9 EU countries downgraded on black Friday 13th

Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday 13th for the troubled single currency area. (more…)

Bomb wounds French UN peacekeepers in South Lebanon

A roadside bomb wounded five French peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, in the third attack this year on United Nations forces deployed near the frontier with Israel.

The blast hit a jeep carrying French UNIFIL troops (more…)

Mario Monti Tapped to Lead Italy Out of Debt Crisis

A day after accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s president on Sunday asked Mario Monti, a former European Commissioner, to form a government charged with helping defend Italy from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. (more…)

Berlusconi Steps Down, and Italy Pulses With Change

With his country swept up in Europe’s debt crisis and his once-mighty political capital spent, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned on Saturday, punctuating a tumultuous week and ending an era in Italian politics.
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Berlusconi to resign, says Italy’s President

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has told President Giorgio Napolitano that he will resign after the new budget law currently making its way through parliament is approved, the head of state’s office said in a statement on Tuesday. (more…)

Italy complicit in masking Sadr’s disappearance, report

During an exclusive interview with NOW Lebanon on the day the Lebanese Supreme Court heard the plaintiffs in the case of the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr in open court for the first time, Chibli Mallat—the lawyer representing the families of Imam Moussa Sadr, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqub and Journalist Abbas Badreddin, who disappeared in Libya in 1978—said that new evidence showed Italy had been complicit in masking the role that embattled Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi had in the incident. (more…)

Italy recalls its ambasador from Syria, urges EU to follow suit

Italy’s foreign ministry recalled its ambassador for consultations, citing Damascus’ “horrible repression against the civilian population”. (more…)

Syria lobbies India to prevent UN condemnation

Syria has called on India as chair of the United Nations Security Council not to give into “Western propaganda” about its crackdown on protests, as Italy recalled its ambassador.

Faisal Mekdad, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, on a three-day visit to India, said in television interviews that he had asked India to use its influence on the Security Council to thwart the West. (more…)

Italy voted to reduce its UNIFIL force by over one third

Italy voted Wednesday to reduce the number of its peacekeeping force  in Lebanon by more than one-third, just a day after six French U.N. peacekeepers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack. (more…)

Italians evacuate Rome over ‘big one’ fears

Businesses have reported requests from one in five people to have time off work and many are also keeping children away from school and heading to the beach or country for the day. (more…)