Italy

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Away from the once-maddening crowds of St. Mark’s Square, tiny Certosa island could be a template for building a sustainable future in Venice as it tries to relaunch its tourism industry without boomeranging back to pre-pandemic day-tripping hordes.

Private investment has converted the forgotten public island just a 15-minute waterbus ride from St. Mark’s Square into a multi-faceted urban park where Venetians and Venice conoscenti can mix, free from the tensions inherent to the lagoon city’s perennial plague of mass tourism.

ROME, June 16. / TASS /: Italy has launched the production of the first test batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, the Swiss-Italian company Adienne Pharma & Biotech’s press service told TASS on Wednesday.

14 June 2021; MEMO: The Mediterranean Sea, which desperate refugees and migrants regularly attempt to cross in the hope of a better life, is the "largest cemetery in Europe", Pope Francis said yesterday.

The Pope, who frequently draws attention to the plight of refugees, made his remarks at St Peter's Square in the city of Vatican.

ROME, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Italy on Friday suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under 60 years old, health officials announced at a weekly press conference on the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move came after an 18-year-old woman died of a blood clot Thursday after receiving an initial dose of AstraZeneca on May 25.

According to local media reports, the young woman suffered from autoimmune thrombocytopenia (meaning that she had a low blood platelet count) and was on double hormone therapy.

9 June 2021; MEMO: Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday summoned the UAE Ambassador to Rome, Omar Al-Shamsi, following Abu Dhabi's recent refusal to allow an Italian Air Force plane to access Emirati airspace.

In an official statement, the ministry said that it had summoned the UAE ambassador to express its "surprise and great disappointment," following what it described as an "unexpected gesture that is hard to understand."

ROME, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) is evaluating evidence from Italy that the coronavirus or a similar virus may have been circulating in Italy months earlier than generally believed, a researcher told Xinhua on Monday.

(Reuters) --- Italy's co-ruling 5-Star Movement has resolved a long-running internal legal battle, paving the way for former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to take over as leader of the divided party and try to revive its fortunes.

Conte agreed to take the reins of 5-Star after his coalition government collapsed in February, but his plans to relaunch the struggling group have been delayed by a bitter dispute with the firm that provided its internet platform.

ROME, June 3 (Xinhua) -- World food prices surged in May, climbing for a record 12th consecutive month as supply chain issues sparked by the coronavirus pandemic combined to push prices nearly 40 percent above levels from a year earlier, according to data released on Thursday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

02 June 2021; MEMO: Libya is at a crucial turning point in the political stabilisation process, Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, announced yesterday.

"To Italy, the Government of National Unity represents the whole Libyan nation, through which we can coordinate our investment plans on Libyan soil," Di Maio said during the Italian-Libyan Business Forum held in the Italian capital city of Rome.

ROME, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Italy and Libya will work together on illegal immigration and renewable energies, Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah told reporters at a joint press conference after meeting here on Monday.

"Italy stands with Libya and supports it during this complex transition: the concrete implementation of a ceasefire, the removal of mercenaries and foreign soldiers, and the creation of an institutional structure," Draghi said.