Italy

12 June 2019; DW: A decree adopted by the Italian government on Tuesday would force non-governmental organizations to pay between €10,000 and €50,000 ($11,327 – $56,638) for transporting rescued migrants to Italian ports.

Rescuers who repeatedly dock without authorization risk having their vessel permanently impounded. The fines would be payable by the captain, the operator and the owner of the rescue ship.

9 June 2019; DW: Nearly 60,000 people had signed a petition by Saturday afternoon demanding that Italy drop criminal proceedings against German boat captain Pia Klemp and other crew members who have rescued thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

In an interview with the Basler Zeitung daily on Friday, Klemp said that a trial against her was due to begin soon after she and some of her compatriots were charged in Sicily with assisting in illegal immigration.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Thousands of people have marched in Venice to demand that cruise ships be kept out of the Italian city’s lagoon.

The protest Saturday was galvanized by a crash six days earlier involving a cruise ship that struck a much smaller river boat in Venice’s Giudecca Canal. The crash injured five people.

Some marchers carried banners that read “Ships out of the lagoon.” Others took to the Venetian Lagoon itself in rowboats and other small vessels to push a yearslong campaign to end cruise ship port calls.

ROME, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission suggested to open a disciplinary action against Italy for not sticking to a promised path of debt reduction, major Italian media reported on Wednesday.

An excessive deficit procedure against Italy was justified, according to the European Union (EU) executive body, because of "Italy's non-compliance with the EU's debt rule in 2018," said Ansa news agency reporting from Brussels.

Besides, the Commission added it would not expect Italy to comply with such rule in 2019-2020 neither.

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ROME, June 4. /TASS/. The United States is deliberately trying to make Iran violate the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), former head of the Verification and Security Policy Coordination Office at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Tariq Rauf told TASS on Tuesday.

4 June 2019; DW: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday said he would step down from his post unless the ruling 5-Star Movement and League parties started to take responsibility for running the country.  

"I am asking both these political forces to make a choice and tell me if they still want to honor the government's obligations," he told a news conference. If not, "I will simply end my mandate."

VENICE, Italy (AP) — A towering, out-of-control cruise ship rammed into a dock and a tourist riverboat on a busy Venice canal on Sunday morning, injuring five people, officials said. The collision sparked new calls for placing restrictions on cruise ships in the famed city.

The crash happened about 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on the Giudecca Canal, a major thoroughfare that leads to St. Mark’s Square in the northeastern Italian city.

CATANIA, Sicily (AP) — Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, is spewing ash and lava once again, but officials say the activity is taking place at its summit and does not pose a risk to people.

Etna began a new phase of eruptions on Thursday as new cracks in the volcano opened up, sending lava down its flank.

The volcano previously erupted in December and sparked minor earthquakes that caused extensive damage to buildings in the vicinity.

PARMA, Italy (AP) — The police huddled for hours each day, headphones on, eavesdropping on the doctor. They’d tapped his cellphone, bugged his office, planted a camera in a trattoria.

They heard him boast about his power to help Big Pharma make millions pushing painkillers, and about all the money they say he was paid in exchange.

Vatican City, May 25 (AP/PTI) Pope Francis says abortion can never be condoned, even when the fetus is gravely sick or malformed. He is urging doctors and priests to support families to carry such pregnancies to term.

During an audience Saturday with participants of a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference, Francis said opposition to abortion isn't a religious issue but a human one: "Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem? Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?"