ROME (AFP) - Virus-hit Italy was outraged on Tuesday (March 4) over a mock advert shown on a French television channel for "corona pizza", in which a coughing chef hacks green phlegm onto the country's national dish.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio slammed the 10-second gag on the satirical Groland programme on Canal+, in which the red tomato base, white mozzarella and green mucus make up the colours of the national flag, as "bad taste and unacceptable".