Page 4 - Italy

Pope Francis 'responding well to pneumonia therapy; showing improvement'

Pope Francis is responding well to therapy for double pneumonia and has shown a gradual, slight improvement in recent days, the Vatican said Saturday. But as a precaution his doctors have decided to keep his prognosis as guarded. Francis has remained stable, with no fever and good oxygen levels in his blood, doctors reported in a Vatican statement. The statement said the doctors decided to keep his prognosis guarded, meaning he isn't out of danger. Francis worked and rested during the day Saturday, the Vatican said.

Italian govt okays draft law to tackle homicides, violence against women

The Italian government approved a draft law that for the first time introduces the legal definition of femicide in the country's criminal law and punishes it with life imprisonment. The move, announced on the eve of Women's International Day on Saturday, aims at tackling a shocking string of homicides and violence targeting women in Italy through strengthening measures against gender-based crimes like stalking and revenge porn. The proposal, agreed on late Friday, still needs to go through parliament and be approved by both chambers to become law. This is an extremely significant bill, which introduces the crime of femicide in our legal system as an autonomous crime, punishing it with life imprisonment, said conservative Premier Giorgia Meloni, who strongly backed the initiative. It introduces aggravating circumstances and increases sentences for crimes including personal mistreatment, stalking, sexual violence and revenge porn, she said in a statement. While the centre-left ...

Google agrees to pay Italy $340 million to settle tax evasion investigation

Italian prosecutors on Wednesday said they are seeking to have a tax evasion investigation against Google dropped after the tech giant agreed to pay a 326 million Euro (USD 340 million) settlement. Milan prosecutors had opened an investigation against Google for failure to pay taxes on earnings in Italy from 2015-2019. The investigation focused on revenues from the sale of advertising, and cited the presence of servers and other infrastructure in Italy. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US Congress blocks DeepSeek AI over security concerns; Italy launches probe

US Congress bans Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek over security risks, citing malware threats. Italy follows suit, blocking access and launching a probe into its data practices

Being investigated for repatriating Libyan warlord, says Italian PM Meloni

Rome prosecutors have opened an investigation against Premier Giorgia Meloni and two government ministers for repatriating a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the premier announced Tuesday. Meloni revealed the investigation over allegedly aiding and abetting Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, in a video posted on social media. She said her justice and interior ministers and an under-secretary are also targeted in the investigation. Meloni's government has been under fire from the opposition, human rights groups and the ICC itself for releasing al-Masri on a technicality after he was arrested in the northern city of Turin on a warrant from the international court. Meloni said she presumes that the investigation was prompted by a complaint from an opposition politician. In Italy, prosecutors must launch investigations based on complaints, and it is up to a preliminary hearing judge to decide whether charges are filed or not. The process

No pvt discussion with Musk: Meloni on Italy's telecom security system deal

Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni said Thursday that her government is in talks with several private companies, including Elon Musk's SpaceX, over the country's telecoms security system, but denied having discussed the issue privately with Musk. I never talked about this with Musk. It's not my habit to use my public role to do favors to friends, Meloni said, responding to reporters' questions during her start-of-the-year press conference on a possible deal with Musk's group over Italian telecoms security. Meloni stressed that national interest was the only lens through which she judged such potential contracts with SpaceX, the owner of satellite system Starlink. Reportedly worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) and spread over five years, the project sparked an outcry by Italy's opposition parties, questioning that the handling of such communications could be handed to a Musk company. If the deal is sealed, SpaceX would provide encryption services for the Italian government and ...

Italy's biometric rule to increase Schengen visa travel costs for Indians

The fingerprinting process, already a requirement for short-term visas, is now extended to cover long-term visas

Italy in talks with SpaceX to secure $1.6 billion telecom security services

The plan also includes communications services for the Italian military in the Mediterranean area as well as the rollout of so-called direct-to-cell satellite services

Donald Trump hosts Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni at Mar-a-Lago

Trump walked in to a movie screening at his resort with Meloni and pointed her out to a crowd

Iran warns Italy ties to suffer if it yields to US demands on drone suspect

Iran warned Italy on Friday that it risked harming good bilateral relations if it bows to the political and hostile goals of the United States by detaining an Iranian engineer on a US warrant in connection with a drone attack in Jordan last year that killed three American troops. Tehran issued the warning to the Italian ambassador to Iran, Paola Amadei, who was summoned to the foreign ministry, the official IRNA news agency reported. The meeting took place a day after Italy summoned the Iranian ambassador over the detention of an Italian journalist in Tehran. The back-to-back diplomatic summonses underscored how a three-nation tangle over the fates of the two prisoners was getting ever more complicated for Italy, which is a historic ally of Washington but maintains traditionally good relations with Tehran. Mohammad Abedini was arrested by Italian authorities at Milan's Malpensa airport on December 16 on a US warrant. The US Justice Department accused him and another Iranian of ...

European car sales decline in November, led by France and Italy: ACEA

The slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales was only partly offset by the growth of hybrid-electric car registrations

Italy grants citizenship to Argentine Prez Javier Milei for his heritage

Javier Milei, whose grandparents migrated from Italy to Argentina, was granted Italian citizenship based on his ancestral ties, according to Italy's foreign ministry

Italy PM Meloni, Hungary's Orban pledge cooperation on migration, Ukraine

Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni met her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban on Wednesday in Rome, where the two discussed the situation in the Middle East, their support for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and their commitment to the eastern country's reconstruction. Meloni also congratulated Orban on his six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, the first chapter of accession talks with Albania and the progress made with Bulgaria and Romania in the expansion of the Schengen area, according to a statement from the Italian government. The two far-right leaders also discussed the Middle East conflict, support for a peaceful resolution in Ukraine, and their nations' commitment to Ukraine's reconstruction ahead of the next recovery conference, which will be held in Rome in July 2025. During the 1 1/2-hour meeting at the Italian government's headquarters the leaders also emphasised the importance of addressing irregular migration, calling for increased cooperation with countries

Italian companies invested $6.5 bn in India: European House Ambrosetti

The European House Ambrosetti group's senior partner Lorenzo Tavazzi on Friday said Italian companies have invested USD 6.5 billion in India, which speaks of the importance accorded to the world's fastest growing major economy, and stressed that there are a lot of opportunities for growth. Tavazzi, who heads TEHA's Scenarios and Intelligence Areas, was speaking in Mumbai after the inauguration of the Villaggio Italia exposition, being held to coincide with the port of call of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian Navy ship used for training and supporting national diplomacy. Speaking at a panel discussion curated by top Italian news agency ANSA in connection with the ship's arrival in Mumbai, Tavazzi said Italy can help India's aspirations on the energy transition and transport fronts with its expertise in sustainable technologies and also high-speed rail. Alessandro Giuliani of SDA Bocconi Asia Center, a Mumbai-based management education institute, said that given the commonality on the ...

At some stage, people will come to the table: Jaishankar on Ukraine war

Asserting that one is not going to find a solution from the battlefield, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that at some stage, "people will come to the table" when it comes to the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict. The 69-year-old, who is in Italy on an official visit from November 24-26 to participate in the Outreach session of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, said "the sooner they do it, the better because the rest of the world is being affected". Jaishankar said this during an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "We have today two major conflicts taking place simultaneously. This is putting the entire international system under great stress, he said. "And we cannot be just spectators and say, well, that's the way it is. It may or may not work. We will not know until we try. But we do believe that on both these conflicts, in Ukraine and in the Middle East, countries need to take initiatives, make efforts, however difficult it looks, to try and find

UniCredit irks Rome with $11 bn Banco BPM swoop after German backlash

Italy's Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti told reporters the government would review the bid under rules designed to give Rome power to shield key assets

MSEZ partners with Italy's MIR Group for Rs 1,500 cr green facility

The proposed facility will focus on manufacturing BIPV panels, thermal insulation materials, sodium-ion batteries, and insulated doors and windows

Italy ban on int'l surrogacy part of push for conservative family values

In the UK, the surrogate is the legal parent at birth but courts can transfer parenthood to the intended parents through a parental order, a surrogacy-specific mechanism designed to be less burdensome

India, Italy announce five-year strategic action plan for key sectors

India and Italy unveiled an ambitious five-year strategic action plan outlining specific initiatives in key sectors of defence, trade, clean energy and connectivity following extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni. The action plan 2025-29 identified 10 specific pillars for advancing bilateral engagement that included economic cooperation and investments, energy transition, space, defence, security, migration and mobility, people-to-people exchanges. In the talks held on the sidelines of the G20 summit on late Monday, Modi and Meloni also resolved to work together on multilateral and global platforms for upholding shared values of democracy, rule of law and sustainable development, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Our talks centred around deepening ties in defence, security, trade and technology. We also talked about how to boost cooperation in culture, education and other such areas, Modi said on ...

Jaishankar meets Italian Ambassador, discusses India-Italy strategic ties

He had previously remarked on the relationship between the two countries