Man dies during police restraint in Bologna, body of sports journalist found burned in southern Italy, and more news on Monday.

Man dies during police restraint in Bologna

A man died in Bologna's Pilastro neighbourhood on Sunday after police pepper-sprayed and restrained him with plastic zip ties while responding to a report of him appearing agitated in a residential building's garage area, Ansa reported.

Abderrahim Fakir, a Moroccan-born man who had lived in Italy since childhood, lost consciousness while restrained after reportedly lunging at police officers. A video circulating online showed him face down, shouting "enough, help."

The case echoed the death of a 19-year-old Egyptian man during a police chase in Milan in November, which sparked protests across several Italian cities.

Bologna police said their bodycam footage would go to prosecutors, who had launched an investigation, including an autopsy.

Body of sports journalist found burned in southern Italy

A man's charred body found on farmland by firefighters in Eboli, in the southern Campania region, was identified as a local sports journalist, local prosecutors said on Sunday.

Italy's national order of journalists confirmed that the 53-year-old man known as Luca was a registered journalist covering sports for various local news organisations as a commentator and editor, AFP reported.

He had a day job at the regional environmental agency, the order said in a note. "He was apparently killed by gunfire... and then set on fire amid the vegetation."

The national president of the order, Carlo Bartoli, said they were awaiting the investigation "to understand the context in which our colleague’s brutal killing took place."

Post office to take over Telecom Italia in €10.8 billion deal

Italy's post office is set to take control of the country's biggest phone company, after Telecom Italia's (TIM) board unanimously approved a 10.8-billion-euro takeover bid from Poste Italiane on Saturday.

Poste Italiane, the state-controlled postal service and already TIM's largest shareholder, launched the offer in March, combining cash and its own shares to buy out the rest of the company, AFP reported.

The board said the deal was fair to shareholders and "consistent with the path undertaken by TIM" in a statement released on Saturday.

Poste Italiane has said its goal is to build Italy's largest connected infrastructure platform, combining postal, financial and telecoms networks.