Italy

ROME, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella was sworn in here on Thursday, inaugurating his second seven-year mandate.

His re-election -- which the parliament voted with a broad majority on Jan. 29 -- came after the country's major political forces failed to find a deal on a possible successor.

Although initially reluctant, Mattarella accepted to serve a second term citing a" sense of responsibility during the (current) health and economic emergency" linked to the pandemic.

ROME, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Sergio Mattarella urged Italians to pull together to support the country's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic after he was sworn in for a second term as Italy's president on Thursday.

The reappointment of Mattarella, who had initially been reluctant to sign up for a second seven-year term, brought some temporary respite to tensions within Italy's broad, ruling coalition after a week of fruitless efforts to find a successor. 

ROME, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella was elected to a second term, Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico announced late Saturday, after the parliament gathered in a joint session and concluded its eighth round of voting.

Mattarella was reconfirmed with a broad majority, namely 759 votes in favor from a total of 983 lawmakers and regional representatives actively taking part in the ballot.

ROME, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Italian governing parties will ask current President Sergio Mattarella his availability to be confirmed for a second term, local media reported on Saturday.

Parties' whips would formalize the request in a visit to Mattarella at the Quirinale presidential palace Saturday afternoon.

The leaders of the country's two coalitions -- the center-right and the center-left -- agreed on this after a meeting in the morning, while their respective lawmakers were going through the seventh, inconclusive vote.

ROME, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Italy's lawmakers began a second round of voting on Tuesday to elect a new head of state, but it looked certain to be inconclusive with the parties apparently no closer to finding a mutually acceptable candidate.

Although Prime Minister Mario Draghi remains the most likely choice, worries that his promotion to president might shatter his coalition government and trigger early national elections have complicated his prospects.

MILAN (AP) — The parent group of MSC Cruises is partnering with Lufthansa in a bid for a majority stake in Italy’s ITA Airways, the company created from the ashes of former Italian flagship airline Alitalia.

MSC Group, which includes container shipping and logistics businesses in addition to cruises, said in a statement late Monday that the deal would leverage synergies in both passenger and cargo, and that Lufthansa has already shown interest in the deal.

ROME (AP) — The first round of voting for Italy’s next president opens Monday without a clear slate of candidates following three-time ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s reluctant withdrawal, a situation that is likely to persist until Thursday.

Italy’s lawmakers and a smaller group of special regional representatives are set to vote for a successor to Sergio Mattarella as Italy’s head of state, a largely ceremonial post that still requires political acumen and constitutional knowledge to steer Italy through its frequent political crises.

MILAN, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in a Milan hospital for routine checks, his personal doctor said on Sunday, a day after the 85-year-old decided not to run for president.

Berlusconi, a four-times prime minister of Italy, had major heart surgery in 2016 and has also had prostate cancer. He has been repeatedly admitted to hospital over the past year after contracting COVID-19 in 2020.

Alberto Zangrillo said in a statement that Berlusconi was undergoing long-scheduled tests in the hospital.

ROME (AP) — To mask or not to mask is a question Italy settled early in the COVID-19 outbreak with a vigorous “yes.” Now the onetime epicenter of the pandemic in Europe hopes even stricter mask rules will help it beat the latest infection surge.

Other countries are taking similar action as the more transmissible — yet, apparently, less virulent — omicron variant spreads through the continent.

ROME, January 10. /TASS/: The European Union should "exchange opinions closely" on the situation in Kazakhstan, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in Rome on Monday, quoted by Germany’s Phoenix TV channel.

"Definitely, it is not in the interests of Europe to see the countries of Central Asia getting unilaterally dependent either on Russia or on China," the diplomat said. According to the top diplomat, the rapid escalation of tension in Kazakhstan had "shocked everybody".