Amid the growth in agro-food sector in the past two years, Italy is strengthening the ties of Qatari and Italian private sectors in the fields of agriculture and livestock production, feed production and food processing, Italian ambassador Pasquale Salzano said.

More international companies are eyeing business opportunities in Qatar’s food and tourism sectors, as well as in legal services, an official of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Qatar has said.

An array of cultural and educational activities will mark this year’s “Week of the Italian Language in the World” in Doha on October 18 at Katara – the Cultural Village, the Italian embassy has announced.

Noor Al Rayyan, owned by Sheikh Meshal bin Essa bin Thamir al-Thani's Elalya Stud, won the Senior Mares Championship gold at the 6th Straight Egyptian World Championship Arabian Horse Show in Milan, Italy, Sunday.

Italy will close its airports to unauthorised planes carrying migrants from Germany, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Sunday, ratcheting up a dispute between the EU partners over how to share responsibility for asylum seekers.

A new migrant rescue ship was headed for the waters off Libya on Thursday, one of the aid groups running the boat said, after similar vessels were prevented from operating.

They discussed bilateral relations and ways of developing them, as well as enhancing the prospects for co-operation.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini agreed to allow them to leave the Diciotti, the Italian coastguard ship which had rescued them some 10 days ago.

The Diciotti vessel has been docked at the port of Catania since Monday night, after the Italian government blocked migrants from leaving in the absence of commitments from the EU to relocate some of them.

Italy's government threatened on Friday to withhold next year's contributions to the EU budget if Brussels failed to resolve a standoff over the fate of immigrants stranded for four days in an Italian port.

The boat the migrants were on was taking in water and two had already died by the time rescuers reached them, the Armed Forces of Malta said in a statement.

Maltese Armed Forces said Wednesday they recovered two bodies and 100 survivors from a migrant boat in distress, while a stand-off continued over the fate of 177 migrants picked up last week by the Italian coastguard.