VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis heralded Wednesday his historic trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a "new page" in the story of Christianity and Islam.
"In an era in which the temptation to go looking for conflict between the two faiths is strong," his visit gave a "clear" sign that "it is possible to find common ground," the pontiff said in his first address at the Vatican after returning from the Middle East.
VENICE – Mayor Luigi Brugnaro announced Monday that tourists visiting Italy’s popular Floating City for a single day-trip may have to start paying an entrance fee of three euros as of May 2019.
The Mayor of Venice has prepared figures and timings for the implementation of the three-year project, starting with an initial fee of three euros. 2019 will be a transition year as from Jan. 2020, a “bollini” system will then start, increasing fees to up to 10 euros on heavy tourism days to regulate the admissions according to the expected tourist flow.
ROME – The European Union has warned Italy that it risks losing or having to repay euros 1.2 billion of European funding if it renounces the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link known as TAV.
The EU has cautioned that Italy will have to pay back to Brussels TAV funding already assigned to the projectif a decision is not made imminently. The Italian government has said that it will decide whether or not to press ahead with the project when it has the new cost-benefit analysis that it has commissioned.
ABU DHABI – On the last morning of his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis addressed over 100,000 Catholics from around the world in the Zayed Sports City stadium.
Chants of “viva il Papa” greeted the pontiff on Tuesday as he gave the first Papal Mass in Abu Dhabi, marking the first time a Pope has visited the Arab peninsula.
Francis urged Christians living in Muslim countries such as the UAE to seek meekness rather than conflict in his address, after the Beatitudes from the gospel of Matthew were read.
COURMAYEUR – The bodies of four skiers, one of whom was British, have been found by a rescue team after an avalanche in Val Veny, police sources report.
Matt Ziegler, 43, was named by Italian police as one of four excursionists who were skiing in a closed off-piste area of the Courmayeur resort in the Valle d’Aosta when they were killed by the avalanche. Two French residents and a New Zealander were identified by alpine rescue services as the other three skiers involved in the accident.
VATICAN CITY – A senior Vatican official who handled sexual abuse cases has resigned after a former nun accused him of sexually assaulting her a decade ago. According to the woman, in 2009 former Father Hermann Geissler raped and abused her during confession and then forced her to silence.
“I was a young nun and I was abused by a priest from the Doctrine of the Faith. It shocked me that my superiors did not do anything,” said Doris Wagner, 35, who opened a case in the Vatican after the organisation of a summit on internal abuse only a few weeks ago, Il Fatto Quotidiano reported.
ROME – The Italian men’s Davis Cup team qualified for the Finals of the international competition after a comfortable 3-1 victory over India.
Andreas Seppi and Marco Berrettini recorded easy two-set wins in the opening singles matches. Berrettini then partnered with Simone Bolelli in the doubles but were beaten 6-4 3-6 4-6 by the Indian pairing, which included two-time mixed doubles Grand Slam winner Rohan Bopanna.
ROME – In 10 years, between 2005 and 2015, over 10,000 doctors left Italy and moved abroad for reasons including “higher salaries and meritocracy.” Their departure is a damaging problem that is increasingly being felt as the National Health Service continues to lose even more professionals.
The majority of them were orthopaedists, paediatricians, gynaecologists, anaesthetists, on average between 28 and 39 years old. In the same period 8,000 nurses also packed their bags and emigrated.
ROME – A Gervinho-inspired comeback against champions Juventus gave Parma a well-earned draw and opened the door for Napoli to reduce the deficit at the top of the table.
After a relatively sedate first half in Turin, in which Cristiano Ronaldo found an opener, five goals in the last 30 minutes brought the fixture to life. Daniele Rugani gave Juve a 2-0 lead, Antonio Barillá pulled one back for Parma, before Ronaldo scored his second to reinstate the hosts’ two goal advantage, all in the space of four minutes.
