Pope Francis said Saturday that abortion can never be condoned, even when the fetus is gravely sick or likely to die, and urged doctors and priests to support families to carry such pregnancies to term.

Italian authorities said Tuesday they were investigating the country's biggest nursing home where 70 residents died last month, in a stark reminder of the difficulties Europe faces in accurately counting its pandemic victims, particularly among the elderly. Lombardy regional Gov. Attilio Fontana said he had opened a commission of inquiry into the deaths at Milan's Pio Albergo Trivulzio home, given published claims by a doctor and a union leader that management downplayed the risk of infection and wrongly attributed the causes of death.

Italy has fallen back into recession, intensifying concerns about the 19-country eurozone economy and a possible flare-up in the debt market jitters that haunted the bloc in recent years. The Italian economy has become an acute source of concern over the past few months, partly as a result of the new populist government's spat with the European Union's executive Commission over its budget plans, which has undermined business confidence and seen Italian borrowing rates in bond markets spike higher.

Doctors in Rome are warning of possible health hazards caused by overflowing trash bins in the city's streets, as the Italian capital struggles with a renewed garbage emergency aggravated by the summer heat. Trash disposal is a decades-long problem for the Eternal City. Rome was left with no major site to treat the 1.7 million metric tons of trash it produces every year since the Malagrotta landfill was closed in 2013.

A leftist challenger won Croatia's highly contested presidential election on Sunday, beating a conservative incumbent — a rare victory by a liberal in recent votes in Central Europe. With 99% of the vote counted, Zoran Milanovic, a former Croatian prime minister, had 53% while Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, the country's first female head of state when she won five years ago, had 47%.

Pope Francis is the first church leader to convene such a meeting such as the one taking place this week, called to discuss the issue of clergy sex abuse. And after a year in which high-ranking church officials resigned in scandal, the conference that opens Thursday could present an opportunity for him to dispel criticism that he has responded sluggishly as the crisis continued worldwide. But should his four-day event fail to deliver, the pope risks cementing the impression among detractors that he remains resistant to meaningful change.

On Wednesday, Pope Francis seemed to thoroughly enjoy a surprise expression of affection: a long, tender kiss planted on his forehead by a man in one of the front-row seats reserved for ailing or disabled people at the end of his audience.

A drunken driver speeding on a mountain road plowed into a group of young German tourists in northern Italy early Sunday, killing six people and injuring 11 others, Italian authorities said.

Where's the pope? He's stuck in a Vatican elevator.

Italy has fallen back into recession, intensifying concerns about the 19-country eurozone economy and a possible flare-up in the debt market jitters that haunted the bloc in recent years. The Italian economy has become an acute source of concern over the past few months, partly as a result of the new populist government's spat with the European Union's executive Commission over its budget plans, which has undermined business confidence and seen Italian borrowing rates in bond markets spike higher.