Latest Italy government News

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala detained by police while reporting in Iran

Dec. 27, 2024 15:05 PM EST

ROME (AP) — An Italian journalist who was reporting in Tehran has been detained by the Iranian police, Italy’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. Cecilia Sala was reporting in the Iranian capital when she was detained on Dec. 19, the ministry said, adding that it was...

Italy vows to push ahead with dormant migrant vetting centers in Albania

Dec. 23, 2024 11:04 AM EST

MILAN (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government vowed on Monday to open controversial migrant processing centers in Albania that have remained dormant after Italian courts refused to validate the transfer of the first two groups of migrants. Government ministers...

Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain reopens after renovation work in time for the Jubilee Holy Year

Dec. 22, 2024 14:14 PM EST

ROME (AP) — Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain reopened Sunday after three months of renovations, just in time for the inauguration of the 2025 Jubilee Holy Year that is expected to draw millions of visitors. The renovation work on the 18th-century monument that's one of the Italian...

Italian court clears Vice Premier Salvini of illegally detaining migrants on a rescue ship in 2019

Dec. 20, 2024 13:57 PM EST

ROME (AP) — A court in Sicily Friday found Vice Premier Matteo Salvini not guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister. The court dropped all the charges against Salvini in relation an incident in 2019, when he refused...

White House says Biden will visit Pope Francis, Meloni in final international trip of his presidency

Dec. 19, 2024 18:35 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will travel to Italy next month to meet with Pope Francis and top Italian officials for what is expected to be the final international trip of his presidency. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that Biden will also...

Italy's Salvini faces verdict for blocking migrants at sea. Case weighs limits of stemming migration

Dec. 19, 2024 12:48 PM EST

MILAN (AP) — Italy’s deputy premier, Matteo Salvini, has sounded defiant ahead of Friday’s court verdict in Sicily for blocking some 100 migrants at sea on a humanitarian rescue boat in 2019 when he was interior minister. Salvini, who leads the Euroskeptic, anti-migrant League,...

Italy's premier defends her friendship with Musk and asserts her independence

Dec. 18, 2024 07:44 AM EST

MILAN (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday defended her friendship with U.S. tech billionaire and Trump confidant Elon Musk, telling Italian lawmakers that she would not be influenced in areas where he has economic interests. “I can be a friend of Elon Musk and at...

Stellantis pledges invest $2.1 million in Italian production in 2025 during talks with government

Dec. 17, 2024 15:01 PM EST

MILAN (AP) — Carmaker Stellantis will invest 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in Italian production next year and spend another 6 billion euros ($6.3 billion) in the supply chain, the head of European operations told a government panel on Tuesday. Stellantis executives laid out...

Italy's Meloni and Hungary's Orbán pledge deeper cooperation on migration and Ukraine

Dec. 04, 2024 13:31 PM EST

ROME (AP) — Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni met her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán 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. ...

Armed men in speedboats make off with women and children when a migrants' dinghy deflates off Libya

Nov. 29, 2024 11:39 AM EST

MILAN (AP) — Armed men in two speedboats took off with women and children after a rubber dinghy carrying some 112 migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea started deflating off Libya's coast, a humanitarian aid group said Friday. Dozens of men and boys who were aboard the...