Sardinia
MILAN (AP) — Next year’s Giro d’Italia will be held almost entirely on the Italian mainland.

The 2023 route of the Italian Grand Tour was unveiled in a ceremony in Milan on Monday.
Italian customs police say they have cracked a Nigerian organized crime syndicate that forced dozens of young women into prostitution and street-begging in Italy.
ROME (AP) — Italy’s bankrupt national airline, Alitalia, made its final flights Thursday before formally folding, marking the end of business for the 74-year-old carrier and an end of an era for Italy.
Catalonia’s former separatist leader has walked out of a Sardinian courthouse victoriously after a judge delayed a decision on Spain’s extradition request and said he was free to travel.
A small private plane has crashed into a vacant office building in a Milan suburb. A prosecutor said all eight people aboard were killed in Sunday’s crash.
Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont is vowing to keep travelling throughout Europe to campaign for the region’s independence from Spain.
Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has been released from a jail in Sardinia after a judge ruled that he could go free ahead of an Oct. 4 extradition hearing.
The lawyer for Carles Puigdemont says the former Catalan leader has been detained in Sardinia, Italy.
Charity ships have combined efforts to rescue nearly 450 migrants from a wooden boat that was taking on water in the Mediterranean Sea.
Italian firefighters say raging forest fires in central Sardinia have forced the evacuation of 900 people as flames threaten some residential areas and others are engulfed by dense smoke.
Fires are raging on Italy’s Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where nearly 400 people were evacuated overnight.
ROME (AP) — Italian police searched the offices of a Sardinian charity and diocese on Wednesday on behalf of Vatican prosecutors who are investigating a once-powerful cardinal on alleged embezzlement charges.
Souvenirs from Sardinia’s pristine beaches can cost dearly. Italian media on Saturday said customs police on the Mediterranean island issued fines of up to 3,000 euros ($3,600) to 41 people who in recent days tried to leave the island with 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of sand, seashells and beach rock
A look at what’s happening around European soccer on Monday:

ITALY

AC Milan needs at least a draw at Cagliari to reclaim first place outright in Serie A, although there are coronavirus concerns ahead of the Rossoneri’s trip to Sardinia.
Italy has allowed a rescue ship with 125 migrants aboard to dock in Sardinia to escape rough seas and said the migrants could eventually disembark in Italy before being sent to other European countries.
ROME (AP) — Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has tested positive for COVID-19 after a precautionary check and will quarantine at home, his press office said on Wednesday.
ROME (AP) — With thousands of travelers being tested at Italy’s airports and some ports, the nation where Europe’s COVID-19 outbreak began registered a seventh straight day of increasing new infections Sunday, mostly driven by returning vacationers.
ROME (AP) — Italian bodybuilder, boxer and actor Franco Columbu, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s closest friends, has died in his native Sardinia. He was 78.
MILAN (AP) — An 8-meter (26-foot) sperm whale was found dead off Sardinia with 22 kilograms (48.5 pounds) of plastic in its belly, prompting the World Wildlife Foundation to sound an alarm Monday over the dangers of plastic waste in the Mediterranean Sea.
In the past, when most wine consumers thought about a Mediterranean island, the first and often only name that came to mind was Sicily.
OLBIA, Sardinia (AP) — Actor George Clooney slammed his motorbike into an oncoming car that turned suddenly into his lane Tuesday and was thrown several meters (yards) in the air on the Italian island of Sardinia, according to video of the crash.
As monkey chants boomed around the Italian soccer stadium, Sulley Muntari became more incensed.

The Ghanaian player sought out the referee and asked for intervention to silence the fans hurling racist abuse.