Italy has completed its troop pull-out from Afghanistan, Rome announced on Wednesday, ending a 20-year deployment there as part of an accelerated withdrawal of NATO forces. Members of the US-backed alliance agreed in April to wrap up their 9,600-strong mission in Afghanistan after US President Joe Biden made the call to end Washington’s longest war. […]
Italy
US urges Covid cooperation at G20 as China critical
The United States led calls at a G20 meeting Tuesday for greater global cooperation in light of the coronavirus crisis as China insisted that multilateralism should not just be a slogan. Italy welcomed foreign ministers of the Group of 20 major economies to the southern city of Matera for their first in-person talks since the […]
US presses allies to bring back IS fighters
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday pressed US allies to bring back citizens arrested overseas for joining the Islamic State group, warning they could not be held indefinitely in Syria. Blinken made the appeal in Rome at a meeting of an 83-member coalition on defeating the extremist network, where he and host Italy called […]
After Biden, Blinken back to Europe to shore up Western unity
Days after Joe Biden’s first presidential trip abroad, Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed back to Europe Tuesday to keep up the work of building Western unity against a rising China. Blinken left Washington late Tuesday afternoon for Berlin, and will continue on to Paris and Rome, meeting the European Union’s two key powerbrokers, German […]
Italy says face masks will no longer be mandatory outdoors from June 28
Facemasks will no longer be compulsory outdoors in Italy, one of the countries in Europe worst hit by the coronavirus, from June 28, the health ministry said Monday. The lifting of the mask requirement would come into effect in regions labelled “white” under Italy’s classification system for how rapidly the virus is spreading, Health Minister […]
Italy re-imposes quarantine on arrivals from Britain
Italy is reintroducing a five-day quarantine on arrivals from Britain after a spike in coronavirus cases there, Health Minister Roberto Speranza announced on Friday. “I have signed a new order that… introduces a five day quarantine with a requirement to take a test for those coming from Britain,” he wrote on Facebook. Britain on Thursday […]
India drops all charges against Italian marines: Rome
All legal proceedings have been dropped in India against two Italian marines who shot and killed two fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012, Italy’s foreign minister said Tuesday. “All legal proceedings in India against our two marines… have been closed,” tweeted Luigi Di Maio. “It definitively brings this long episode to an end.” […]
Man held in Italy over UK Vietnamese migrant deaths
Italian police said Saturday they had arrested a man wanted by Britain in connection with a people-smuggling plot that led to the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the back of a lorry. Stefan Damian Dragos, a 28-year-old Romanian citizen, is accused of having provided the truck that transported the migrants to England, according to […]
Italy and Turkey get ball rolling as Euro 2020 begins under Covid cloud
An in-form Italy face Turkey in Rome on Friday as Euro 2020 finally gets underway a year behind schedule and with the coronavirus pandemic casting a shadow over the tournament. Postponed 12 months ago because of the pandemic, the European Championship — with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal the holders — is being played for the first […]
Italy arrests fake ID gang linked to Vienna terror attack
Italian police said Friday they arrested seven people accused of supplying fake identity papers to terrorists, including the suspect behind last year’s deadly attack in Vienna. The suspects, described as “eastern European citizens”, produced “thousands of forged documents, also for the Vienna attacker and for foreign fighters”, police said in a statement. They were caught […]