ROME – The Commonwealth Club of Rome will be hosting their annual lunch to commemorate Commonwealth Day.
As always, the Commonwealth Day Message by Her Majesty the Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, will be read out, followed by updates from several Ambassadors of commonwealth countries, as listed below, who are here in Rome.
ROME – The final results of Italy’s elections have begun to be announced on Wednesday with the final 18 seats coming from Italian citizens living abroad bucking the trend of the election in general and seeing the centre-left take the largest number of seats.
The Democratic Party, (PD) is on course to win seven seats, with the centre-right coalition picking up five, and the Five Star Movement (M5S) securing only one.
ROME – The complex issues covering the roots of the revolt in Syria and their constant transformation over the past seven years were analysed in the book launch of “Siria: Il perché di una guerra” at the Euro-Gulf Information Centre headquarters on Via Gregoriana.
ROME - The current course of Turkey’s foreign policy is causing significant tensions with powerful traditional allies such as the United States or increasingly powerful players in the Middle East, namely Russia, as Ankara continues its military offensive in North-West Syria. As such, the Eastern Mediterranean standoff with Italy might erroneously seem as a minor issue for Turkey’s political establishment. However, the latest events are really significant.
ROME – Silvio Berlusconi finally emerged after two days of silence following Forza Italia’s disappointing showing at the elections to say he was “happy” with the result, while his coalition partner, Matteo Salvini, made overtures to the left on Wednesday in the hope of becoming prime minister.
The octogenarian Berlusconi was the only leader not to give a press conference following the result with his party slipping into second place in the right-wing coalition after collecting only 14 percent of the vote.
ROME – An enraged Senegalese community took to the streets of Florence protesting the mindless killing of 54-year-old, Idy Diene, as Chief Prosecutor declares “racist motives should be ruled out.”
Roberto Pirrone, the 65-year-old killer, has stated that “the first one who passed by, I shot him,” firing several times into the Diene’s chest as he crossed the Vespucci Bridge on Monday morning. Despite the efforts of a medical team, who were temporarily able to revive the man, he passed away soon after the shooting.
ROME – Liberi e Uguali officials and candidates were left pondering the future of the party on Tuesday after a calamitous result in the elections that saw them scrape into parliament and leaves unresolved questions on where the party heads from here.
Nicola Fratoianni, head of the Italian Left party that was one of the founding members of LeU, diagnosed the party’s failure by suggesting that they had “been unsuccessful in intercepting the voters leaving the Democratic Party” and promising: “we will reflect.”
ROME – Investors looked anxiously on after Italy’s elections, but it was the Berlusconi family’s Mediaset that suffered the biggest fall the day following the election, with the company registering a five percent fall in price.
Uncertainty over the shape of the next Italian government led to a slight fall in the Milan stock exchange of around half a percent.
