Italy's top story on Wednesday:
Venice's Mayor Luigi Brugnaro is among 18 people under investigation in a corruption probe that saw two suspects imprisoned and seven placed under house arrest on Tuesday, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper.
The city's Transport Councillor Renato Boraso was arrested and taken to jail on charges of corruption, money laundering and false invoicing relating to public tenders, Il Fatto reported.
The case involving Brugnaro reportedly concerns negotiations regarding the sale of his 'Pili' area of undeveloped wasteland to Singaporean property magnate Chiat Kwong Ching, in an investigation centring on the blind trust that manages the mayor's assets.
In a note, Brugnaro described himself as "shocked" by the suggestion that he may have used his position as mayor to obtain urban planning permissions to reclaim and redevelop the land.
Italy facing Covid summer surge
Italy is experiencing a 'mini-boom' of Covid cases as family doctors report a sudden rise in infections across the country, Il Sole 24 newspaper reported on Tuesday.
GPs in the Lazio region in particular have seen an "explosion of Covid-19" cases thought to be linked to the KP.3 variant spreading throughout the US, according to an alert from Italy's National Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg).
The variant reportedly has classic flu symptoms including fever, joint pain, a cold, throat soreness and general malaise.
"All prevention and control measures have been dismantled, swab testing has been suspended, and therefore the risk of contagion for the elderly and frail is very high," warned infectious diseases expert and Fimmg Rome President Dr. Maria Corongiu.
Anger as court upholds ruling blaming earthquake victims
There was widespread dismay in Italy on Monday as a local court upheld a 2022 ruling that some victims of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake were partly to blame for their own deaths, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.
The city's appeals court confirmed a 2022 civil suit judgement that cleared the prime minister's office of responsibility for the deaths of seven of the earthquake's 309 victims because the students had gone back to bed despite two tremors earlier in the night.
Seven members of Italy's Major Risks Prevention Commission who gave advice downplaying the risk of a major earthquake five days before the disaster were initially convicted, though all but one was later acquitted on appeal.
The latest judgement not only makes the families of the victims ineligible for compensation, but also requires them to pay almost €14,000 in legal fees, Il Sole reported. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Town councils appeal Berlusconi airport
Nine town councils brought a court appeal on Tuesday over the decision to name Milan's Malpensa airport after Italy's divisive former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Skytg24 reported.
The towns, all of which fall within the Malpensa territory, were unfairly overlooked by the Italian transport ministry when it made the decision, Somma Lombardo Deputy Mayor Stefano Aliprandini told reporters.
At a protest attended by around 300 people on Tuesday, the Lombardy region's Democratic Party opposition leader Pierfrancesco Majorino said the name change was "a humiliation that we do not accept", adding that his party supported the councils' appeal to the TAR regional administrative court.
Billionaire Berlusconi, who died in June last year aged 86, had strong ties to Milan but was a highly controversial figure, regarded by many Italians as an international embarrassment due to his many legal woes and sexual scandals.
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