Sicily's Stromboli erupts as tourists watch from boats

Volcano under 24-hour watch, activity there suspended

(ANSA) - Palermo, August 8 - Sicily's famous Stromboli volcano was on a 24-hour watch Friday after an eruption caused a major lava flow that suspended all hiking activity on its slopes. Thousands of tourists watched from boats as the volcano erupted on Thursday, releasing an abundant lava flow that covered an area of 600 meters. A new crater opened in the Sciara del Fuoco region, on the northeastern side of the volcano at approximately 650 meters, official said.

The Volcano Risk Center of the Department of Protection called the eruption an "elevated critical situation" and asked the National Geophysical and Volcano Institute and the University of Florence to increase supervision and on-site personnel. Stromboli mayor Marco Giorganni suspended all hiking activity on the volcano. 

People's Bank of China buys shares in Italy's Generali

Latest purchase in Italian shopping spree by Chinese bank

(ANSA) - Milan, August 8 - The People's Bank of China, the Asian giant's central bank, has taken a 2.014% stake in one of Italy's largest insurance companies Generali, national financial market regulator Consob said Friday.

It's the latest in a string of strategic purchases by the Chinese central bank in major Italian firms. In recent months, the bank has bought up shares in Torino-based automaker Fiat, Telecom Italia, cable-maker Prysmian, and energy majors Eni and Enel. 

Large ships banned from Venice St Mark's basin

Giant cruise liners blamed for endangering fragile buildings

(ANSA) - Rome, August 8 - Veneto Governor Luca Zaia on Friday said ships above 40,000 tonnes will be banned from Saint Mark's basin and the Giudecca Canal in Venice. It was a "unanimous decision" by an interministerial committee to save Venice and its lagoon, the governor tweeted. In addition to the risk of collision, cruise ships have long been blamed for blowing corrosive smog onto Venice's medieval buildings, whose fragile foundations are weakened by the massive vibrations big liners put off. Other experts warn that the thousand-year-old wooden piles that prop up the city underwater would crumble like toothpicks under the weight of a 114,500-ton cruise ship like the Costa Concordia.

In addition, liners ushering tourists into the heart of the city disrupt the extremely fragile foundation of Venice and its medieval monuments by displacing massive amounts of water in the shallow lagoon, while environmentalists warn that the lagoon surrounding Venice, itself a UNESCO heritage site, is at great risk due to its fragile ecosystem. Over 650 cruise ships currently pass through the city annually. Last November the government of ex-premier Enrico Letta ordered a halt to large cruise ships passing through the Venice lagoon, effective from November 2014, and a limit on smaller cruise vessels effective in January.

The regulation came in response to the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in early 2012, which killed 32 people off the coast of Tuscany. However a regional court suspended the ban in Venice, where the cruise industry is key to the local economy, prompting Italy's leading environmental group Legambiente to accuse the court of recklessness. Similar regulations had been imposed earlier throughout the rest of Italy, where the cruise industry plays a smaller role in the local economy. In April this year, cruise lines vowed their biggest ships would give Venice a wide berth from November 30 after the long-running row about their effect on the delicate lagoon city. The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) made the vow after a meeting with Italian culture, environment and transport ministers. 

Etihad CEO says deal will make Alitalia 'more secure'

Tie-up between carriers aimed at expanding routes

(ANSA) - Rome, August 8 - After months of intense negotiations, Friday's deal that will see Etihad Airways take a 49% stake in money-losing Alitalia will help to make the Italian carrier more secure, said Etihad Chief Executive Officer James Hogan. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad will invest an estimated 560 million euros in struggling Alitalia in a deal that is expected to keep the Italian carrier alive while providing Etihad with greater access to lucrative routes in Europe.

Hogan also pledged to invest as much as 1.758 billion euros in restructuring the Italian carrier over the coming years, adding he expects Alitalia should be profitable by 2017. "Our entry into Alitalia is to be partners," Hogan said after the pact was formally signed Friday by chief executive officers of the two airlines. "There will be a secure future," added Hogan. "We will work together to make something that people can be proud of". The deal was inked followed the 11th-hour elimination of final stumbling blocks in the aviation tie-up including a labour offer that led the only major trade union opposed to the deal to drop its opposition. Then, Alitalia shareholders approved a 300-million euro capital increase essential to smooth the transition until the tie-up is fully implemented.

The deal is an "excellent outcome," said Gabriele Del Torchio, Alitalia's chief executive officer. Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi has said the deal with Etihad was essential to keep Alitalia alive. Friday, he sounded triumphant. "We did it, we have believed for eight months in this deal, in the face of those who did not believe it," said Lupi. Regulatory hurdles still lie ahead.

The deal must now be approved by European regulators who will be checking closely for possible State aid, which has been alleged in the past by air industry competitors. The large stake to be taken by Etihad had triggered concerns with the European Commission, which warned Italian authorities to ensure the United Arab Emirates-owned carrier does not gain a majority holding in Alitalia. EC rules require that majority ownership of European airlines remain in European hands, and the Italian government has reassured the EC that those rules were being obeyed. Hogan said he had high hopes for Alitalia's future. "To me, the sexiest airline in Europe should be Alitalia". 

Ebola mobile lab to be sent from Italy to Sierra Leone

Part of EU initiative to fight deadly disease

(ANSA) - Rome, August 8 - The European Union is sending a mobile laboratory from Italy to combat the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, officials said on Friday. The lab, originally intended for Tanzania, is at Rome's Spallanzani Institute. It will be responsible for analyzing samples in suspected Ebola cases, and will coordinate with a Guinea-based mobile laboratory, also run by Spallanzani.

On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of Ebola in west Africa an international health emergency. It reported that 932 people have died in West Africa since early cases in December 2013, and more than 1,700 Ebola cases have been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

According to Spallanzani's scientific Director Giuseppe Ippolito, the WHO's decision to raise the alarm on Ebola was expected. "The declaration of a public international health emergency, on one hand, helps to give WHO greater coordinating authority and on the other hand, (allows it) to ask for additional funding from the international community," Ippolito said.

The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids or tissues of infected animals or people, and has a fatality rate of up to 90%. At present, there is no vaccine. 

Court turns down biological parents in child custody suit

Twins born after embryo mix-up in Rome fertility clinic

(ANSA) - Rome, August 8 - A civil court on Friday turned down a child custody suit filed by the biological parents of twins born in an assisted fertility case where embryos were mixed up in a Rome hospital last December. "The case cannot be appealed to the (supreme) Constitutional Court," the judges wrote in their 16-page opinion.

The babies, a boy and a girl, were born August 3 in the city of L'Aquila. In an interview with La Stampa newspaper, the birth parents said they want to keep the babies even though in biological terms, the twins belong to another set of parents. "We are happy, very happy. Our children are born and they're well," the birth mother told the newspaper, adding that the births have already been officially registered with authorities. "No one can take them away," she added. But the biological parents asked the civil court to act quickly in awarding them custody of the babies, who were delivered more than one week earlier than expected by caesarean section, according to the newspaper report.

The biological parents were quoted as saying they have asked to meet the birth parents, but so far haven't had a reply. "We recognize their suffering and this makes us feel badly," the biological parents were quoted as saying. "We need peace, we have already suffered a lot in recent months, for us it's finally time to be a family," the biological parents told the newspaper.

Michele Ambrosini, lawyer for the birth parents, said that as far as he knows, the mother and babies are doing well. In late July, Italian prosecutors concluded that the embryo mix-up that occurred in December 2013 at Sandro Pertini Hospital in Rome was not a felony and asked that a criminal case in the affair be dropped.

A complaint had been filed in April 2014 to prosecutors by one of the couples involved in the case. Police have said the embryos were mixed up because the surnames of the two couples involved were very similar. Following the discovery of the mix-up in April, the assisted-fertility clinic at Pertini hospital implemented new procedures to prevent such errors from repeating, including assigning each patient an ID code and treating no more than three aspiring mothers on the same day. 

Renzi triumphant after Senate reform victory

'No one can stop change' says premier via @matteorenzi account

(ANSA) - Rome, August 8 - The government's controversial Constitutional reform bill, including a revamp of the Senate, completed its first reading in the Upper House on Friday when the floor of the assembly voted to back it. "It will take time, it will be difficult and there will be setbacks," Renzi said via his Twitter account, @matteorenzi, after Friday's vote. "But no one can stop the change that started today". The bill passes to the Lower House after clearing the Senate with 183 votes in favour, four abstentions and no votes against, after parties opposed to the package snubbed the final vote.

Renzi says the bill will overhaul Italy's slow, costly political machinery, responding to dissatisfaction at the ruling class's ineffectiveness in solving the country's economic woes, in fighting corruption and in curbing its many privileges. The central part of the package is the transformation of the Senate into a leaner assembly of local government representatives with minimal lawmaking powers. At the moment the Senate and the Lower House are equally powerful and every piece of legislation has to be approved in both, which can make it difficult for governments to get laws through parliament. The revamped Senate's responsibilities are to be largely restricted to Constitutional matters and its members will not get extra salaries on top of their earnings for the local level jobs.

The new Senate will be made up of 100 members, compared to the present figure of 315, of which five will be life Senators. It also takes some powers from Italy's regional governments, many of which have been guilty of overspending in recent years, and completes the elimination of a whole layer of government - Italy's provinces. Furthermore, it says regions that do not keep their balance sheets in order can be put in the hands of commissioners appointed by central government.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), the leftwing SEL and the anti-migrant Northern League all walked out on Friday's final vote for the first reading. Of those who did not back up the government in the final vote, 16 were dissidents from within Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), with 14 not taking part in the vote at all and two abstaining. There were also 19 rebels from within Silvio Berlusconi's opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI), which is backing the bill after the ex-premier struck a deal with Renzi on the reforms and on a new election law.

In addition, there were 10 dissidents from within junior partners in Renzi's ruling coalition - eight from the New Centre Right (NCD) party and two from the For Italy (PPI) group. The M5S and SEL put up staunch resistance to the bill, using filibustering and the presentation of some 7,400 amendments in a vain attempt to slow its progress down. In spite of this, the government achieved what seemed an impossible feat just one week ago - getting the first reading completed before parliament's summer recess begins on Saturday. In order to become law, the bill still needs to complete at least two more readings in both houses of parliament. Renzi has said it will then need to be ratified by a referendum.