Disputes - international: West Bank and Gaza Strip are
Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the
Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be
determined through further negotiation; Golan Heights is
Israeli-occupied; Israeli troops in southern Lebanon since June 1982
Illicit drugs: increasingly concerned about cocaine and heroin abuse; drugs arrive in country from Lebanon and increasingly Jordan
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ITALY
@Italy:Introduction
Background: Italy became a nation-state belatedly - in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula and Sicily were united under King Victor EMMANUEL. The Fascist dictatorship of Benito MUSSOLINI that took over after World War I led to a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany and Italian defeat in World War II. Revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC) and joined the growing political and economic unification of Western Europe, including the introduction of the euro in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, the ravages of organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the more prosperous north.
@Italy:Geography
Location: Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central
Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia
Geographic coordinates: 42 50 N, 12 50 E
Map references: Europe