Italy’s top story on Wednesday:

The employer of Satnam Singh, an Indian labourer left for dead after his arm was sliced off by farm machinery last month, was arrested on Tuesday on second degree murder charges, according to news agency AFP.

38-year-old Antonello Lovato, for whom Singh worked without papers, dumped the injured worker outside his home instead of calling for help. Initial autopsy investigations found that Singh’s life could have been saved if he had received prompt medical assistance.

Prosecutors said an ongoing investigation would continue into working conditions on the farm, AFP reported.

“We were waiting for this news, we were angry,” Gurmukh Singh, head of the Lazio region’s Indian community, told reporters from Ansa news agency. “An accident can happen, but not calling for medical assistance is unacceptable.”

The death of the Sikh agricultural worker spurred public outrage at the exploitation of migrants in Italy and calls for action to root out gangmastering, which is rife in Italy.

Regions to consider autonomy law referendum

The centre-left councils governing Italy’s Emilia Romagna, Campania and Tuscany regions were preparing on Tuesday to examine motions for a referendum to repeal Italy’s controversial new autonomia differenziata law, Ansa reported.

The law, which was passed at the end of June, grants more autonomy to regions that want it in Italy, where several parts of the country already have considerable powers to make decisions independently from Rome.

Critics of the plans argue that it undermines Italy’s unity, as it essentially allows Italy’s richer regions to keep more of the tax revenue raised in those regions, worsening the divide between the wealthy north and poorer south.

The issue has so inflamed passions that it caused a brawl to break out in Italy’s lower house of parliament during a debate last month.

Climate crisis: Italian insurers made record payouts in 2023

Italian insurance companies paid out a record €6 billion in natural disaster-related claims in 2023, Maria Bianca Farina, president of Italy’s national insurers’ association, ANIA, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at ANIA’s annual general meeting in Rome, Farina linked the rising claims to the effects of the climate catastrophe, which she described as a “crucial challenge,” Ansa reported.

On top of €5.5 billion in payouts related to other extreme weather events, €800 million went towards resolving claims arising from deadly floods that devastated Italy’s Emilia Romagna and Tuscany regions last May.

“We are witnessing increasingly extreme, frequent and destructive natural disasters…which put an ever-increasing number of people and property at risk,” Farina said.

More tremors recorded on Italy’s Campi Flegrei

There was fear on the streets of Pozzuoli in Campania’s Campi Flegrei on Tuesday afternoon as a series of small tremors shook the area, Skytg24 reported.

A ‘seismic swarm’ with shocks of up to 2.9 magnitude that struck around 3.10pm frightened residents, but no damage was reported.

The volcanic caldera, which is home to around half a million people, recorded its biggest earthquake in 40 years last September, and was hit by a series of smaller quakes in May.

Scientists at the time said an actual eruption – which last took place in 1538 – was very unlikely to come out of nowhere, as the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology’s advanced monitoring systems would provide plenty of of warning.