Italy

MILAN (Reuters) - At least five people have died at a nursing home in Italy from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, local media and officials said on Saturday.

The incident happened at the Villa dei Diamanti care home in Lanuvio, a town near Rome, Italian firefighters said in a post on Twitter. “Some residents have [been] killed, while others have been hospitalised,” it said.

Seven people, including two health workers, are being treated in hospital for symptoms related to carbon monoxide poisoning, the ANSA news agency said.

ROME, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Evidence that the coronavirus circulated in Italy months before its first formal detection has continued to mount, after researchers at the University of Milan revealed that a skin biopsy on a 25-year-old woman showed the presence of the coronavirus in Italy in November 2019.

That evidence is added to earlier research, also from the University of Milan, which in December discovered coronavirus antibodies in a four-year-old boy who fell ill in late November 2019.

ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte faced a cabinet showdown on Tuesday with a small coalition partner that could bring down his government and unleash political chaos on Italy as it struggles to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Italia Viva, headed by former premier Matteo Renzi, has threatened to withdraw its two ministers in protest over various issues, including Conte’s plans for spending billions of euros promised by the European Union to relaunch the battered economy.

ROME (Reuters) - The Italian head of state wants both the cabinet and parliament to approve a European Union recovery plan before any eventual political showdown between the ruling coalition parties, a political source said on Monday.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte faces a confrontation with his coalition partner and former premier Matteo Renzi that could topple his government even as it struggles with COVID-19, and President Sergio Mattarella’s demand will likely prolong the standoff.

05 Jan 2021; MEMO: The Green Italy party yesterday revealed its intention to file a legal complaint in the next few days against the Italian government's decision to sell weapons to Egypt.

The party's decision comes after the parents of slain Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, who it is believed was killed by Egyptian security forces in 2016, said they would sue the Italian government for violating the law which prohibits arms sales to countries where serious human rights violations are committed.

ROME (AP) — A Spanish-flagged humanitarian ship on Sunday was seeking a port of safety for 265 migrants its crew rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in the last few days.

The Open Arms charity tweeted that its vessel on Saturday had safely brought aboard 96 migrants who had been adrift in a wooden boat with without life vests in international waters. It said the passengers, most of them from Eritrea, included two women and 17 minors and were suffering from hypothermia.

ROME, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- The vaccine to prevent the coronavirus disease and the European Union (EU) recovery program will be two crucial tools for Italy's relaunch in 2021, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Thursday in his New Year speech.

"The pandemic has carved deep scars in our lives and our society. It has worsened old inequalities and created new ones," said Mattarella.

However, he stressed that important and encouraging signals should allow the Italians to turn their fears and worries into positive energies to restart.

ROME (AP) — An author of a withdrawn World Health Organization report into Italy’s coronavirus response warned his bosses in May that people could die and the U.N. agency could suffer “catastrophic” reputational damage if it allowed political concerns to suppress the document, according to emails seen by The Associated Press.

ROME (AP) — Italy on Sunday eclipsed Britain to become the nation with the worst official coronavirus death toll in Europe.

Italy, where the continent’s pandemic began, registered 484 COVID-19 deaths in one day, one of its lowest one-day death counts in about a month.

Still, those latest deaths pushed Italy’s official toll up to 64,520, while Britain’s stood at 64,267, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

ROME, Dec 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Italy reported yesterday, 12,756 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its tally to 1,770,149, according to the country’s health authorities.

The health ministry also confirmed 499 new fatalities from the virus, over the past day.

Italy’s total COVID-19 death toll now stands at 61,739, the second highest in Europe after Britain.