Italy

ROME, Jan 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Italy revoked approval for arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the conflict in Yemen, making permanent an 18-month temporary suspension.

“Today I am announcing that the government has revoked the authorisations underway for the export of missiles and aircraft bombs to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday.

29 Jan 2021; MEMO: Italy has blocked exports of arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, following warnings by activists and lawmakers about the use of weapons in violation of human rights in Yemen, Anadolu Agency reports.

"This is an act that we considered necessary, a clear message of peace coming from our country. For us, the respect of human rights is an unbreakable commitment," Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in a statement.

ROME, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella has given House Speaker Roberto Fico an exploratory mandate to verify whether the same governing majority that existed before Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned on Jan. 26 is still workable.

In a brief televised statement, Fico thanked Mattarella for entrusting him with the job of sounding out the members of the preceding government coalition -- the center-left Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement, and the centrist Italia Viva party led by Matteo Renzi, a former prime minister.

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte intends to offer his resignation on Tuesday, his office said Monday, a move seen as gamble that the embattled leader will get a fresh mandate from the president to try to forge a more viable coalition.

Conte survived two confidence votes in Parliament last week but crucially lost his absolute majority in the Senate with the defection of a centrist ally, ex-Premier Matteo Renzi. That hobbled his government’s effectiveness in the middle of the pandemic, which has devastated Italy’s long-stagnant economy.

ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte addressed the Italian Senate on Tuesday, hoping to win over enough opposition and unaligned lawmakers to keep him in office after a junior partner quit his coalition.

Conte gave almost the same speech to the upper house as he had delivered on Monday to the Chamber of Deputies, where he won by a wider than expected margin of 321 votes to 259, securing an absolute majority.

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.