Italy’s education minister says a final decision on the nationwide closure of schools has not yet been confirmed following reports in the media the measure had been approved to limit the spread of Covid-19.

Hail the size of oranges has injured 18 people in an Italian Adriatic city, while a blaze in Sicily forced beach-goers to flee.

Italy’s government is falling short on needed reforms while annual economic growth is projected to stay below 1% through 2023, the IMF said.

Pope Francis has called the practice of having an abortion after pre-natal tests have discovered possible birth defects a version of Nazi attempts to create a pure race by eliminating the weakest.

Prosecutors have opened a culpable homicide case over the death of Fiorentina captain Davide Astori.

A right-wing extremist suspected in the shooting rampage that wounded six Africans in central Italy was "lucid and determined, aware of what he had done" and exhibited no remorse for his actions, an official said.

Italy's health ministry has ordered an investigation into the death of a four-year-old girl from malaria after checks determined she had not travelled to any country at risk of the disease.

Police in Sicily say 15 firefighters are suspected of setting blazes that they were then called to extinguish.

Holidaymakers rescued from a resort in Sicily because of wildfires have described how their day at the beach turned into an emergency evacuation by sea, many wearing just their bathing suits and flip flops.

A five-storey apartment building has partially collapsed along a railway line near the southern Italian city of Naples, and authorities are digging by hand to find anyone trapped.

Two Syrians have been detained in Sicily on suspicion of terrorism as G7 leaders were meeting on the island, the Italian news agency ANSA says.

A Milan judge has ordered former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi to be tried on corruption charges.

Italian authorities are facing questions on whether they underestimated the risks facing a snowbound mountain hotel hours before an avalanche hit.

Emergency crews are continuing their search for more survivors in an avalanche-crushed hotel in Italy after pulling out four people from the rubble overnight.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures have continued to sweep the European continent, causing more than a dozen deaths, grounding planes and crippling ferries in Italy and Turkey.

Update 10.03am: The main suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack has been killed in a shootout with police in Milan, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

Two strong aftershocks hit central Italy, destroying churches and homes and knocking out power, just two months after a powerful earthquake killed nearly 300 people.

Relatives of victims of the Italian earthquake have gathered in Amatrice for an evening Mass remembering dozens of the 292 people killed.

Latest: Italy's civil protection agency has upgraded the provisional death toll from Italy's 6.1-strength earthquake to 73.

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake has struck central Italy, levelling buildings as people slept, with one mayor saying his town "isn't here any more".

Police in Italy have issued 17 arrest warrants for Iraqi Kurds on terrorism-related charges in a Europe-wide blitz.

Flash flooding around the French Riviera has killed at least 16 people, including some trapped in cars, a campsite and a retirement home.

Police in Sicily have arrested three Egyptians who allegedly were in charge of a smuggling boat on which a 10-year-old Syrian girl with diabetes died after the smugglers threw her insulin overboard.

Amanda Knox’s defence lawyer urged Italy’s highest court today to overturn the American’s conviction in the 2007 murder of her British roommate, calling it a “grave judicial error”.

Firefighters have boarded the charred Norman Atlantic ferry in the Italian port of Brindisi to put out residual fires and allow a search for more possible victims.

‘We experienced the Titanic — the only thing was we didn’t sink’.

Hundreds of passengers and crew braved cold temperatures and gale-force winds as they waited for nearly a day to be evacuated from a burning ferry adrift in rough seas between Italy and Albania.

A university professor is facing a disciplinary hearing after inviting the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner to lecture students on emergency procedures.

A Rome university professor is facing a disciplinary hearing after inviting the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner to lecture students on emergency procedures.

The mayor of Venice and more than 30 other people have been arrested in a sweeping corruption investigation related to the construction of underwater barriers to protect the historic city from flooding.

Italian prosecutors say they have arrested a former Silvio Berlusconi aide for allegedly helping a businessman convicted of Mafia association.

At least one fan and one police officer are reported to have been shot before the Italian Cup final between Napoli and Fiorentina.

Two names listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand, foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna have confirmed.

An Ethiopian Airlines co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cockpit, hijacked the plane bound for Italy and diverted it to Geneva where he asked for asylum.

A diver has died while working on the shipwrecked Costa Concordia in Italy.

The baby is named after Pope Francis.

Italian football is the continuation of politics by other means rather than war.

Thirty-nine people were killed and around 10 injured when a bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in what Prime Minister Enrico Letta described yesterday as a huge tragedy.

A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers.

A bus carrying pilgrims plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy after slamming into several cars, killing at least seven people including the driver, police said, adding they fear the death toll will rise.

The quake, with a 5.1 preliminary magnitude, struck near Tuscany.

A cargo ship slammed into the port in Genoa, Italy, today, toppling the control tower and killing at least three people, news reports said.

Trevor Sinclair has confirmed his friendship with Paolo Di Canio while team-mates at West Ham and claims the new Sunderland head coach’s historical claims that he is a fascist should be “taken with a pinch of salt”.

The Dean of Durham has written an open letter to new Sunderland manager Paolo di Canio calling on the Italian to publicly renounce fascism or risk being associated with “toxic far-right tendencies”.

New Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio has defended himself amid the controversy over his appointment — but may have to do more to convince anti-racism campaigners of his suitability.