Storm alerts extended across central and southern Italy on Friday
The national civil protection department issued mid-level ‘orange’ storm warnings for southern Lazio and the Naples area for Friday October 9th, warning of heavy rain and a risk of flooding and landslides.
In Campania the orange alert runs until 3pm on Friday and covers Naples, its islands and the area around Vesuvius. The city ordered parks and beaches closed for the day, along with its Castel Nuovo landmark until 3pm.
In Lazio the orange zone centres on Frosinone, while Rome is under a lower ‘yellow’ alert.
READ ALSO: What do Italy's storm alerts mean?
Yellow alerts covered 14 regions in all, from Piedmont and Lombardy to Calabria and Sicily. Tuscany, among the worst hit this week by heavy rain and flooding in some areas, was downgraded to yellow from Thursday afternoon until 2pm on Friday.
Less than half of Italians back new electoral law
Three in four people surveyed know little or nothing about Italy's new electoral law, according to a Youtrend poll for Sky TG24, published as parliament gave Giorgia Meloni’s reforms final approval on Thursday.
After reading the main measures, 41 percent of respondents rated the law positively, 37 percent negatively, and 22 percent gave no opinion. Opinion was split largely down party lines.
Only 25 percent of those polled said they think the reform will make future governments more stable, which Meloni said was its intended aim.
Opposition parties accused Meloni of rewriting the rules to help her coalition win, with Five Star Movement leader and ex-PM Giuseppe Conte telling AFP the law was “a convoluted scheme, devised solely to find a formula to gain an advantage in the upcoming elections”.
Foreign ministry website hit by pro-Russian hackers
The website of Italy’s foreign ministry was targeted by pro-Russian hacker group NoName on Thursday, according to Ansa, though the ministry said the attack caused no disruption.
The attack was “effectively mitigated by protection systems”, it said, adding that it was checking the websites of Italian embassies and consulates abroad for similar attempts.
In February, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Russian hackers had targeted several Italian embassies and hotels linked to the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Tajani warned last month of possible Russian attempts to interfere in Italy’s next general election. He said the ministry runs a round-the-clock operations room to fend off cyber attacks, “many of which come from Russian hackers”.
Comments (1)