Mario Draghi

EU leaders agreed Tuesday to donate at least 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to poorer nations by the end of the year as supplies steadily rise across Europe.

Gathered in Brussels for a two-day summit, the 27 leaders backed a text in which they pledge to continue efforts "to increase global vaccine production capacities in order to meet global needs."

Fourteen people, including at least one child, reached the number of people who have been killed and another child is seriously injured after a cable car fell on a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy on Sunday.

Images from the scene show the wreckage lying in a steep wooded area.

Five Israeli nationals were among the dead, Israel's foreign ministry says.

Earlier this month Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi stated that Italy could be open to foreigners by mid-May, but he did not specify which foreign travelers and whether those from the United States would be included.

Now, Italy's Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio has shed a little more light on who is likely to be able to enter Italy and when.

Italy is pushing EU partners to revive migrant burden-sharing deals as it seeks to stave off a summertime surge in landings from North Africa, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Wednesday (12 May).

Migration has returned to the top of the political agenda in Italy after more than 2,200 asylum-seekers from Tunisia and Libya arrived on its tiny island of Lampedusa last weekend.

Fifteen boats packed with hundreds of migrants landed on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday and officials said they were expecting numbers to increase as the weather improved, news wires reported.

Italy is aiming to open the country to tourists in mid-May, pledging a range of measures to protect visitors from the coronavirus as it scrambles to rescue a sector devastated by lockdowns and restrictions on movement, Bloomberg reports.

 Italy has brought forward the easing of coronavirus restrictions, meaning people can enjoy al fresco dining from April 26.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced the easing of rules, almost a week earlier than planned, at a press conference Friday. The reopening includes schools as well as open-air restaurants, bars, cinemas and theaters.

By George Gilson

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlet Cavusoglu, in Ankara tomorrow in a bid to transcend the apparent quagmire in bilateral exploratory talks.

Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has slammed Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi for calling President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a dictator, stressing the Turkish history has never created leaders like "Duce" or "Führer."

Turkish ministers condemned on April 9 the Italian prime minister's remarks on the country's president.

"I condemn the low and unacceptable way of the appointed Italian Prime Minister [Mario Draghi] towards our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," Treasury and Finance Minister Lütfi Elvan said on Twitter over the remarks of Draghi, calling Erdoğan a "dictator."