Today in Italy: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday
Italy sentences accused migrant smuggler, brown bear culled in Italian Alps, Sanremo viewing share breaks records, and more of Italy's news on Thursday.
Italy's top story on Thursday:
An Italian court sentenced an accused smuggler involved in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants to two decades in prison, Italian media reported on Wednesday.
The court in the southern city of Crotone found 29-year-old Turkish national Gun Ufuk guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration.
Ufuk, who has denied being in charge of the boat, was one of four alleged human traffickers on a migrant vessel that went down in stormy weather just off the coast of Calabria on February 26th.
Ufuk told the court on Wednesday that he was hired to be the boat's mechanic, AFP reported, saying he had to flee Turkey for political reasons.
In the wake of the shipwreck, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pledged to crack down on human traffickers with tougher sentences as her government struggles with soaring numbers of irregular migrant arrivals.
Italian arrested in Iceland on 'sextortion' charges
A 48-year-old Italian man has been arrested in Iceland on suspicion of obtaining photos of dozens of underage girls by threatening them online, police said on Wednesday.
The man is believed to have targeted around 50 victims in Italy alone by contacting the minors on social media and other messaging platforms and coercing them into sending sexually explicit images through threats and blackmail.
Tracking down the man was made difficult by his use of various aliases and multiple foreign phone numbers, police said, as reported by AFP. His extradition to Italy is pending.
The arrest came a day after the EU adopted its first ever law on gender-based violence, including online harassment; however Amnesty International criticised the law for setting "only minimum standards," saying it "falls far short of the historic step forward" the organisation had campaigned for.
'Dangerous' bear culled in Italian Alps
Forestry officials in the northern Italian Alps have killed a two-and-a-half-year-old brown bear named "M90" after he was judged to be dangerous to hikers, in a move that has sparked outrage among animal rights campaigners.
"M90 was a dangerous animal... in light of his excessive confidence and frequenting of urban and peri-urban areas," read a statement from forestry officials in the Trentino region, as reported by AFP.
However the Italian branch of the International Organization for Animal Protection (OIPA) responded by calling the act "short-sighted", arguing that M90 was "responsible only for damage to an agricultural fence and an organic rubbish bin in the Sole Valley," AFP reported.
Trentino region president Maurizio Fugatti said the region's bear population needed to be controlled. In April 2023, a jogger was killed by a brown bear in Trentino in a high-profile incident that launched a debate over authorities' decision to reintroduce bears to the region in the late 1990s.
Sanremo opening night attracts two thirds of TV viewers
Italy's Sanremo music festival, a national phenomenon followed by public figures from celebrities to politicians, attracted a 65.1 percent viewing share on its opening night on Tuesday, according to news agency Ansa.
That amounts to 10 million, 561 thousand people; slightly fewer than 2023's opening night, when 10 million, 758 thousand tuned in, but a higher audience share than last year's, which totalled 62.5 percent.
The figure means veteran TV host Amadeus, in his fifth (and, he says, final) year of hosting the competition, has secured the competition's highest viewing share since opening night in 1995, when 65.15 percent of viewers tuned in.
Last month Hollywood actor Russell Crowe surprised Italian fans by announcing that he would make an in-person appearance at the event, where he is expected to perform blues music.
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Italy's top story on Thursday:
An Italian court sentenced an accused smuggler involved in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants to two decades in prison, Italian media reported on Wednesday.
The court in the southern city of Crotone found 29-year-old Turkish national Gun Ufuk guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration.
Ufuk, who has denied being in charge of the boat, was one of four alleged human traffickers on a migrant vessel that went down in stormy weather just off the coast of Calabria on February 26th.
Ufuk told the court on Wednesday that he was hired to be the boat's mechanic, AFP reported, saying he had to flee Turkey for political reasons.
In the wake of the shipwreck, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pledged to crack down on human traffickers with tougher sentences as her government struggles with soaring numbers of irregular migrant arrivals.
Italian arrested in Iceland on 'sextortion' charges
A 48-year-old Italian man has been arrested in Iceland on suspicion of obtaining photos of dozens of underage girls by threatening them online, police said on Wednesday.
The man is believed to have targeted around 50 victims in Italy alone by contacting the minors on social media and other messaging platforms and coercing them into sending sexually explicit images through threats and blackmail.
Tracking down the man was made difficult by his use of various aliases and multiple foreign phone numbers, police said, as reported by AFP. His extradition to Italy is pending.
The arrest came a day after the EU adopted its first ever law on gender-based violence, including online harassment; however Amnesty International criticised the law for setting "only minimum standards," saying it "falls far short of the historic step forward" the organisation had campaigned for.
'Dangerous' bear culled in Italian Alps
Forestry officials in the northern Italian Alps have killed a two-and-a-half-year-old brown bear named "M90" after he was judged to be dangerous to hikers, in a move that has sparked outrage among animal rights campaigners.
"M90 was a dangerous animal... in light of his excessive confidence and frequenting of urban and peri-urban areas," read a statement from forestry officials in the Trentino region, as reported by AFP.
However the Italian branch of the International Organization for Animal Protection (OIPA) responded by calling the act "short-sighted", arguing that M90 was "responsible only for damage to an agricultural fence and an organic rubbish bin in the Sole Valley," AFP reported.
Trentino region president Maurizio Fugatti said the region's bear population needed to be controlled. In April 2023, a jogger was killed by a brown bear in Trentino in a high-profile incident that launched a debate over authorities' decision to reintroduce bears to the region in the late 1990s.
Sanremo opening night attracts two thirds of TV viewers
Italy's Sanremo music festival, a national phenomenon followed by public figures from celebrities to politicians, attracted a 65.1 percent viewing share on its opening night on Tuesday, according to news agency Ansa.
That amounts to 10 million, 561 thousand people; slightly fewer than 2023's opening night, when 10 million, 758 thousand tuned in, but a higher audience share than last year's, which totalled 62.5 percent.
The figure means veteran TV host Amadeus, in his fifth (and, he says, final) year of hosting the competition, has secured the competition's highest viewing share since opening night in 1995, when 65.15 percent of viewers tuned in.
Last month Hollywood actor Russell Crowe surprised Italian fans by announcing that he would make an in-person appearance at the event, where he is expected to perform blues music.
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