siri was put under investigation last month for allegedly
accepting a bribe from a wind farm entrepreneur who has been linked
to the Sicilian Mafia.
(Reuters, 5/08/19)
2019 May 21, In Italy an
overnight fire killed two people living in apartments above the
ground-floor police station in Mirandola, north of Bologna.
Carabinieri police arrested a North African in connection with the
arson fire.
(AP, 5/21/19)
2019 May 21, Italy's struggling
airline Alitalia canceled over 300 flights because of a 24-hour
strike called to protest deteriorating conditions in the sector,
including the government's failure to relaunch the carrier.
(AP, 5/21/19)
2019 May 22, In Italy a
double-deck bus carrying 60 tourists from eastern Europe overturned
on a Tuscan highway, killing one passenger and injuring more than
dozen others on the Siena-Florence highway.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 26, Voters in a small
town south of Milan voted against the right-wing League candidate to
elect Gianmarco Negri (40), Italy's first transgender mayor.
(AP, 5/28/19)
2019 May 27, Italy’s Deputy PM
Matteo Salvini said Victory for Italy's League in European elections
gives the far-right party a mandate to push through tax cuts and
fight for changes to the EU's budgetary rules.
(AP, 5/27/19)
2019 May 27, Fiat Chrysler
proposed to merge with France's Renault to create the world's
third-biggest automaker and combine their investments in the race to
make new electric and autonomous vehicles. Renault welcomed the
idea.
(AP, 5/27/19)
2019 May 31, Italy's culture
ministry said it will revoke the lease on a state-owned monastery
where a right-wing Roman Catholic institute close to former Trump
White House adviser Steve Bannon had planned to train political
activists.
(Reuters, 6/1/19)
2019 Jun 5, The European
Commission formally put Italy on notice about its deteriorating
deficit and snowballing debt, re-opening a political battle with
populist-led Rome.
(AFP, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 6, Italy-based Fiat
Chrysler's withdrew a merger offer with French carmaker Renault on
fundamental differences over when Renault's long-time alliance
partner, Nissan, would be brought in.
(AP, 6/6/19)
2019 Jun 8, In Italy thousands
of people took to the streets in Venice calling for a ban on large
cruise ships in the city following last week's collision between a
massive vessel and a tourist boat.
(AFP, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 11, Italy's populist
government approved stiff fines for migrant rescue boats that defy
orders to stay out of Italian waters.
(SFC, 6/12/19, p.A2)
2019 Jun 14, France and Italy
forged a military shipbuilding alliance, as state-controlled Naval
Group and Fincantieri signed off on a 50-50 joint venture that will
bid for Franco-Italian warship projects and sell to the world
market.
(Reuters, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 15, Italian film and
opera legend Franco Zeffirelli (b.1923) died at his home in Rome.
His work included about 20 feature films. He also directed more than
30 plays and operas.
(AP, 6/15/19)
2019 Jun 15, In Thailand
Francesco Galdelli (58) and Vanja Goffi (45) were arrested at a
house on the outskirts Pattaya after an operation between Thai and
Italian authorities. Francesco confessed to claiming to be George
Clooney and opening a clothes business to trick people into sending
money. The couple is also wanted in Italy for multiple scams
including selling fake Rolex watches online.
(AP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 20, Italy's far-right
interior minister marked World Refugee Day by insisting migrants
rescued by a charity vessel are banned from entering Italian
territorial waters.
(AFP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 26, A German
humanitarian group says its ship Sea-Watch 3 carrying 42 migrants
rescued at sea two weeks ago has entered Italian waters under
emergency provisions, calling the situation on board desperate.
(AP, 6/26/19)
2019 Jun 27, The European Union
called on Italy to help find a swift resolution for the migrants
aboard the charity ship Sea-Watch, which entered Italian waters in
defiance of a ban from Rome.
(Reuters, 6/27/19)
2019 Jun 29, The Italian
government said a still-life painting (Vase of Flowers) by the Dutch
master Jan van Huysum, which was looted by retreating Nazi troops in
World War Two, will be returned to Florence. It was originally put
on display in Florence in 1824 after it was bought by Grande Duke
Leopoldo II for his art collection.
(Reuters, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 29, In Italy Sea-Watch
3 captain Carola Rackete (31) was arrested for docking at Lampedusa
without permission, despite threats of jail time, with a shipload of
desperate migrants.
(AFP, 6/29/19)
2019 Jul 15, An Italian court
in Bolzano found Mullah Krekar (63) guilty of attempting to
overthrow the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and create an
Islamic caliphate. Krekar, a refugee from Iraqi Kurdistan, has lived
in Norway since 1991.
(AP, 7/18/19)
2019 Jul 15, China's Huawei
Technologies said it would invest $3.1 billion in Italy over the
next three years, as the Chinese telecoms giant called on Rome to
ensure the "transparent, efficient and fair" use of its 'golden
power' on 5G network development.
(Reuters, 7/15/19)
2019 Jul 26, In Italy American
teenagers Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth (18) and Finnegan Lee
Elder (19) confessed to fatally stabbing a police officer in Rome.
Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega was knifed 11 times by Elder
shortly after the two had stolen a backpack from an Italian man and
then tried to extort the victim for "100 euros and 1 gram of
cocaine.
(AP, 7/27/19)(SFC, 8/3/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 3, Italian police
arrested six men on manslaughter charges for allegedly using pepper
spray to carry out thefts at a concert for teens, triggering a
stampede that killed six people at a venue near the Adriatic coastal
city of Ancona last December 8.
(AP, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 9, Italy’s hard-Right
League party filed a motion of no confidence in the country’s prime
minister, advancing a political crisis that could lead to early
elections. The country’s debt stood over 130% of GDP.
(The Telegraph, 8/9/19)(Econ, 8/17/19, p.37)
2019 Aug 20, Luigi Di Maio,
head of Italy’s ruling 5-Star Movement, signaled the imminent demise
of the coalition government by thanking PM Giuseppe Conte for his
time in office. PM Conte handed in his resignation after accusing
his interior minister, Matteo Salvini, of putting his League party
before the needs of the country.
(Reuters, 8/20/19)(Reuters, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 26, Talks on forming a
new Italian government ran into trouble as the ruling 5-Star
Movement and the opposition Democratic Party (PD) traded accusations
over key jobs, including that of interior minister.
(Reuters, 8/27/19)
2019 Sep 4, Italian PM Giuseppe
Conte unveiled his new cabinet, uniting two rival political parties
in an unlikely coalition that is expected to improve ties with the
European Union and adopt a softer stance on immigration. The team of
ministers were drawn primarily from the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement and the center-left Democratic Party (PD).
(Reuters, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 5, Italy's new
government, combining the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and
center-left Democratic Party (PD), was sworn into office, promising
to reset Rome's often fraught relations with Brussels.
(Reuters, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 7, In Italy hundreds
of demonstrators took over the red carpet at the Venice Film
Festival for several hours, demanding action to fight climate change
and a ban on cruise ships entering the lagoon city.
(Reuters, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 11, In Italy an
international consortium of scientists and conservationists
announced that they have succeeded in creating two embryos of the
near-extinct northern white rhino, a milestone in assisted
reproduction that may be a pivotal turning point in the fate of the
species.
(AP, 9/11/19)
2019 Sep 13, Developing company
Texas Central said Italian builder Salini Impregilo and its US
subsidiary Lane Construction Company have signed a contract to help
build a new high-speed train line in Texas.
(Reuters, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 17, In Italy three
people aboard a speedboat were killed late today when their vessel
crashed into an offshore dike of the lagoon city of Venice. The boat
was trying to set a speed record for the route from Monte Carlo to
Venice.
(AP, 9/18/19)
2019 Sep 24, Italy's government
announced a new crackdown on tax evasion as part of its 2020 budget,
but it will have a hard time breaking a bad habit that costs the
state more than 100 billion euros ($109.34 billion) a year.
(Reuters, 9/26/19)
2019 Sep 25, Cardinal William
Levada (b.1936), former archbishop of San Francisco, Marin and San
Mateo counties, died in Rome. In 2005 he was selected by Pope
Benedict XVI to lead the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
(SFC, 10/2/19, p.C5)
2019 Sep 27, It was reported
that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and its US unit will pay $40
million for misleading investors about its monthly sales figures and
will resolve a lengthy probe by the US Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC).
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Oct 1, In central Italy
Fiat Chrysler worker Fabrizio Greco died overnight in an accident at
the group's factory in Cassino, prompting unions to launch a strike
at the plant to demand tighter safety measures.
(Reuters, 10/1/19)
2019 Oct 3, Italy lifted a
block on 2019 spending that was agreed by the previous government
with the European Commission, in a surprise move that will result in
a higher deficit this year but which means the budget gap will not
widen in 2020.
(Reuters, 10/3/19)
2019 Oct 7, An Italian court
found the parents of former prime minister Matteo Renzi guilty of
issuing false invoices, and handed them suspended prison terms of
one year and nine months.
(Reuters, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 7, Italy's coastguard
said at least 13 people died when an overloaded migrant boat
capsized near the island of Lampedusa as they were about to be
rescued. The smugglers' boat overturned as a patrol boat was
preparing to take migrants on board.
(AP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 8, Italy's parliament
voted to cut the number of elected lawmakers by more than a third,
in a reform championed by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement
which could have a profound impact on the political landscape.
(Reuters, 10/8/19)
2019 Oct 9, Italy reacted
angrily to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that it
should relax conditions for prisoners serving life sentences,
including mafia gangsters and terrorists.
(The Telegraph, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 16, Pres. Donald Trump
met with Italy's president.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 21, In Italy
ultra-conservative Catholic militants admitted they stole statues
they consider to be Amazon pagan idols from a church near the
Vatican and dumped them from a bridge into the Tiber River. The
statues were on display along with other Amazon artefacts at the
Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, several blocks from the
Vatican.
(Reuters, 10/21/19)
2019 Oct 23, The head of
Italy's Bio-on was arrested in a probe into false accounting and
market manipulation, just three months after the bio-plastics maker
suffered an attack by a short seller fund that erased 80% of its
value.
(Reuters, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 27, It was confirmed
that Sabrina de Sousa, a former US spy pardoned by Italy in
connection with the CIA kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan,
has fled from Italy to the United States fearing for her safety.
Sousa is one of 26 people convicted by Italy in absentia over the
2003 abduction of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, but the
only one to spend any time in prison for the operation, in which she
denies involvement.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 28, Italy's UniCredit
said it has uncovered a data breach involving the personal records
of 3 million domestic clients, the third security incident at
Italy's top bank in recent years.
(Reuters, 10/28/19)
2019 Nov 7, It was reported
that Italy will become the first country in the world to require
climate change studies in classrooms alongside reading, writing, and
arithmetic.
(ABC News, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 9, Meeting in Rome
more than 70 countries signed a pledge to do more to cut down on the
amount of food lost due to poor refrigeration. Ministers, government
officials and experts signed the pledge at an annual meeting of the
Montreal Protocol where they worked on regulating man-made chemicals
used in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems that are harmful
to the ozone layer.
(AP, 11/9/19)
2019 Nov 10, In Iraq says five
Italian soldiers were wounded by the explosion of an Improvised
Explosive Device (IED). An Italian special forces team was carrying
out "mentoring and training" of Iraqi armed forces involved in the
fight against Islamic State group.
(AP, 11/10/19)
2019 Nov 13, In Italy the worst
flooding in Venice in more than 50 years prompted calls to better
protect the historic city from rising sea levels as officials
calculated hundreds of millions of euros in damage.
(AP, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 14, Italy-based
Ferrari rolled out the Roma, a record fifth new model announced this
year, as the Italian luxury carmaker with the famous "prancing
horse" logo looks to sustain profit and share price growth.
(Reuters, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 15, In Italy an
exceptionally high tide hit Venice again just three days after the
city suffered its worst flooding in more than 50 years, leaving
squares, shops and hotels once more inundated.
(Reuters, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 15, Italian TV said a
scandal over alleged sexual molestation and abuse at the Vatican’s
youth seminary is growing, with more former papal altar boys
alleging inappropriate behavior by priests inside the Vatican walls.
(AP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 18, Italian police
broke up a cross-border criminal gang illicitly trafficking in
archaeological artifacts clandestinely excavated in southern Italy
for export abroad. Two suspects were jailed and 21 put under house
arrest, most of them in Calabria.
(AP, 11/18/19)
2019 Nov 23, The Italian coast
guard said it had rescued 149 migrants after their foundering boat
overturned. Once ashore, survivors told authorities that 169 had
been originally crowded aboard the 10-meter (33-foot) long boat
utilized by Libya-based migrant smugglers.
(AP, 11/24/19)
2019 Nov 24, The Italian coast
guard said the bodies of five migrant women, two of them washed
ashore, have been recovered as search efforts continued near the
tiny island of Lampedusa for around another dozen people feared
missing in the capsizing of a fishing boat.
(AP, 11/24/19)
2019 Nov 24, At least two
people were killed in France and a landslide collapsed a stretch of
elevated highway in Italy, leaving cars perched perilously on a
precipice as heavy rains pounded the region over the weekend.
(AP, 11/24/19)
2019 Nov 25, Fiat Chrysler said
it has already started 90% of the investments earmarked for Italy.
FCA announced last year it would spend 5 billion euros ($5.5
billion) in Italy up to 2021.
(Reuters, 11/25/19)
2019 Nov 25, Officials said at
least seven people have died as heavy rain slammed the Riviera
coasts of France and Italy, trapping travelers in their cars, as
well as parts of western Greece.
(AP, 11/25/19)
2019 Nov 28, Italian police
said they have uncovered a plot to form a new Nazi party and seized
a cache of weapons during searches across the country.
(Reuters, 11/28/19)
2019 Nov 30, Italian coast
guard divers recovered the bodies of seven people in the sea near
Lampedusa where a boat crowded with migrants capsized a week
earlier. At least eight other bodies were spotted on the sea bottom.
(AP, 11/30/19)
2019 Dec 12, Italian police
said they had arrested 13 people and dismantled an international
crime gang that smuggled small groups of migrants from Greece to
Italy aboard yachts.
(Reuters, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 18, Italian-American
Fiat Chrysler and France's Peugeot maker PSA sealed a binding deal
to create the world's fourth biggest carmaker.
(Reuters, 12/18/19)
2020 Jan 5, In northern Italy a
drunken driver plowed into a group of young German tourists, killing
six people and injuring 11 others in the Alto Adige region. A
28-year-old man from the nearby town of Chienes, was arrested on
suspicion of highway manslaughter and injury.
(AP, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 8, Libya's Gen.
Khalifa Hifter traveled to Rome on a previously unannounced visit to
meet with Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte.
(AP, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 11, Italy’s Premier
Giuseppe Conte met with the UN-recognized Libyan PM Fayez Serraj,
days after Italy botched an attempt to broker a truce to end the
latest fighting in Libya.
(AP, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 16, Cyprus, Greece,
Israel, Italy, Jordan and Palestine established a bloc called the
East Mediterranean Gas Forum.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastMed_Gas_Forum)
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.50)
2020 Jan 19, In Italy hundreds
of people in small rowing boats protested in front of Venice's St
Mark's Square to denounce what they say is a proliferation of motor
boats that have crowded the waters of the lagoon city.
(Reuters, 1/19/20)
2020 Jan 26, Italian voters
thwarted right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini's hopes of
turning an election in a key northern region into a springboard for
regaining national power. The center-left Democrats' incumbent won
51.4% of the vote for the governorship of the prosperous
Emilia-Romagna region.
(AP, 1/27/20)
2020 Feb 5, Organizers said
Italian fashion house Prada is helping to fund a United Nations
program that will enlist high school students from 10 cities to
spread awareness about how humans impact the world's oceans.
(AP, 2/5/20)
2020 Feb 6, In northern Italy a
high-speed passenger train derailed killing two railway workers and
injuring 28 other people as its engine broke off and careened into a
work vehicle on an adjacent track on the Milan-Bologna line.
(SFC, 2/7/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 12, Italian senators
voted to lift immunity for far-right leader Matteo Salvini, opening
the way for a potentially career-ending trial over accusations he
illegally detained migrants at sea last year.
(Reuters, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, Human Rights Watch
warned that Italy is endangering migrants by renewing support for
the Libyan coast guard, which blocks their flight and sends them
back to squalid detention centers in the North African country.
About 5,000 migrants are languishing in dozens of filthy Libyan
centers, where rape, torture and other abuses run rampant.
(AP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 13, Rome police
arrested Beverly McCallum (59) overnight after she and her teenage
son checked into a Rome hotel on the northwest outskirts of the
Italian capital. The American woman was wanted in the 2002 death of
her husband, whose remains were so badly burned they weren’t
identified for more than a decade. Husband Robert Caraballo was
beaten and suffocated, and his body was dumped and burned in a
blueberry patch in western Michigan.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 19, Authorities in
northern Italy arrested the captain of a Lebanese-flagged cargo ship
on suspicion of international arms trafficking while they
investigate if the vessel transported tanks, rockets and other
weapons from Turkey to Libya.
(AP, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 20, In Italy
bulldozers started work demolishing a crime-riddled, crumbling
housing estate on the outskirts of Naples, notorious for its links
to the local mafia. The housing project, known as the "Sails of
Scampia", was built in the 1960s and 1970s and became synonymous
with poverty and violence in Italy's underdeveloped south as clan
warfare raged through its narrow corridors and bleak stairways.
(Reuters, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 21, Italian
authorities announced that a cluster of 16 coronavirus cases had
been detected around Codogno, a small town in Lombardy. By the next
day the number was up to 60 and five elderly people had died.
(Econ., 2/29/20, p.13)
2020 Feb 22, A dozen towns in
northern Italy effectively went into lockdown after the deaths of
two people infected with the new virus from China and a growing
cluster of cases with no direct links to the origin of the outbreak
abroad. Secondary coronavirus contagions prompted local authorities
in the Lombardy and Veneto regions to order schools, businesses, and
restaurants closed, and to cancel sporting events and Masses.
Hundreds of residents and workers who came into contact with an
estimated 54 people confirmed infected in Italy were in isolation
pending test results. Two people infected with the virus have died.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 23, Italian
authorities stepped up measures to ban public gatherings, including
stopping Venice's famed carnival events, which have drawn tens of
thousands of revelers to a region that is now in the heart of the
outbreak. Nearly all of the known cases, including three deaths,
were clustered in the north, at least 25 of them in the Veneto
region. Italy reported more than 150 confirmed cases, a sharp
increase from fewer than five last week. Officials locked down at
least 10 towns in the northern region of Lombardy, affecting at
least 50,000 people.
(AP, 2/23/20)(Reuters, 2/23/20)(NY Times,
2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Italy recorded a
6th coronavirus death as it became the worst-hit country in Europe,
bringing the total number of cases across the country to 219. Police
manned checkpoints around quarantined towns in the north and
residents stocked up on food as the country became the focal point
of the outbreak in Europe and fears of its cross-border spread.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)(AP, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 26, Italy become a
frontline in the global outbreak of the virus, with over 370 cases
and 12 deaths.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Italy's Enel said
it agreed on the need to provide the country with an ultrabroadband
network, after Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri urged parties
involved in the plan to find an agreement.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, The USA stepped up
travel advisories for Iran, Italy and Mongolia, warning of the risks
of coronavirus or disruptions related to efforts to control the
disease's spread.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 28, Italy reported
that four more people have died from coronavirus, bringing the total
to 21, while the number of those testing positive for the illness
jumped to 821.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Mar 1, Italy reported
1,694 positive cases of coronavirus and 34 deaths.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Experts said
Italy's economy performed woefully in 2019 and is set to do even
worse this year due to the coronavirus, with the threat of recession
looming large.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 4, The death toll in
Italy soared to 79, with more than 2,500 people infected. A
government source said Italy is to close all schools and
universities starting March 5 to try to contain its worsening
coronavirus outbreak.
(AFP, 3/4/20)(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Fiat Chrysler
defied fears over Italy's coronavirus outbreak to showcase an
electric version of its 500 city car, as it strives to catch up with
rivals in low-emissions driving while heading into a merger with
Peugeot maker PSA.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of a nationwide contagion, has
risen over the past day to 98 from 73.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Italy at least
3,296 people have been infected with the coronavirus. The death
reached at least 148.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Italy the number
of fatalities due to the coronavirus were up 36 to 233, with
infections growing to 8,883. Cases have now been confirmed in each
of the country's 20 regions, with deaths recorded in eight of them.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, A US Navy sailor
stationed at the Naval Support Activity Naples tested positive for
novel coronavirus, marking the first positive cause of a US service
member in Europe.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 8, Italy imposed a
virtual lockdown across a swathe of its wealthy north, including the
financial capital Milan, in a drastic new attempt to try to contain
the coronavirus outbreak. Deaths due to the infectious virus risen,
by 36 to 233. Of the 5,883 Italians originally infected, 589 have
fully recovered.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Tensions in Italy's
overcrowded prisons erupted over new coronavirus containment
measures, with riots in at least two dozen lock-ups and the deaths
of six inmates who broke into an infirmary and overdosed on
methadone. With 7,375 infected and 366 deaths, Italy has more virus
cases than any country outside Asia.
(AP, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Italy went under a
national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.11)
2020 Mar 10, Italy entered its
first day under a nationwide lockdown after a government decree
extended restrictions on movement from the hard-hit north to the
rest of the country. Italy counted 9,172 cases and 463 deaths. The
number of dead from riots in Italy's overcrowded prisons over
measures imposed to contain the coronavirus rose to 12.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 11, Italy's PM
Giuseppe Conte earmarked $28.3 billion to ease the economic impact
from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 12, Italy's Premier
Giuseppe Conte ordered restaurants, cafes and retail shops closed
after imposing a nationwide lockdown on personal movement. Jewelry
and clothing shops that on Tuesday and Wednesday had posted signs
urging customers to queue up out the door a meter (3.3 feet) apart
were closed until further notice. Supermarkets, pharmacies and
outdoor markets were still open.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 13, Italy's death toll
from the coronavirus epidemic shot past 1,000 as the economic impact
worsened. The total number of infections rose to 15,113.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 14, Italy reported
more than 21,000 cases of coronavirus and 1,441 deaths, the second
most heavily affected country after China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, It was reported
that 9 players in Italy’s top soccer league, Serie A, have tested
positive for the coronavirus. Games have been suspended until at
least April 3. Italian supercar maker Ferrari said it will suspend
production at the Maranello and Modena plants until March 27.
Volkswagen AG’s Lamborghini has also suspended production in Italy
until March 25.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 15, Italy recorded 368
more deaths from the coronavirus. It had 24,747 cases and 1,809
deaths.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, In northern Italy
the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Lombardy rose by
202 over the past day to 1,420 from 1,218. Italy's total death toll
reached 1,809, a 25 percent increase over the day before.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)(NY Times, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Official data in
Italy showed that 31,506 people have been confirmed as positive for
the coronavirus. The official death toll passed 2,500.
(AP, 3/18/20)(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, European Union
leaders agreed to restrict most travel into the continent in an
unprecedented move aimed at slowing down the spread of a deadly
coronavirus and mitigating its effects on the bloc. Europe logged
10,560 new COVID-19 infections, with 3,590 of the cases diagnosed in
Italy.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)(Business Insider, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 18, Italy reported
nearly 500 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the highest
one-day official toll of any nation. Italy added 4,207 new cases.
(AFP, 3/18/20)(Econ, 3/21/20, p.9)
2020 Mar 19, Italy's
country-wide death toll stood at 3,405, the highest in the world.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of a nationwide contagion, rose
by around 380 in a day to some 2,550.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 21, Italy reported 793
coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 4,825.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 22, Italy was rocked
by its deadliest day as the coronavirus prompted industry shutdown.
The death toll from the coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy's contagion, has risen
by around 360 in a day to more than 3,450. Italy's coronavirus
infections continued to soar, with 59,000 cases and 5,476 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)(AP,
3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Fifty-two medics
from Cuba arrived in Italy to assist with the coronavirus pandemic.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.25)
2020 Mar 22, The Russian
military started sending medical help to Italy in order to help it
battle the new coronavirus after receiving an order from Pres.
Vladimir Putin following a conversation a day earlier with Italian
PM Giuseppe Conte. Russia itself has reported 306 cases of the
virus, most of them in Moscow, and one coronavirus-related death.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy has risen by around 320 in a day to more than 3,770. Unions
in the Lombardy region announced strikes to protect the health of
their workers, saying a government decree temporarily shutting
businesses due to the coronavirus emergency contained too many
loopholes and exceptions.
(AP, 3/23/20)(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Italy's number of
new Covid-19 cases dropped to a five-day low. Italian health
authorities announced 4,789 new cases in the last 24 hours. The
number of coronavirus cases in Italy has risen to 63,927 " compared
to 81,093 in mainland China. In total, 6,077 people have died in
Italy due to Covid-19, including 601 who died in the last 24 hours,
a decline from the weekend.
(South China Morning Post, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy rose by around 400 in a day to more than 4,175. The number
of cases in the region, which includes Milan, increased by some
1,940 to roughly 30,700. Italy suffered the most coronavirus deaths
with 6,820, out of 69,176 declared infections. This was its
second-deadliest day, dashing hopes the death toll is declining.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(AFP, 3/24/20)(Bloomberg,
3/25/20)
2020 Mar 26, Italy's death toll
due to coronavirus was about 7,500. The number of cases in the in
the northern region of Lombardy, increased by some 2,500. Italy has
reported 8,215 deaths from the illness, more than anywhere else in
the world, while confirmed cases total 80,539.
(AP, 3/26/20)(Reuters, 3/26/20)(Bloomberg,
3/27/20)(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, Norway extradited
Muslim cleric Mullah Krekar to Italy, where he was sentenced last
July to 12 years in prison for planning terror. He had been found
guilty of attempting to overthrow the Kurdish government in northern
Iraq and create an Islamic caliphate.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 27, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy rose by around 541 in a day to some 5,402. Italy registered
the most coronavirus deaths since the country's outbreak had
exploded five weeks earlier, adding 969 more victims to raise the
world’s highest COVID-19 toll to 9,134.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Italy's Lombardy
region recorded 542 new deaths as the national government was said
to be mulling plans to extend a country-wide lockdown to mid-April.
Italy reported 889 deaths due to the coronavirus. The death toll
surged past 10,000. Confirmed cases rose by about 6,000 to 92,472.
(AP, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 28, Albania flew a
team of doctors and nurses to neighboring Italy to help it deal with
the coronavirus pandemic as its own cases have yet to strain the
health sector. Albania has 197 cases of the illness, with 10 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus climbed by 756 to 10,779. The
death toll from the coronavirus in Lombardy rose by around 416 in a
day to some 6,360. Italy's government said it will "inevitably"
extend beyond April 3 the containment measures it had approved to
stem the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy rose by around 458 in a day to some 6,818. The number of
cases in the region increased by some 1,154 to around 42,161. The
national death toll stood at 11,591.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, In Italy the death
toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of
Lombardy rose by around 381 in a day to some 7,199. The daily deaths
marked the lowest daily toll since March 25.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Apr 1, Italy reported
almost 110,574 coronavirus infections. The death toll climbed by 727
to 13,155. Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in
the world and accounts for around 30% of all global fatalities from
the virus.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Computer hackers
attacked Italy's social security website, forcing it to shut down
just as people were starting to apply for coronavirus benefits.
Several hacker attacks were reported over the last few days.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 2, Italy reported
4,668 new cases of the coronavirus compared with 4,782 a day
earlier. The nation reported 760 deaths as the number of fatalities
rose again after three weeks of nationwide lockdown.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Italy's La Stamp
newspaper said that the 104-strong contingent of doctors and
experts, sent by Russia to the country's coronavirus epicenter near
Milan, almost certainly included officers from Russia's GRU military
intelligence agency.
(AFP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Italy, total
coronavirus cases stood at 119,827.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 8, Italy said that it
recorded 3,836 new infections, the highest in three days.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Italy's PM Giuseppe
Conte prepared to prolong the national lockdown from a current
expiration date of April 13 for another two weeks. Deaths from the
COVID-19 epidemic rose by 610, up from 542 the day before, and the
number of new cases also came in higher at 4,204 from a previous
3,836. The number of confirmed cases climbed to 143,626.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 11, Italian PM
Giuseppe Conte extended his nationwide lockdown until May 3.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, The US State
Department announced that President Donald Trump has authorized an
assistance package to help Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries
amid the pandemic, as they continue to fight the virus.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 14, Italy lightened
its lockdown order and allowed some shops and organizations to open
provided they maintain social distancing.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 15, In Italy deaths
from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 578, down from 602 the day
before, while the number of new cases slowed to 2,667 from a
previous 2,972, continuing the recent downward trend.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 18, Italy reported the
fewest deaths in six days as new cases remained stable. The country
registered 482 fatalities down from 525 a day earlier, the lowest
since April 12. Total deaths were 23,227. There were 3,491 new cases
with the total now at 175,925.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported
that more than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in
Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive for the
coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 23, The northern
Italian region of Lombardy began an antibody testing program as it
prepared to start opening up its economy following weeks of
lockdown. Positive cases for coronavirus across Italy rose 2,646
over the last 24 hours, bringing total cases to 189,973 and 25,549
deaths.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 25, Italian
diagnostics group DiaSorin said it had received an Emergency Use
Authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration for a
serological test kit for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Serbia sent four
planes carrying medical equipment including gloves, masks and
protective suits to Italy as a donation to help the EU member state
tackle the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 May 2, In Italy deaths
from the COVID-19 epidemic jumped by 474, against 269 the day
before. The daily tally of new infections was broadly stable for a
third day running at 1,900 against 1,965 a day earlier. The total
death toll now stands at 28,710. The total number of confirmed cases
amounted to 209,328, the third highest global tally behind those of
the US and Spain.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 4, Millions of people
were allowed to return to work in Italy as Europe’s longest lockdown
started to ease. Italy's statistics bureau ISTAT said the
coronavirus death toll is much higher than reported, in an analysis
pointing to thousands of fatalities that have never been officially
attributed to COVID-19.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 5, It was reported
that Italy plans to give work permits to thousands of irregular
migrants to help farms deal with the Covid-19 epidemic that has cut
the flow of cheap labor from abroad.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 6, In Italy deaths
from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 369. The total death toll now
stands at 29,684. The number of confirmed cases amounted to 214,457.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 7, The Italian
government and a bishops conference reached an agreement to resume
Masses starting May 18, with strict protocols, after a two-month
shutdown. Some conservative Catholics issued a petition, signed
mostly by Italian clergy, academics and journalists, claiming the
coronavirus is an overhyped “pretext" to deprive the faithful of
Mass and impose a new world order. The petition called the pandemic
a “pretext” by unnamed actors to manipulate and control people
through panic and deprive them of their fundamental freedoms,
including the freedom of worship.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 9, Deaths from the
COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 194, against 243 the day
before, while the daily tally of new cases fell to 1,083.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 11, In Italy deaths
from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 179. The daily tally of new cases
fell to 744. The total death toll now stands at 30,739 and the total
number of confirmed cases amounted to 219,814.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 12, In Italy deaths
from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 172, against 179 the day
before, but the daily tally of new cases doubled to 1,402. The
Lombardy region said it had found 419 infections from previous weeks
that it had not logged. The total death toll now stands at 30,911
with confirmed cases at 221,216.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 13, A World Health
Organization report into Italy's coronavirus response was posted
after it had received necessary approvals within the UN system. It
was written by Francesco Zambon, WHO's chief field coordinator for
Italy and its regions, and a team of WHO public health experts and
consultants. The WHO later said it was withdrawn because of “factual
inaccuracies” that it has not detailed and denied that it received
any pressure from the Italian government to remove it.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 May 14, Italy said will
start testing a representative sample of 150,000 people in 2,000
cities next week to understand the extent of its COVID-19 epidemic.
Italy has had more than 222,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and over
31,000 deaths since its outbreak came to light on February 21.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 17, In Italy the daily
death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic fell to 145, the lowest since
March 9. The total death toll now stands at 31,908. Confirmed cases
amounted to 225,435. PM Giuseppe Conte outlined a further loosening
of movement restrictions, including opening borders to travelers
from Europe from next month.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 18, Italy registered
99 fatalities over the last 24-hour period, bringing the nationwide
death toll to 32,007. More than 225,000 people in Italy have been
diagnosed with COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 29, Italy's civil
protection agency reported 345 new coronavirus infections in the
Lombardy region, bringing the total in the region to 88,500. This
was about 40% of Italy's total.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 11, Italian police
unveiled a Banksy artwork that they found stashed in a farmhouse
attic after it was stolen from Paris in January, 2019. It was
painted in 2018 on the side of the Bataclan concert hall as a
tribute to the 90 victims killed in the 2015 Islamist terrorist
attack.
(The Telegraph, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 14, Paolo Giorgio
Ferri (72), Italian prosecutor and hunter of looted antiquities,
died. He dismantled multinational trafficking rings, recovering tens
of thousands of Greco-Roman artifacts worth hundreds of millions of
dollars.
(NY Times, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 15, Slovenia lifted
travel restrictions with Italy.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 18, Scientists in
Italy said they have found traces of the new coronavirus in
wastewater collected from Milan and Turin on December 18, 2019,
suggesting COVID-19 was already circulating in northern Italy before
China reported the first cases.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jul 6, Italian composer
Ennio Morricone (91) died in Rome. His atmospheric scores for
spaghetti westerns and some 500 films by a Who’s Who of
international directors made him one of the world’s most versatile
and influential creators of music for the modern cinema.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.74)
2020 Jul 29, Italian lawmakers
approved the extension of a state of emergency for the coronavirus
through October 15. Italy counted 289 new cases and six more deaths
bringing its pandemic total to 246,776 and the death toll to 35,129.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 3, In Italy the city
of Genoa inaugurated the new Genoa San Giorgio bridge, designed by
Renzo Piano and built in a record 15 months following its collapse
on Aug. 14, 2018.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 8, Italy’s health
minister announced that women in Italy can now use the abortion pill
on an outpatient basis rather than be hospitalized to terminate a
pregnancy.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 11, Italy's new cases
of the coronavirus increased by 412. Sicily reported 89 cases after
64 migrants tested positive at a screening center.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported
that 16,347 migrants reached Italian shores in small boats without
help over the last year, while 5,271 were rescued at sea, most of
those by charity boats.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 17, Top Italian and EU
officials pledged aid for Tunisia as part of an effort to stem the
growing number of migrants crossing to Europe.
(SFC, 8/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 22, Italy's health
ministry reported 1,071 new coronavirus infections in the past 24
hours, exceeding 1,000 cases in a day for the first time since May
when the government eased rigid lockdown measures.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 24, Italy kicked off
human trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, joining a global
effort to develop a response to the virus which has shown signs of
resurging in Europe.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 30, In northern Italy
hurricane-force winds toppled a tree during a storm, killing two
children in a tent at a campground.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Italian officials
hastily chartered more ferries and put other measures into place to
fight severe overcrowding at migrant centers on the tiny island of
Lampedusa, where the arrival of 450 migrants on a rickety fishing
boat triggered protests by islanders. A fire triggered an explosion
on smuggling boat off of southern Italy, tossing 21 migrants into
the sea and killing at least 3 of them.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Albania a woman
wanted in Italy for trying to recruit people to join the Islamic
State group was arrested in Tirana. Lubjana Gjecaj (43) will be
extradited to Italy where a court in Milan has sentenced her to
three years in prison for association with terror groups.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Italy Willy
Monteiro Duarte (21) was killed during a fight in Colleferro, a city
on the outskirts of Rome. Four Italians were soon arrested,
including two brothers with police records and a martial arts
background. Duarte, who was born in Rome to parents from the African
island nation of Cape Verde, had intervened while seeing a friend
get beaten up in the fight and was then fatally beaten himself.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported
that 26 scientists, most of them working at universities in Italy,
have signed an open letter questioning the reliability of the data
presented in the early-stage trial results of the Russian COVID-19
vaccine, named "Sputnik-V".
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 11, Italian
authorities said police have arrested four men and are investigating
another four on suspicion of sexually assaulting two British girls
at a villa where a party was being held in the southern province of
Matera.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 12, At the Venice film
festival "Nomadland", a US movie about a community of van dwellers
traversing the vast American West, won the Golden Lion award for
best film.
(Reuters, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 20, Italians in seven
regions headed to the polls for two days of voting shaped by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, The German
humanitarian group Sea-Watch condemned as politically motivated the
blockade of its ship in the Sicilian port of Palermo by Italian
authorities after an 11-hour inspection. This was the fifth rescue
ship blocked by Italian authorities in as many months.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 21, In Italy
preliminary results from the Interior Ministry indicated that 69% of
Italians voted “yes" on a constitutional referendum to reduce the
number of national lawmakers by more than a third.
(AP, 9/21/20)(Econ., 9/26/20, p.50)
2020 Sep 24, Italy allowed a
rescue ship with 125 migrants aboard to dock in Sardinia to escape
rough seas and said the migrants could eventually disembark in Italy
before being sent to other European countries.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 29, Italian
carabinieri arrested Alice Brignoli, a female foreign fighter, after
returning her and her four young children to Italy from a displaced
person’s camp in Kurdish-controlled territory. Her Moroccan-born
husband, Mohamed Koraichi, died earlier this month at the camp from
an intestinal infection.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Oct 3, Flooding from
record rains in the mountainous region that spans France and Italy
killed two people in Italy and left at least 24 people in the two
countries missing.
(AP, 10/3/20)
2020 Oct 4, French authorities
deployed about 1,000 firefighters, four military helicopters and
troops to search for at least eight people who were missing after
devastating floods hit a mountainous border region with Italy, where
at least four people were killed.
(AP, 10/4/20)
2020 Oct 7, Italy recorded
3,678 new coronavirus infections and 31 deaths, its highest increase
in new cases since April. A nationwide outdoor mask mandate went
into effect with fines up to $1,163 for violators.
(SFC, 10/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Oct 9, Italy registered
5,372 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the first
time the country has exceeded 5,000 cases in a single day since
March. There were also 28 COVID-related deaths on Friday against 22
the day before.
(Reuters, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 13, Italian PM
Giuseppe Conte imposed new restrictions on gatherings, restaurants,
sports and school activities in an attempt to slow a recent surge in
coronavirus infections.
(Reuters, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 13, A judge in Spain
allowed an alleged leading member of the ’Ndrangheta mafia
organization to walk free after failing to realize that the arrested
man was a most-wanted suspect in his native Italy. Vittorio Raso was
arrested in Barcelona earlier this month after a two-year police
operation to track him down following a tip from the Italian
authorities.
(The Telegraph, 10/21/20)
2020 Oct 14, Italy posted its
highest ever daily total of new infections at 7,332 — surpassing the
previous high of 6,557, recorded during the virus's most deadly
phase in March. In northern Italy Coronavirus infections were
surging anew in the Lombardy region where the pandemic first took
hold in Europe, putting pressure again on hospitals and health care
workers.
(AP, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 15, In Italy Cecilia
Marogna (39) was arrested in Milan. She was accused of taking more
than $500,000 from Pope Francis' charity fund and spending it on
luxurious goods.
(Insider, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 15, Italy registered
8,804 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. There were
also 83 COVID-related deaths.
(Reuters, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 17, Italy registered a
record 10,925 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours.
There were also 47 COVID-related deaths. Total fatalities reached
36,427.
(AP, 10/17/20)
2020 Oct 18, Italy registered a
record 11,705 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The
country has recorded 36,543 fatalities since the outbreak flared in
February. Italian PM Giuseppe Conte gave mayors the power to shut
public squares from 9 p.m. to halt gatherings as he announced a
further package of measures to try to halt a sharp rise in COVID-19
cases.
(Reuters, 10/18/20)(Reuters, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 23, Italy's Campania
region, based on the southern city of Naples, said it would impose a
lockdown to tame the coronavirus and urged the whole country to
follow suit as new infections hit a record high.
(Reuters, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 25, Italy announced
new restrictions to fight the spread of the coronavirus, becoming
the latest European government to respond to surging new infections
across the continent.
(The Week, 10/26/20)
2020 Oct 27, Italy's main
medicines regulator gave the go-ahead for human clinical trials on
raloxifene, a generic osteoporosis drug that researchers hope may
also help reduce COVID-19 symptoms and make patients less
infectious.
(Reuters, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 27, Italy registered
21,994 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the
highest daily tally since the start of the country's outbreak. A
total 37,700 people have now died in Italy because of coronavirus.
564,778 cases of the disease have been registered to date.
(Reuters, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 28, Italy registered a
new record high of 24,991 new coronavirus infections over the past
24 hours. A total 37,905 people have now died in Italy because of
coronavirus, while 589,766 cases of the disease have been registered
to date.
(Reuters, 10/28/20)
2020 Nov 3, Italy reported 353
COVID-related deaths, the highest daily figure since May 6. Some
28,244 new coronavirus infections were recorded over the past 24
hours. A total 39,412 people have now died in Italy because of
coronavirus, while 759,829 cases of the disease have been registered
to date.
(AP, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 4, Italy registered
30,550 new coronavirus infections and 352 COVID-related deaths over
the past 24 hours. A total of 39,764 people have now died in Italy
because of COVID-19, while 790,377 cases of the disease have been
registered to date. Italy's government has approved new restrictions
to tackle the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic and curb a
steady rise in deaths and hospital admissions.
(Reuters, 11/4/20)
2020 Nov 5, Italy registered
34,505 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, its
highest ever daily tally.
(Reuters, 11/5/20)
2020 Nov 6, Italy registered
37,809 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the
country's highest ever daily tally. A total of 40,638 people have
now died because of COVID-19 in Italy, which has registered some
862,681 coronavirus infections since the start of its outbreak. New
coronavirus restrictions came into force.
(Reuters, 11/6/20)(NBC News, 11/7/20)
2020 Nov 6, Italian drinks
group Campari said checks conducted after a hacking attack showed
data on some of the company's servers had been encrypted and some
information had been lost. Earlier this week the Milan-based group
famous for its red aperitif said it had been targeted by hackers
around Nov. 1.
(Reuters, 11/6/20)
2020 Nov 9, Italy registered
25,271 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The health
ministry also reported 356 COVID-related deaths, up from 331 the day
before. A total of 41,750 people have now died because of COVID-19
in Italy, which has registered some 960,373 coronavirus infections
since the start of its outbreak.
(Reuters, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 11, The
nongovernmental organization Open Arms recovered the bodies of five
people after a boat in distress fell apart, sending 116 people
overboard including two infants. 263 migrants who had fled Libya
hoping to reach Europe on unseaworthy boats were rescued by Open
Arms over the last 24 hours from three different shipwrecks in the
Mediterranean. The rescue ship headed towards Italian territorial
waters.
(AP, 11/12/20)
2020 Nov 12, Italy registered
37,978 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The health
ministry also reported 636 COVID-related deaths, the highest figure
since April 6.
(Reuters, 11/12/20)
2020 Nov 13, Italy registered a
record 40,902 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The
health ministry also reported 550 COVID-related deaths. 44,139
people have now died in Italy because of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 11/13/20)
2020 Nov 16, Italy registered
27,354 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, down from
33,979 the day before, with the fall reflecting the usual drop in
the number of swabs conducted on Sundays. The ministry also reported
504 COVID 19-related deaths, down from 546 the previous day.
(AP, 11/16/20)
2020 Nov 17, Italy registered
32,191 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, up from
27,354 the day before. The health ministry also reported 731 COVID
19-related deaths, the highest daily toll since April 3.
(Reuters, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 18, Italy registered
34,283 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, up from
32,191 the day before. The health ministry also reported 753 COVID
19-related deaths, the highest daily tally since April 3.
(Reuters, 11/18/20)
2020 Nov 19, Italy registered
36,176 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. Italy has
seen 47,870 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in
February. It has also registered 1.309 million cases.
(Reuters, 11/19/20)
2020 Nov 20, Italy registered
37,242 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The health
ministry also reported 699 COVID 19-related deaths. Italy has seen
48,569 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 21, Italy registered
34,767 new coronavirus infections in the space of 24 hours. The
health ministry also reported 692 COVID-19-related deaths. Italy has
suffered 49,261 deaths from COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in
February and has registered 1.38 million cases.
(AP, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 22, Italy registered
28,337 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, down from
34,767 the day before. The health ministry also reported 562 COVID
19-related deaths, down from 692.
(Reuters, 11/22/20)
2020 Nov 23, Italy reported 630
COVID 19-related deaths, rising from 562 the day before and taking
the official toll since its outbreak began in February to 50,453.
(AP, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 24, Italy reported 853
COVID 19-related deaths, soaring from 630 the day before and the
highest daily toll since March 28.
(AP, 11/24/20)
2020 Nov 25, Italy reported 722
COVID 19-related deaths, down from 853 the day before, and 25,853
new infections.
(Reuters, 11/25/20)
2020 Nov 26, Italy reported 822
COVID 19-related deaths, up from 722 the day before, and 29,003 new
infections, up from 25,853.
(Reuters, 11/26/20)
2020 Nov 30, Italy reported 672
coronavirus-related deaths, against 541 a day earlier, and 16,377
new infections, down from 20,648.
(Reuters, 11/30/20)
2020 Dec 2, Italy reported 684
coronavirus-related deaths, down from 785 a day earlier, and 20,709
new infections, compared with 19,350.
(Reuters, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 3, Italy reported a
record 993 coronavirus-related deaths, against 684 a day earlier,
and 23,225 new infections, compared with 20,709.
(Reuters, 12/3/20)
2020 Dec 4, Italy reported 814
coronavirus-related deaths, against a record 993, and 24,099 new
infections, up from 23,225 the day before.
(Reuters, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 5, Italian police
arrest 19 suspects, dismantling what authoritie3s said was a
criminal organization that moved migrants via Greece and Turkey to
Italy and then into northern Europe.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 9, Italy reported 499
coronavirus-related deaths against 634 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections fell to 12,756 from 14,842.
(Reuters, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 9, Franco-Italian
chipmaker STMicroelectronics said the US-China trade war and a
near-embargo on Huawei, one of its biggest clients, would slow
growth and affect profitability even if demand rebounds after a
COVID-afflicted year.
(Reuters, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 10, Italian
prosecutors formally put three high-ranking members of Egypt’s
national security force and one police officer under investigation
in the 2016 kidnapping, torture and killing of Giulio Regeni, an
Italian youth doing doctoral research in Cairo.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 12, Italy reported 649
new coronavirus-related deaths compared with 761 the day before. The
daily tally of new infections was 19,903, up from 18,727.
(Reuters, 12/12/20)
2020 Dec 13, Italy reported
another 17,938 coronavirus infections to raise its official tally to
1.84 million. 484 deaths pushed Italy's official toll up to 64,520,
making it the nation with the worst official coronavirus death toll
in Europe.
(AP, 12/13/20)
2020 Dec 14, Two prominent
Italian intellectuals announced they were returning their Legion of
Honor awards to France to protest that Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was given the prize despite his government's
human rights abuses.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Italian police
officers hailed their Albanian counterparts for their fight against
drug production and trafficking in the western Balkan country.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Italy reported 491
coronavirus-related deaths against 484 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections declined to 12,030 from 17,938.
(Reuters, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 15, Italy reported 846
coronavirus-related deaths against 491 the day before. The daily
tally of new infections rose to 14,844 from 12,030. Italy has
registered 1.871 million cases to date.
(Reuters, 12/15/20)
2020 Dec 17, The Italian
government announced that 18 Italian fisherman, who were seized in
September by Libyan authorities in a fishing dispute, have been
freed.
(AP, 12/17/20)
2020 Dec 18, Italy reported 674
coronavirus-related deaths against 683 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections decreased to 17,992 from 18,236.
(Reuters, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 19, Italy announced
sweeping travel restrictions and bans on large family gatherings,
becoming the latest European nation to introduce some form of
Christmas lockdown.
(The Telegraph, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 21, In south-central
Italy an explosion in a gunpowder processing factory killed three
people in Casalbordino, Chieti province.
(AP, 12/21/20)
2020 Dec 21, Italy added 415
deaths to what is Europe’s highest national toll of pandemic dead,
raising to 69,214 the known total to date of COVID-19 deaths. 10,872
confirmed COVID-19 cases were registered in the last 24-hour period.
(AP, 12/21/20)
2020 Dec 22, Italy reported 628
coronavirus-related deaths against 415 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections increased to 13,318 from 10,872.
(Reuters, 12/22/20)
2020 Dec 23, It was reported
that Telecom Italia has decided to retain Nokia as a supplier and
reduce Huawei's share of a planned purchase of equipment for
building a 5G network, amid pressure to exclude the Chinese firm on
security concerns.
(Reuters, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 23, Italy reported 553
coronavirus-related deaths against 628 the day before, taking its
total toll past 70,000.
(Reuters, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 24, Italy reported 505
coronavirus-related deaths against 553 the day before. The daily
tally of new infections increased to 18,040 from 14,522, taking the
total number of cases since Italy's epidemic began past the 2
million mark to 2.009 million. Police in Italy enforced new COVID-19
travel restrictions aimed at limiting far-flung families from
gathering over Christmas as public health officials appealed for
people to use common sense to prevent new infections over the
holidays.
(Reuters, 12/24/20)(AP, 12/24/20)
2020 Dec 25, Italy reported 459
coronavirus-related deaths against 505 the day before. The daily
tally of new infections increased by 19,037 from 18,040 the day
before.
(Reuters, 12/25/20)
2020 Dec 26, Archaeologists in
Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, unveiled a
frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient
equivalent of street food to Roman passersby. Pompeii was home to
about 13,000 people when it was buried under ash, pumice pebbles.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 27, Italy vaccinated
the first residents against COVID-19 as it reported 298
coronavirus-related deaths up from 261 the day before. The daily
tally of new infections was 8,913 down from 10,407 the day before,
taking the total number of cases since Italy's epidemic began to
2,047,696.
(Reuters, 12/27/20)
2021 Jan 2, Italy reported 364
coronavirus-related deaths against 462 the day before,, while the
daily tally of new infections plunged to 11,831 from 22,211, with
far less testing than normal carried out on New Year's day. Italy
has registered 74,985 COVID-19 deaths since its outbreak came to
light on Feb. 21.
(Reuters, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 3, Italy reported 347
coronavirus-related deaths against 364 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 14,245 from 11,831.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 5, A senior official
said Italy will invest in local biotech company ReiThera to support
the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, after the government called
results of a Phase 1 trial encouraging. ReiThera is developing the
vaccine with Germany's Leukocare and Belgium's Univercells.
(Reuters, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 5, A Milan-based
appeals court ordered Facebook to pay 3.83 million euros ($4.70
million) in damages to an Italian software development company for
copying an app.
(Reuters, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 6, Italy reported 548
coronavirus-related deaths against 649 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 20,331 from 15,378.
(Reuters, 1/6/21)
2021 Jan 8, Italy reported 620
coronavirus-related deaths up from 414 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections fell to 17,533 from 18,020.
(Reuters, 1/8/21)
2021 Jan 9, Italy reported 483
coronavirus-related deaths, down from 620 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 19,978 from 17,533. Italy has
registered 78,394 COVID-19 deaths since its outbreak came to light
on Feb. 21.
(Reuters, 1/9/21)
2021 Jan 10, Italy reported 361
coronavirus-related deaths, down from 483 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections fell to 18,627 from 19,978.
(AP, 1/10/21)
2021 Jan 12, Italy reported 616
coronavirus-related deaths, up from 448 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 14,242 from 12,532.
(Reuters, 1/12/20)
2021 Jan 13, One of Italy's
biggest ever mafia trials in history kicked off in southern Italy.
Hundreds of defendants were accused of working for a heinous
criminal enterprise with tentacles reaching so far around the world,
it reportedly makes more money selling drugs than McDonald's does
selling burgers.
(CBS News, 1/13/20)
2021 Jan 13, Italy reported 507
coronavirus-related deaths, against 616 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 15,774 from 14,242.
(Reuters, 1/13/20)
2021 Jan 14, Italy reported 522
coronavirus-related deaths, against 507 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 17,246 from 15,774.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 15, Italy reported 477
coronavirus-related deaths, against 522 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections declined to 16,146 from 17,246.
(Reuters, 1/15/21)
2021 Jan 16, Italy reported 475
coronavirus-related deaths, against 477 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 16,310 from 16,146.
(AP, 1/16/21)
2021 Jan 18, Stellantis, the
carmaker created by combining Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot-owner PSA,
enjoyed a positive start, its shares rising 8% on their market debut
in Milan and Paris, valuing the business at around 42 billion euros
($51 billion).
(Reuters, 1/18/21)
2021 Jan 19, Italy's Premier
Giuseppe Conte won a crucial confidence vote in the Senate
(156-140), keeping his wobbly coalition afloat for now.
(SFC, 1/20/21, p.A2)
2021 Jan 19, Italy reported 603
coronavirus-related deaths, against 377 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 10,497 from 8,824.
(Reuters, 1/19/21)
2021 Jan 20, Italy reported 524
coronavirus-related deaths, against 603 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 13,571 from 10,497.
(Reuters, 1/20/21)
2021 Jan 21, Italy reported 521
coronavirus-related deaths, against 524 the day before, while the
daily tally of new infections rose to 14,078 from 13,571.
(Reuters, 1/21/21)