Italy

ROME, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) has fined Google about 102 million euros (123 million U.S. dollars) for abusing its dominant position in the Italian market, the authority said in a statement on Thursday.

The watchdog said Google violated the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, since the U.S. tech giant refused to allow an Italian company's app to interoperate with Google's Android Auto app which mirrors features of an Android device on a car's dashboard information and entertainment head unit.

(Reuters) --- Italy's government is set to ask the European Union to pay Libya to stop migrant boats leaving its coast, newspaper la Repubblica reported on Tuesday.

The scheme, which the newspaper says Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi may propose to EU leaders at a summit on May 24 and 25, would be similar to a deal struck with Turkey to halt migrant flows from the Balkans in 2016.

Draghi's office was not immediately available to comment.

(Reuters) --- Five boats carrying hundred of migrants landed in Lampedusa after being intercepted by Italian authorities off the coast of the Mediterranean island, ANSA news agency reported on Sunday.

Lampedusa is one of the main landing points on the route for migrants departing mostly from Tunisia and Libya to reach Europe.

"Migrants arrivals are resuming alongside good weather", Lampedusa mayor Toto Martello told state broadcaster RAI. "We need to restart discussions about the immigration issue," he said.

ROME, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Ministers of Tourism from the Group of 20, or the G20, on Tuesday pledged support for "safe international mobility initiatives" as a way to help relaunch the world's tourism sector.

The ministers agreed that a normalized global tourism industry was "crucial" to the world's economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Italian Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia told reporters after the day-long virtual meeting of ministers from the G20, which groups 19 countries and the European Union (EU).

ROME (AP) — A jury in Rome on Wednesday began deliberating the fates of two young American men who are charged with killing an Italian police officer near the hotel where they were staying while on summer vacation in 2019.

Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were indicted on charges of homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause.

Judge Marina Finiti indicated the verdicts could come later Wednesday or on Thursday.

SICILY, May 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An American has been detained after arriving in Sicily on a private jet from Florida in possession of weapons and drugs, Italian media report.

Patrick Joseph Horan, 64, told police he was visiting relatives on the Italian island when he landed on Friday, according to news agency Ansa.

But a check carried out on the aircraft was said to have uncovered guns, bows and arrows and 1kg (35oz) of marijuana.

The items were reportedly seized and Horan was taken away for questioning.

ROME, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Italy took a first decisive step towards a post-pandemic phase on Monday, the first day of reopening amid decreasing coronavirus cases.

Restaurants, bars, outdoor sporting facilities and museums were among the activities allowed to restart in the 14 "yellow" regions, which show a low risk of contagion on the basis of local coronavirus data.

The government's reopening "roadmap" set a precise schedule for gradually lifting containment measures, with different timings for various restricted sectors to restart between late April and early July.

(Reuters) --- Italy has joined other countries by imposing restrictions on travel from India to avert the spread of a COVID-19 variant as the Asian nation struggles with a surge in infections.

Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza said on Twitter he had signed an order barring foreign travellers who have been in India in the past 14 days from entering the country.

ROME, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The regional health commission in Italy's Lombardy said Saturday that public confidence in the country's use of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been hindered by safety fears.

Giovanni Pavesi, director-general of the Lombardy Region Welfare Department, told health officials and reporters, mostly via video hookup, that reports of health concerns tied to the AstraZeneca vaccine have resulted in people turning down that vaccine.

ROME (AP) — A judge on Saturday ordered former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial on kidnapping charges for having refused to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019, keeping the people onboard at sea for days.

Judge Lorenzo Iannelli set Sept. 15 as the trial date during a hearing in the Palermo bunker courtroom in Sicily.

Salvini, who attended the hearing, insisted that he was only doing his job and his duty by refusing entry to the Open Arms rescue ship and the 147 people it had saved in the Mediterranean Sea.