Tag: Italy

  • Twitter removes tweets, suspends accounts after fans racially abuse England players post-Euro2020 final

    Twitter removes tweets, suspends accounts after fans racially abuse England players post-Euro2020 final

    Twitter has removed over 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts after they were found engaging in racial abuse of England players after England lost the Euro 2020 final against Italy.

    Italy ended England’s dream to win the Euro 2020 at the Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Azzurri defeated England 3-2 on penalties after the normal 90-minute action had finished at 1-1 and even extra time was not able to break the deadlock.

    Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka all missed the chance to net goals in the penalty shootouts. The English players were then abused on social media.

    “The abhorrent racist abuse directed at England players last night has absolutely no place on Twitter. In the past 24 hours, through a combination of machine learning-based automation and human review, we have swiftly removed over 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating our rules — the vast majority of which we detected ourselves proactively using technology. We will continue to take action when we identify any Tweets or accounts that violate our policies,” reported Newsweek.

    “We have proactively engaged and continue to collaborate with our partners across the football community to identify ways to tackle this issue collectively and will continue to play our part in curbing this unacceptable behaviour — both online and offline,” said the statement.

    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also condemned the “appalling” racial abuse of players on social media following the Three Lions’ loss in the Euro Cup final against Italy.

    The British Prime Minister said England players “deserve” to be lauded for their heroics and shouldn’t be “racially abused” on social media.

    “This England team deserves to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media. Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves,” Boris Johnson tweeted.

    Prince William said he was “sickened by the racist abuse aimed at England players after last night’s match”.

    England’s Football Association in the early hours of Monday morning also condemned racist abuse of players. “The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media,” an official statement read.

    “We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team. We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible,” it added.

    https://twitter.com/kylejglen/status/1414294866704617486?s=21

    Meanwhile, riot police broke through crowds outside the stadium when fans left the game, with some throwing bottles and chanting anti-Italian slogans after England lost on penalties.

  • Italy crowned European champions once again after defeating England

    Italy crowned European champions once again after defeating England

    Italy is champions of Europe again, for the first time since 1968, breaking English hearts in the process at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

    The 120 minutes had been nerve-shredding with England enjoying early elation when Luke Shaw scored his first-ever international goal, a magnificent half-volley with the game’s first move. And then came what felt like the slow and inexorable trudge towards defeat.

    Gareth Southgate’s team had been comfortable in the first half but the final slid away from them thereafter; Italy turning up the temperature, pinning England back.

    Italy got the equaliser that they deserved through Leonardo Bonucci and, during extra time, the specter of penalties hung heavy. When they came, England lost their nerve – missing three of their kicks.

    It was a night when sporting immortality had beckoned for England, a first trophy since the World Cup of 1966. In the end, it would be a depressingly familiar hard-luck story.

    For Italy, it was a second European Championship and glory for Roberto Mancini, whose work since taking over as the manager from Gian Piero Ventura after the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup has been a little short of sensational.

    Italy had the know-how; they have almost forgotten what defeat is. They are unbeaten in 34 matches, a run that spans nearly three years.

  • 18-year-old Pakistani girl allegedly killed in Italy for refusing to marry

    An 18-year-old girl of Pakistani origin in Italy is believed to be killed by her family after refusing an arranged marriage. Police in Italy are searching for the body of the girl named Saman Abbas who has been missing since May 5, AFP has reported.

    Lieutenant Colonel Stefano Bove of the Carabinieri police has said that the girl’s parents, an uncle and two cousins, are under investigation for murder, adding that all are supposed to have taken part in the crime.

    Saman Abbas, who lived in the northern town of Novellara, reportedly refused to come to Pakistan to marry her cousin.

    “Saman, tonight you are not alone and you will never again be alone,” Mayor Elena Carletti said in a video posted on the local news website Reggioonline.

    In May, Mayra Zulfiqar 24-year-old girl was found dead in Lahore, who had arrived in Pakistan with her parents about two months ago to attend a family wedding. Prior to her brutal murder, she had asked police for protection after accusing a man of abducting her at gunpoint.

  • Man walks 280 miles to calm down after fight with wife

    Man walks 280 miles to calm down after fight with wife

    An Italian man walked for a week after a fight with his wife. The man walked 200 miles until he was stopped by police in Fano and fined over $400 (Rs 64119) for violating curfew rules.

    According to local reports, the man went for a cool-down after an argument with his wife and ended up trekking over 280 miles, only to be fined for breaking quarantine curfew.

    While speaking to authorities the man told them: “I came here on foot, I didn’t use any transport,” adding that along his lengthy journey, he “met people who offered me food and drink”.

    “I am okay, just a bit tired,” shared the man, who became known as the ‘Forrest Gump’ of Italy on social media after walking a total of 60 km (37.2 miles) per day.

    Authorities told a local news outlet Il Resto del Carlino that when they found the man “wandering aimlessly,” he appeared “lucid and focused”.

    The police checked the man’s ID and learned that his wife had reported him missing. Authorities then contacted his wife, who travelled to Fano to get her wandering husband. The man waited in a hotel until she arrived.

  • ‘A symbol of hope and luck’: Puppy with green fur born in Italy

    ‘A symbol of hope and luck’: Puppy with green fur born in Italy

    Italian farmer Cristian Mallocci was surprised when Spelacchia, one of his eight dogs, gave birth to a green-furred puppy.

    The baby dog was instantly named Pistachio. Pistachio was a part of a five-dog litter born on October 9. All of its four siblings are born with white fur, except him.

    Mallocci runs a farm on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia with his brother-in-law Giannangelo Liperi.

    It is extremely rare for a dog to be born with green-colored fur. It is thought that it happens when pale-coloured puppies have contact in their mother’s womb with a green pigment called biliverdin. It is the same pigment that causes the green colour in bruises.

    However, Pistachio’s colour will not last forever. The bright green fur has faded from the day he was born and it will continue to do so as he gets older.

    While his brothers and sisters will be given away to new homes, Mallocci will keep Pistachio on his farm and train him up to look after the sheep with his mother.

    Mallocci said that during this difficult time of the pandemic, green is the symbol of hope and luck.

  • Coronavirus: Pakistan reports 1,378 recoveries as fatalities fall down to 7pc

    As the number of coronavirus deaths in Pakistan hit 100 on Tuesday, the country also reported what was its 1,378th recovery — maintaining recoveries’ triumph over fatalities like also seen even in the worst-hit parts of the world, including the United States (US), Italy and Spain among other countries.

    As per the details, Pakistan jumped from 1,026 recoveries on Sunday to 1,378 two days later while the total number of infections stood at 5,782 by the time this report was filed.

    On April 12, the country had reported that a bit over a thousand patients had recovered from the novel coronavirus — COVID-19.

    According to reports, the development had put the number of fatalities in Pakistan at a mere 8 per cent against 92 per cent recoveries out of the total number of closed cases.

    At the same time, the US had reported 40 per cent fatalities while those in Italy and Spain stood at 37 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.

    The death to recovery ratio on Tuesday, however, improved further not only in Pakistan but also in the worst-hit US.

    According to the details of closed cases by Worldometers, Pakistan now has 93 per cent recovered patients while the US has 61 per cent with a slight improvement against Sunday’s 60 per cent.

    In additional good news, the two hardest-hit European countries have maintained their number of recoveries as even two days later, the percentage of recoveries in Italy and Spain still stands at 63 and 79, respectively — with no surge in the percentage of fatalities among closed cases.

    While the improvements still aren’t good enough, they come following a sudden spike in coronavirus infections and fatalities across the globe, which has led to countries being forced to make efforts aimed at dealing with the global pandemic.

  • Italy gave China protective equipment to help with coronavirus, then China made them buy it back: report

    Italy gave China protective equipment to help with coronavirus, then China made them buy it back: report

    At the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, Italy had donated personal protection equipment (PPE) to Beijing and now when Rome is in dire need of the same, China is making them buy it back, a report in The Spectator has claimed.

    According to reports, after the new coronavirus made its way to Italy, decimating the country’s significant elderly population, China told the world it would donate PPE to help Italy stop its spread.

    Reports later indicated that China had actually sold, not donated, the PPE to Italy. A senior Trump administration official told The Spectator that it was much worse than that as “Beijing forced Italy to buy back the supply that it gave to China during the initial outbreak”.

    “Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population,” the administration official explained.

    “China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even all of it… and charged them for it,” he added.

    Unfortunately, China’s diplomacy in the wake of the pandemic outbreak has been slippery.

    Much of the supplies and testing kits that China sold to other countries have turned out to be defective.

    Spain had to return 50,000 quick-testing kits to China after discovering that they were faulty.

    In some cases, instead of apologising or fixing the issue, China has blamed others for the defective equipment. It reportedly told the Netherlands to “double-check the instructions” on its masks, after the country had complained that half of the masks did not meet safety standards.

    “China has a special responsibility to help because they are the ones who began the spread of the coronavirus and did not give the information required to the rest of the world to plan accordingly,” the official said, adding that China’s “disinformation campaign” of lying to the world about the seriousness of its COVID-19 outbreak further delayed the response by other countries.

  • Fake tweets about animals in Venice amid corona lockdown go viral

    Fake tweets about animals in Venice amid corona lockdown go viral

    Bogus stories of wild animals flourishing in quarantined cities gives false hope — and viral fame.

    Scattered amid a relentless barrage of news about coronavirus cases, quarantine and medical news on Twitter, some happy stories softened the blows: Swans had returned to deserted Venetian canals. Dolphins too. And a group of elephants had sauntered through a village in Yunnan, China, gotten drunk off corn wine, and passed out in a tea garden.

    These reports of wildlife triumphs in countries hard-hit by the novel coronavirus got hundreds of thousands of retweets. They went viral on Instagram and Tik Tok. They made news headlines. If there’s a silver lining of the pandemic, people said, this was it— animals were bouncing back, running free in a humanless world.

    But it wasn’t real.

    The swans in the viral posts regularly appear in the canals of Burano, a small island in the greater Venice metropolitan area, where the photos were taken. The “Venetian” dolphins were filmed at a port in Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of miles away. No one has figured out where the drunken elephant photos came from, but a Chinese news report debunked the viral posts: While elephants did recently come through a village in Yunnan Province, China, their presence isn’t out of the norm, they aren’t the elephants in the viral photos, and they didn’t get drunk and pass out in a tea field.

  • Infected Italian priest dies after giving respirator to younger coronavirus patient

    Infected Italian priest dies after giving respirator to younger coronavirus patient

    An Italian priest infected with coronavirus gave up a respirator his parishioners bought for him to a younger patient — and then died from the deadly bug, according to reports.

    Reverend Giuseppe Berardelli, 72, refused to take the respirator while in a hospital after finding out the other patient — who was a complete stranger — also needed it, BBC reported.

    The main priest in the town of Casnigo died last week in Lovere hospital, the broadcaster said, citing hospital officials.

    He was one of at least 60 priests who died in Italy this month as the European nation was the epicenter of the deadly pandemic.

    “He is a ‘Martyr of Charity,’” New York Jesuit priest James Martin said on Twitter, adding the biblical phrase, “Greater love has no person…”

    Martin — an author who edits the Jesuit Journal America — said Berardelli was a “saint like St. Maximilian Kolbe, who in Auschwitz volunteered to take the place of a condemned man with a family, and was killed.”

  • 95-year-old becomes the oldest woman to recover from coronavirus

    95-year-old becomes the oldest woman to recover from coronavirus

    A 95-year-old has become the oldest known woman to recover from coronavirus in Italy.

    Alma Clara Corsini, from Fanano in the province of Modena, was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this month.

    Corsini fully recovered from the Covid-19 without the need for antiviral treatment after her body showed a “great reaction” to the disease, doctors say. The hospital has discharged the 95-year-old. 

    As per reports, Corsini became the ‘pride of the staff’ during her stay at the hospital that has been trying to cope with the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in the country.

    Italy, the epicenter of the virus in Europe, has had more than 59,000 cases of Covid-19 so far. The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Italy yesterday rose to 5476 – an increase of 651 from the day before.