Holiday’s over: No sitting on Rome’s landmark steps
Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn perched there without a care in the
1953 film “Roman Holiday.” But the Spanish Steps in Rome are no longer a place for sitting.
Enforcing an ordinance that took effect last month, officers patrolled the famed staircase Wednesday to tell visitors “Please, no sitting” on one of the Eternal City’s most recognizable landmarks.
The 137 steps built in the 1720s have long been a popular spot to people watch.
But as of July 8, sitting, eating and drinking on them is illegal and can result in a fine of up to $450.
BEIRUT — Turkey and the United States appeared Wednesday to be edging closer toward setting up a socalled safe zone in northeast Syria, saying they had agreed to form a joint operations center to coordinate and manage its establishment.
The vague announcement issued at the end of three days of Turkish-u.s. talks in Ankara also appeared to avert — for now— a possible new Turkish incursion into Syria.
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces captured two northwestern villages in an intensified offensive on the last rebel-held part of the country, inching closer to the town of Kfar Zeita, which has been held by insurgents since 2012, according to opposition activists and state media.
Turkish and U.S. officials issued a statement in which they said they will set up “as soon as possible” a joint operations center that would be based in Turkey.
Turkey has been pressing to control — in coordination with the U.S. — a 19-25 mile deep zone within Syria, running east of the Euphrates River all the way to the border with Iraq. It wants the region to be cleared of Syrian Kurdish forces and has threatened on numerous occasions to launch a new operation in Syria against Syrian Kurdish forces if a safe zone is not established.
Turkey sees the Syrian Kurdish fighters, who make up the majority of the Syrian Democratic Forces and are allied with the U.S., as
terrorists aligned with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. American troops are stationed in northeast Syria, along with the Kurdish forces, and have fought the Islamic State group together. The differing positions on the Kurdish fighters have become a major source of tension between NATO allies Turkey and the U.S.
The statement said the sides also agreed on the rapid implementation of measures addressing Turkey’s security concerns in an apparent reference to Turkey’s unease over the presence of Syrian Kurdish fighters.