Italy

Aug 20 (Reuters) - Weeks of baking drought across Europe have seen water levels in rivers and lakes fall to levels few can remember, exposing long-submerged treasures - and some unwanted hazards.

In Spain, suffering its worst drought in decades, archaeologists have been delighted by the emergence of a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the "Spanish Stonehenge" that is usually covered by the waters of a dam.

ROME, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) will offer teenagers a "dowry" of up to 10,000 euros ($10,035) when they turn 18, the party said in its manifesto made public on Friday ahead of next month's election, perhaps the most eye-catching promise in a 37-page programme.

The PD faces an arduous task of preventing a rightist victory at the Sept. 25 ballot. Its manifesto contains big pledges such as offering workers the equivalent of an extra month's salary and building 500,000 homes in a social housing programme.

MILAN (AP) — Fashion designer Giorgio Armani and dozens of others were forced to flee from their vacation villas overnight as firefighters worked to extinguish the remnants of two wildfires on the Sicilian island of Pantelleria on Thursday.

A photo shows flames that appear to encroach on Armani’s villa, but his press office said they stopped short of the property. Armani and guests evacuated to a boat in the harbor overnight.

MILAN (AP) — The leader of Italy’s Democratic Party warned Saturday of the threats that Italy’s right-wing nationalistic parties pose to European democracy in a video released in multiple languages, and promised that his party would keep Italy at the center of the European Union if it wins the country’s early parliamentary election next month.

SIRMIONE Italy (AP) — Italy’s worst drought in decades has reduced Lake Garda, the country’s largest lake, to near its lowest level ever recorded, exposing swaths of previously underwater rocks and warming the water to temperatures that approach the average in the Caribbean Sea.

ROME, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni recorded a video message in three languages on Wednesday to reassure Italy's partners a right-wing government led by her would not threaten financial stability and would stick to Rome's traditional alliances.

Italy's conservative bloc, which also includes Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, is well placed to win an outright majority at an election scheduled for Sept. 25, according to a study on Tuesday. 

BORGO VIRGILIO, Italy, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Heatwaves sweeping Europe this summer have brought not just record high temperatures and scorched fields: the drought-stricken waters of Italy's River Po are running so low they revealed a previously submerged World War Two bomb.

Military experts defused and carried out a controlled explosion on Sunday of the 450-kg (1,000-pound) bomb, which was discovered on July 25 near the northern village of Borgo Virgilio, close to the city of Mantua.

CIVITANOVA MARCHE, Italy (AP) — Black Italians marched through a well-to-do Adriatic beach town Saturday demanding that authorities reverse themselves and recognize the role of race in the brutal daylight killing of a Nigerian immigrant.

ROME, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Italy's parliament on Wednesday gave its final approval to a bill ratifying the accession of Finland and Sweden to the NATO alliance.

The Senate voted by 202 to 13 in favour of the bill, a day after the lower house approved it by a large majority.

The accession needs to be ratified by the parliaments of all 30 North Atlantic Treaty Organization members before Finland and Sweden can be protected by the NATO defence clause that states that an attack on one member is an attack against all. 

ROME, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Italy's tax police have seized assets worth over 141 million euros ($144 million) from an architect who designed a luxury estate on the Black Sea which has been dubbed "Putin's palace" by opponents of the Russian president.

The tax police sent a statement earlier on Wednesday saying it had seized the assets from a "well-known professional" in Brescia, a town in northern Italy, citing alleged tax offences.