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The mayor of Rome has condemned a "shameful" effigy of climate activist Greta Thunberg discovered hanging off a bridge near the city's airport on Monday. Mayor Virginia Raggi voiced her solidarity with Thunberg and her family in a tweet. “Our climate commitment does not stop,” the tweet read, according to a translation from the tabloid The Sun. The dummy had pigtails like Thunberg and a sign that said "Greta Is Your God!" ABC's Virginia station WSET reported. Firefighters and local police have since removed the effigy, according to la Repubblica and WSET. Thunberg has gained international attention as she has...

Pope Francis traveled to Rome’s city hall Tuesday, encouraging the mayor and her staff to be welcoming toward migrants and anyone who wants to make his home in the capital. “Rome, over its nearly 2,800 years of history, has been able to welcome and integrate different populations and people from all over the world, belonging to the most varied social and economic categories,” the pope told Mayor Virginia Raggi in his prepared address, “without canceling their legitimate differences, without humiliating or crushing their respective peculiar characteristics and identity.” “This city has welcomed students and pilgrims, tourists, refugees and migrants from...

Rome (AFP) – Virginia Raggi was elected Sunday as Rome’s first female mayor, exit polls showed, in an electoral triumph for the populist Five Star Movement that represents a major setback for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (5SM) took a large lead in the first round of voting for the mayor of Rome, in a possible blow to prime minister Matteo Renzi. Some 13 million people, or a quarter of the adult population, were eligible to vote for mayors in around 1,300 towns and cities, with attention focused firmly on a handful of major centres, including the capital. Victory in Rome would be a huge breakthrough for anti-establishment 5SM, which was founded in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo and has grown to be Italy's second largest party. A victory by the populist...