NAPOLI – The Azzurri held out the Catalan team in yellow to end the match 1-1, in what was a tense and cagey first leg of the UEFA Champions League last 16 round. The encounter took place on Tuesday at the San Paolo in front of 45,000 fans.
Napoli scored first through the Dries Mertens who struck on the half hour mark from outside the box in spectacular fashion. Napoli continued to press in the last minutes of the first half, but couldn’t find a finish.
ROME – Eight children have tested positive for the coronavirus in Lombardy, two of which were temporarily hospitalised, according to public health officials. A baby from Castiglione d'Adda was amongst those who tested positive, with the infection possibly having been received in Codogno hospital. She has since been confined to her home, reports Il Fatto Quotidiano.
ROME - Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted of third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sexual act charges on Monday, would have gotten away with it if he had been an aid worker, according to international child protection charity, Hear Their Cries. In a statement on Tuesday, Hear Their Cries have said that too little is being done to stop sexual abuse in the aid industry, with criticism levelled at the UK government’s minimalist approach.
ROME – The Serie A fixtures list was compromised last weekend as four football matches were cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Italian government declared in a statement. The cancelled fixtures included Inter Milan and Sampdoria, Turin and Parma, Atalanta and Sassuolo and Hallas Verona against Cagliari. Their cancellation poses major problems such as with regards to TV licencing, and Serie A have had to cite force majeure, or extenuating circumstances that were not foreseeable, reports Il Fatto Quotidiano.
VENICE - The world-famous Hollywood actor Tom Cruise was temporarily stuck in a 5 star hotel in Venice after the filming of Mission Impossible 7 was put on hold after the coronavirus outbreak in Northern Italy, reports Il Messaggero.
Cruise arrived in Venice on Feb. 20 to work on the film which is set for a 2021 release date. He was confined in the Hotel Gritti Palace, and it has been reported that he has since been flown out of Italy to the UK. A decision will be made on the future of the project on March 1.
ROME – The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has levelled allegations of incompetence at health management officials in Northern Italy, while three countries, Kuwait, Jordan and the Seychelles Islands ban flights from Italy and add to the prime minister's woes.
ROME – Defence and police officials from around the world met on Friday to discuss the problems of drug trafficking in the modern era, in an attempt to develop common strategies that will help fight the drug-overdose epidemic.
GENOA – Italian union workers blockaded the port of Genoa in protest against the attempted docking of the ‘Bahri-Yanbu’ freighter which is suspected of carrying explosive material to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to a union statement.
ROME – The traditional wooden spoon matchup in the Six Nations is to focus on environmental sustainability and social awareness, under the title ‘Responsible Oval World’, according to a press release on Wednesday from the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR).
A collaboration between the FIR and ‘Punto 3’, an events company that specializes in sustainability, will ensure that the 2020 Six Nations' fixtures in Rome will use compostable glasses. In addition, the Stadio Olimpico’s food waste will be recovered by Equoevento, a Roman non-profit who fight food waste.
