ROME (AP) — Authorities in Italy, France and Albania have confirmed their citizens are among the 39 victims of Tuesday’s highway bridge collapse in Genoa. They include three children, traveling with their respective families on summer holidays. Here are some of their stories.
ROME (AP) — An Italian minister is facing broad condemnation after calling for the abolition of an anti-racism law, with key members of the government including the prime minister distancing themselves from the statements.
Family Minister Lorenzo Fontana, of the far-right League party, on Friday called for abolishing a 1993 law condemning racist violence, hatred and discrimination, saying “globalists” were using it to “disguise their anti-Italian racism as anti-Fascism.”
The president of Italy’s Union of Jewish Communities, Noemi Di Segni criticized the minister’s words, saying the law should be enforced and defended.
ROME (AP) — Police in Rome on Thursday cleared nearly 400 people, including dozens of children, from a shanty camp inhabited for years by members of the minority Roma community, despite a European Union court ruling halting demolition.
Residents stood outside the camp with mattresses and other belongings piled alongside vehicles, some protesting against the move with chants of “Racists!”
Some residents complained that police used force during the eviction. Police commander Antonio Di Maggio denied the claims.
ROME (AP) — A close adviser to Pope Francis criticized legislation proposed by Italy’s anti-migrant League party to require ports and other public institutions to display a crucifix, saying Wednesday that the religious symbol isn’t “a team emblem” to be shown for political ends.
“If you remove the (religious) symbolism from the crucifix ... it becomes a parody,” the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica, said during a Rome conference on the pope.
A tweet Spardaro posted earlier in the day with a blunt “Hands off!” went viral. The crucifix, he wrote, “screams love to the enemy and unconditional welcome.”
The life-size reproduction of two whales emerge from a sea filled with plastic waste in front of Rome’s Pantheon Thursday, July 5, 2018. With the installation, Greenpeace hopes to raise awareness on pollution, and particularly on the dangers of disposable plastic packages, in the Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Simone Somekh)
See the image here.
