Italy’s top story on Thursday:

Italy’s government said a reform of the EU’s asylum and migration rules adopted on Wednesday was “the best possible compromise” and acknowledges the “priority needs” of Italy, AFP reported.

Italy has long complained it is penalised by the bloc’s existing asylum system and left to deal with large numbers of arrivals of people crossing by boat from North Africa.

“After years of deadlock on migration policy, with today’s vote… we have found together with the other EU Member States the best possible compromise, which takes into account Italy’s priority needs” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said in a statement.

Giorgia Meloni’s administration has pledged to curb arrivals, but its crackdown on charity rescue ships, which it accuses of acting as a pull factor, has had no impact on numbers.

Italy’s petrol prices hit €2 per litre

Average petrol prices in Italy jumped above €2 per litre this week, according to a survey by trade publication Quotidiano Energia, while consumer watchdog Assoutenti reports prices in excess of €2.5/lt in some motorway service stations.

The current prices are the highest recorded since October 2023, according to Skytg24.

The spike is reportedly down to an increase in the cost of crude oil, which is now at $90 a barrel – a 20 percent increase on December prices.

The ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and diversions of shipments that normally pass through the Red Sea are thought to have impacted the global market.

Italy’s universities ranked 7th in world

Italy’s universities came in seventh place globally and second in Europe in the fourteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings, a comparative list published by higher education analytics firm Quacquarelli Symonds on Wednesday.

Leading the rankings this year were the US, UK, mainland China, Germany, Australia and Canada.

Though no Italian university made it into the global top 100 in the general category, Rome’s La Sapienza University was ranked a world leader for classical studies and ancient history for the forth consecutive year.

Besides La Sapienza, three other Italian universities secured a spot in the top ten for individual subjects: Pisa’s Scuola Normale Superiore for Classics, Milan’s Polytechnic University for Architecture, Art and Design, and Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, and Bocconi for Marketing and Managerial Economics.

Police search for killer of woman found in northern Italy

A search is underway for the killer of a 22-year-old French woman whose body was found in the ruins of a church in Italy’s northern Valle D’Aosta region, Italian media reported on Wednesday.

French investigators are reportedly looking for a young man born in Italy with Egyptian origins who lives in the Grenoble area.

The victim had been stabbed to death and her body left in a chapel in the abandoned hamlet of Equilivaz in La Salle.

A witness who said he spoke to the pair on April 2nd said they were searching for a supermarket and had planned to go camping in the mountains.