The country’s culture minister said the work, a portrait of cleric Monsignor Maffeo Barberini – later Pope Urban VIII – was one of “exceptional importance” and its purchase part of a wider plan to prevent major artworks from being bought by private collectors.

The painting had been kept in a private collection in Florence and was first shown in public in Rome in 2024.

Caravaggio, master of a lighting technique to make his subjects seem to come alive, has about 65 surviving known works worldwide, only three of which are portraits.

The painting has been transferred to the permanent collection of the Palazzo Barberini – the historic home of the family of the portrait’s subject in Rome – where it was first exhibited.

It will be displayed alongside other works by the artist.

Painted in about 1598, it shows Barberini as a bearded cleric apparently issuing instructions with his right hand outstretched.

Barberini was elected to the papacy in 1623 and served until his death in 1644. He was known as a prominent patron of the arts.

Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said in a statement that the acquisition was “part of a broader project to strengthen the national cultural heritage that the Ministry of Culture will continue to pursue in the coming months, with the aim of making some art history masterpieces accessible to scholars and enthusiasts that would otherwise be destined for the private market”.

“I would like to thank all the institutions, officials, and technicians who have worked with great skill and dedication to achieve such an important result,” he added.

Caravaggio, whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi, died in 1610 at the age of 38.

He was renowned for his chiaroscuro technique, the dramatic use of light and shadow to bring deep psychological realism to the violent scenes that he generally depicted.

“Nitto” Santapaola was caught after years on the run in 1993, and spent more than 30 years behind bars for instigating a series of killings and other attacks.

Known as il cacciatore (the hunter), he rose to the top ranks of Sicily’s Mafia in the city of Catania from the 1970s.

He was convicted of the 1984 murder of journalist Pippo Fava as well as a car bombing that killed judge Giovanni Falcone, in one of the most brutal attacks on the judiciary in Italy’s history.

Falcone was blown up near Palermo in May 1992 in an an attack that also killed his wife and three police officers, in what became known as the Capaci massacre.

Weeks later anti-mafia judge Paolo Borsellino was also murdered in a car bombing in which his bodyguards were killed.

Nitto Santapaola was detained in a Sicilian farmhouse the following year.

In 2006, he was jailed for life for involvement in both attacks.

He was earlier convicted of involvement in the killing of fellow Catania mobster Alfio Ferlito and three police officers as Ferlito was being transferred to prison in 1982.

Santapaola was one of a number of Sicilian mobsters who were prosecuted for the two murders, and despite several trials it was never clear who gave the order for the car bombings.

He was imprisoned amid tough security, under the so-called 41bis regime, an article of the Italian criminal code introduced after the two judges were killed.

The measures were originally meant to cut off mafia bosses from the outside world and other inmates, and to prevent them from ordering criminal acts from behind bars.

Santapaola died in the prison medicine department of the San Paolo hospital in Milan, after being transferred from the city’s Opera prison due to declining health.

The designers claim the bridge – which is due to be built on one of the most seismically active areas in the Mediterranean – will be able to withstand earthquakes.

It is the latest attempt by Italian officials to launch the Messina Bridge project – several have tried over the years but plans have later been scrapped due to concerns over cost, environmental damage, safety or potential mafia meddling.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has admitted the most recent project has not been easy.

However, she said on Wednesday that she considers it an “investment in Italy’s present and future”.

“We enjoy difficult challenges when they make sense,” Meloni said.

According to the final project, the bridge over the Messina strait will span 3.3km (2.05 miles) and stretch between two 400-metre (1,300 feet) high towers, with two railway lines in the middle will run and three lanes of traffic on either side.

Rome is hoping to classify the bridge as a military expenditure to make it count towards the Nato target of 5% of GDP spent on defence.

Transport minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing Lega party and a government ally of Meloni, celebrated the milestone, saying that the goal was to complete the bridge between 2032 and 2033.

He also claimed the bridge would create 120,000 jobs a year and bring economic growth to the area. The regions of Sicilia and Calabria are two of the poorest in Europe.

However, the project will still need to be rubber-stamped by the Italian Court of Auditors as well as environmental agencies, both at national and EU level.

Local residents on either side of the strait whose properties may be expropriated will also have to be consulted and could legally challenge the decision, meaning the construction of the bridge may be delayed or stall altogether.

It would not be the first time that the bridge’s building has been held up. Since the first plans for it were drawn up more than 50 years ago, various ideas for it have had to be shelved for various reasons and it has long faced stern opposition.

This has included concerns that huge amounts of taxpayers’ money would be siphoned off by the Sicilian and Calabrian mafias, which have a broad influence over politics and society in southern Italy.

On Wednesday, local politicians reiterated their unhappiness with the government’s decision.

Senator Nicola Irto of the Democratic Party (PD) called the project was “controversial and divisive”, saying it would divert “crucial resources from local transportation, modern infrastructure, safe schools and quality healthcare facilities”.

Giusy Caminiti, the mayor of Villa San Giovanni near where the bridge would be built on the Calabrian shore, said her town would be badly affected and urged more time for consultations.

Grassroots Calabrian committee “No to the Bridge” slammed Wednesday’s announcement and said it was a political manoeuvre, rather than the outcome of a thorough technical evaluation.

Local groups that oppose the bridge also say its construction would use millions of litres of water a day while both Sicily and Calabria regularly struggle with drought.

Currently the only way for trains to cross the Strait is to have the coaches shunted onto ferries and carried over the sea in a 30-minute journey.

Torrential rain prompted the alerts for parts of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, with heavy and persistent rainfall expected into the afternoon on Friday.

Tuscany’s president said local rescue and health services were on high alert and advised residents to exercise “the utmost attention and caution”.

Almost a month’s worth of rain fell in Florence on Friday morning while landslides and mudslides were reported in Bologna, where some residents were evacuated on Thursday evening ahead of heavy rain overnight.

No casualties have so far been reported, and the city said the worst of the flooding had passed by mid-morning on Friday.

A family of four was rescued from a landslide in Badia Prataglia, Tuscany on Thursday evening, according to local media.

The national fire brigade said it had received dozens of calls after the Rimaggio flooded and flowed through the Sesto Fiorentino area on Florence’s northern outskirts.

In Pisa, flood defences were being erected along the Arno river as local authorities warned it had surpassed the first flood-risk level.

Roads were also affected by flooding and fallen trees, with residents in Florence advised against all travel after the A1 motorway was partially closed.

Schools were shut in more than 60 municipalities in Tuscany, local media reported, as were several campuses of the University of Florence.

Florence has seen more than double its average March rainfall of 61mm in the past three days.

It saw more than 53mm of rain in just six hours on Friday morning, after a further 36mm had fallen overnight.

The red weather alerts – indicating serious risk of extreme and widespread flooding – were set to continue throughout the day.

Further heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to move across the northern half of Italy into Saturday, before drier weather begins to move in.

An area of high pressure in the north-east Atlantic has in recent days blocked the path of low pressure systems which normally pass to the north-west of the UK, sending them through the Mediterranean instead.

Some rivers in Emilia-Romagna were already swollen after previous downpours.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the north-eastern region in September 2024 after it was battered by Storm Boris.

The previous year, 13 people died in the region after six months’ worth of rainfall fell in a day and a half. Twenty rivers burst their banks and there were some 280 landslides.

The devastating floods brought by Storm Boris were made worse by climate change, scientists at the World Weather Attribution group said.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent – which not only brings much more frequent and intense heatwaves, but also more extreme rainfall.

A hotter world means the atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can lead to heavier rainfall.

Italian seismologists said the 4.4 magnitude tremor struck at 01:25 local time on Thursday (00:25 GMT) at a shallow depth of three kilometres (two miles). The US Geological Survey measured it as a 4.2 tremor 10km deep.

Power supply in parts of Naples was disrupted.

In the nearby town of Pozzuoli, close to the quake’s epicentre, one injured person was pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed house.

Naples sits on the Phlegraean Fields, a volcanic basin that makes the area in southern Italy prone to quakes.

Thursday’s earthquake was felt in several areas of the Campania region, Italian media reported.

The tremor was followed by at least two weaker aftershocks.

People have been seen leaving their homes and gathering on the streets of Naples, fearing more tremors.

Photos later emerged showing one damaged house and a car with a smashed windscreen.

A rescue co-ordination centre has been set up to assess the damage.

Schools in Pozzuoli and two nearby neighbourhoods will be closed on Thursday so building stability checks can be carried out, the Corriere Della Sera newspaper reported.

More than 1,200 officers were involved in the operation, which the military Carabinieri force said was aimed at “dismantling” the area’s Mafia.

The raids, the biggest for several years, were seen as a bid by Italian authorities to stop the Mafia rebuilding its governing body known as a Cupola.

A number of Mafia bosses have been released from jail in recent months on appeal. But investigators say those still behind bars have used encrypted mobile phones to continue their activities.

They also found that Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia have updated the practices of their “founding fathers” and no longer need to meet in person.

One local leader had managed to stay in hiding and still hold sway over organised crime in his local district, police explained.

For more than 100 years Sicily’s notorious Mafia held a grip on local towns and cities, extorting businesses through protection money and making big profits from drug trafficking.

In the early 1990s crusading anti-mafia prosecutors were murdered as they tried to hit back.

Then in 1993 the so-called boss of bosses, Salvatore “Toto” Riina, was arrested in Palermo, and in 2023 notorious mobster Matteo Messina Denaro was detained as he visited a local clinic.

Although many mobsters are in jail, the Carabinieri said they had succeeded in smuggling tiny mobile phones into their cells in an attempt to continue their criminal activities.

Police said they had found out about the mob’s encrypted chats by installing listening devices in suspects’ homes and cars. However, they are not yet thought to have cracked the encryption so their ability to eavesdrop has been limited.

According to La Repubblica, police are still trying to hunt down members of the chat who go by nicknames such as Robert de Niro and Spider Man.

Tuesday’s raids began before dawn, targeting clans across Palermo, from Tommaso Natale in the north of the city to Porta Nuova in the centre.

Police said their investigation covered a range of suspected offences, from mafia association and drug trafficking to attempted murder and armed crime.

Several bosses who had already been freed from jail after serving sentences are among those arrested.

Among them was reportedly Tommaso Lo Presti, who had spent 12 years in jail before his release in 2023.

There was an outcry last year when it emerged Lo Presti had celebrated his silver wedding anniversary in a Palermo church where anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone was buried.

The sliding centre in Cortina – which will stage bobsleigh, skeleton and luge – is facing a race against time to be ready.

The venue is being completely rebuilt on a century-old track at a cost of more than £72m, sanctioned by the Italian government.

The official deadline is March for when the new track must have been iced, tested and certified. Lake Placid in New York state is the confirmed alternative, despite world class tracks including Igls in Austria and St Moritz in Switzerland being considerably nearer.

Andrea Varnier, chief executive of Milan-Cortina 2026, told BBC Sport: “We checked all available venues and the only one that was ready without the need for investment and able to host us at the last minute was Lake Placid.

“That is the reason why it’s the plan B, but we really intend to stay in Cortina as much as possible.”

Varnier admitted it would be a “mutilated Games” if the sliding events could not be held in Italy.

“That’s what we feel,” he said. “It’s good for the athletes, good for the spectators to have the atmosphere [in Cortina].”

But he remained hopeful, adding: “We are progressing and we are monitoring together with the International Olympic Committee.”

Ski mountaineering – or skimo as it tends to be called – is the only new sport making its Winter Olympic debut in 2026.

But what is it and how will it work at a winter Games?

Ski mountaineering combines skiing uphill and downhill as well as using elite mountaineering skills to hike up icy ascents.

There are different lengths of races, from short sprints to those which can last two hours and can involve more than 1,500m of climbing.

At the 2026 Games, it will be the short format on show with men’s and women’s sprint races. A total of 18 men and 18 women will compete in the individual races and a mixed relay.

The sprint races typically last just three minutes for men and four minutes for women and will consist of an uphill ski section, a booting – or on-foot hiking – section, and a descent around race gates. The racers can climb up to 250 vertical feet.

There will be a time trial to establish the seeding and racers will compete against each other in knockout rounds to keep advancing until the final race, which will determine the medals.

Skimo athletes have special ‘skins’ which they put on the bottom of their skis to stop them sliding down while they are ascending. Their skis are similar to cross-country skis in that they are lighter than downhill skis and have movable bindings to allow for proper joint movement.

Iain Innes is aiming to qualify for the Olympics for Team GB.

He is a former alpine skier who made the switch to skimo after trying it and falling in love with the lung-busting sport.

“It’s the combination of suffering on the climbs, sending it downhill as fast as possible, and then all the technical aspects mixed in there as well,” Innes told BBC Sport.

The 26-year-old has been living in a van in the Alps while honing his skills and competing in World Cup races.

He said: “I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. But it’s all worth it. I’m gonna do everything I can to get to 2026.”

Osama Almasri Najim, head of Libya’s judicial police, was apprehended in Turin on 19 January.

Two days later, he was released and flown back to Tripoli on an Italian air force plane.

Mr Najim faces various charges including murder, rape, and torture linked to his role at Tripoli’s Mitiga detention centre, and his release drew condemnation from opposition parties and NGOs.

Addressing the Italian parliament on Wednesday, Carlo Nordio said the warrant that led to Mr Najim’s detention was riddled with “inaccuracies, omissions, discrepancies and contradictory conclusions” which meant the Libyan citizen could not be held in jail.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Mr Najim was expelled as he was a “national security risk”.

Images shared by Libyan media showing a jubilant crowd welcoming Mr Najim back circulated widely on Italian media. The ICC has demanded an explanation from the Italian authorities.

Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party (PD), accused Nordio of speaking not as a government minister but as a “defence lawyer for a torturer”.

Last week, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni disclosed that she, Nordio and Piantedosi were under investigation in connection with Mr Najim’s release.

A special court that handles cases involving ministers has begun an investigation.

David Yambio, a 27-year-old from South Sudan who says he was abused in Tripoli’s Mitiga prison, told the BBC that Italy was “complicit in the atrocities taking place in Libya”.

He says he first encountered Mr Najim after he was caught at sea while trying to cross the Mediterranean on a boat and was returned to Libya.

After he was forced to join a militia – which he says was “a pure nightmare” – Mr Yambio ended up in Mitiga, where he says he suffered months of torture. He also said he saw Mr Najim abuse other migrants.

“The injustice we suffered, and how Italy became complicit in our eyes, is clear. They took justice away from us.”

“Our torturer was in Italy, he was arrested, and then he was smuggled back to Libya,” Mr Yambio added.

As a signatory to the ICC, Italy is legally bound to execute the court’s warrants.

But critics suggest Italy’s decision to free Mr Najim may have been influenced by its political and business ties with Libya.

In 2017, the centre-left government of Paolo Gentiloni forged a deal with Tripoli that saw Italy pay the Libyan coastguard to intercept migrant boats before they reach Italian shores.

NGOs have consistently criticised this policy, which they say exposes migrants to dire conditions in Libyan detention centres.

The case has now dominated Italian headlines for weeks.

Yet it is unlikely the investigation into Meloni, Nordio and Piantedosi will yield any meaningful consequences, given the government’s solid parliamentary majority.

Last week, Meloni suggested that the investigation was part of a politically motivated attack from the left and said she would not be “blackmailed or intimidated”.

But some commentators believe that Libya’s ability to leverage its relationship with Rome highlights Italy’s vulnerability on migration – one of Meloni’s flagship issues.

“While Meloni insists she is not susceptible to blackmail from the judiciary, she is highly vulnerable to Libya, given her fixation on migration,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of Rome’s Institute for International Affairs.

She added that the issue had been “weaponised and exploited” by Libya.

“The implicit message is: either you release Mr Najim or we will let the migrant boats through.”

Libya plays a key role in the success of Meloni’s Mattei Plan – an ambitious set of policies that aims to boost European co-operation with Africa in exchange for curbing irregular migration.

“The question of Libya is and remains a matter of… national security, meaning the safety of all citizens,” former interior minister Marco Minniti told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

“A large part of national security is played out beyond national borders.”

For Mr Yambio and other survivors of the atrocities that Mr Najim is accused of, the release of the man they say tortured them is “a deep betrayal”.

In a letter to Giorgia Meloni, they called for an end to the Italy-Libya migration agreement, as well as the release of those still detained in Libyan camps.

“We are witnesses of so many crimes that Mr Najim is responsible for,” Mr Yambio said.

The move comes after WhatsApp alleged last week that spyware made by Paragon Solutions was used to target 90 WhatsApp users in two dozen countries, including journalists and civil society members.

Italy’s government confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that seven mobile phone users in the country had been targeted by spyware on WhatsApp, calling the incident “particularly serious”.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office denied any involvement and asked Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) to look into the matter.

The BBC has reached out to Paragon Solutions and the Italian government for comment.

Three of those allegedly targeted in Italy have come forward: Francesco Cancellato, an investigative journalist, Husam El Gomati, a critic of Italy’s involvement in Libya, and Luca Casarini, founder of an Italian NGO that assists migrants.

According to reports in The Guardian and Haaretz, Paragon has now terminated its relationship with its clients in Italy. Those clients are said to include an intelligence agency and a law enforcement agency.

Paragon Solutions works exclusively with state bodies. Its flagship product is known as Graphite, and enables users to have complete access to a target phone. It says the product is intended to be used to combat crime.

The company is seen as a competitor to NSO Group, which manufactures the spyware Pegasus.

WhatsApp first reported the alleged spyware campaign last week.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told BBC News it had “disrupted a spyware campaign… that targeted a number of users including journalists and members of civil society”.

“This is the latest example of why spyware companies must be held accountable”, the statement added. “WhatsApp will continue to protect peoples’ ability to communicate privately.”

The identities of other individuals allegedly targeted in the spyware campaign are not yet public.

Italy said it had been told by WhatsApp that those targeted had phone numbers with prefixes from countries including Spain, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told Reuters news agency that targeted individuals were sent malicious documents that required no user interaction in order to compromise their device, a so-called zero click hack.

In a video message shared on social media on Tuesday, Meloni said she was suspected by prosecutors of embezzlement and aiding and abetting a crime.

Osama Najim – also known as Almasri – is the head of Libya’s judicial police and the director of an infamous detention centre in Mitiga, near Tripoli.

Mr Najim was arrested in Italy on 21 January and unexpectedly freed days later “due to a legal technicality”, the interior ministry said.

The ICC, which said it had not been consulted, swiftly issued another arrest warrant for Mr Najim and demanded an explanation from the Italian authorities.

In the video, Meloni said the Rome appeals court released Mr Najim because the ICC warrant had not been sent to the Italian justice ministry.

“At that point, so as not to let him go free on Italian territory, we decided to expel him and repatriate him immediately, with a special flight,” Meloni said.

Last week, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said that Mr Najim had been expelled because of the “danger” he posed – a comment which was derided by the opposition.

The decision to free Mr Najim was heavily criticised by the opposition and NGOs such as Amnesty International, which said Mr Najim was guilty of “horrific violations committed with total impunity”.

Videos that showed a jubilant crowd welcoming Mr Najim as he stepped off an Italian government plane in Tripoli caused particular uproar.

Meloni said that Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and the cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters, Alfredo Mantovano, had also been placed under investigation. Being placed under investigation in Italy does not mean that formal charges will necessarily follow.

In a defiant tone, the Italian PM appeared to hint at political motives for the investigation.

She pointed out the lawyer who filed the complaint, Luigi Li Gotti, was a former left-wing politician, while the prosecutor leading the case, Francesco Lo Voi, recently investigated Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on an unrelated matter.

Meloni ended the video saying that she could not be “blackmailed or intimidated”.

“This may be why I’m unpopular among those who don’t want Italy to change and improve,” she said. “But that’s precisely the reason I intend to continue on my way, protecting Italians, especially when the nation’s safety is at stake, head held high with no fear.”

Matteo Renzi of the opposition party Italy Alive (IV) – who was among the first to denounce Mr Najim’s release – said he felt Meloni was “exploiting” the investigation to “feed her usual victim complex”.

Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the far-right, anti-migrant Brothers of Italy party, has headed Italy’s ruling right-wing coalition since 2022.

She has repeatedly vowed to crack down on immigration and has pledged to stop boats heading to Italy from North Africa, vowing to put an end to illegal departures and human trafficking.

Meloni, like other leaders before her, has worked with Libyan authorities and militias, providing them with financial and technical support under controversial agreements to tackle illegal immigration, including training and funding for the Libyan coast guard which intercepts migrant boats.