Italy – News Stories About Italy - Page 59

Jan 31, 2008 10:33 AM CST

Italy Headed for Caretaker Government

Elder statesman will form interim coalition before elections

(Newser) - Italy's president has asked Senate speaker Franco Marini to form an interim government in a last-ditch effort to reform election laws ahead of a snap poll, reports the BBC. Marini was invited to head a temporary administration to change Italy's crippling voting system, which privileges small parties and has led...

Berlusconi Eyes 3rd Term as
Prime Minister

Jan 25, 2008 9:52 AM CST

Berlusconi Eyes 3rd Term as Prime Minister

Italy's richest man may be back in office in months

(Newser) - Italy's president will begin crisis talks tonight with top politicians after last night's resignation of PM Romano Prodi. While a technocrat will probably take the helm of the country for a few months, Silvio Berlusconi is waiting in the wings, and the richest man in Italy has his sights set...

Italian PM Prodi Resigns

Jan 24, 2008 3:27 PM CST

Italian PM Prodi Resigns

He loses confidence vote in the Senate

(Newser) - The fat lady has sung for Italian PM Romano Prodi. After losing a confidence vote in the Senate, Prodi resigned today, the BBC reports. President Giorgio Napolitano now has to make the decision of calling a snap election or appointing a caretaker government. Former PM Berlusconi's center-right coalition would be...

Prodi's Choice: Resign Today
or Lose Tonight

Jan 24, 2008 6:35 AM CST

Prodi's Choice: Resign Today or Lose Tonight

Italian PM may bail ahead of evening no-confidence vote

(Newser) - Italy's PM Romano Prodi may resign today rather than face defeat in a confidence vote scheduled for late this evening. After this week's defection of a small coalition party deprived Prodi of his one-seat Senate majority, his government looks set to fall. A handful of left-wing senators have also said...

Italian Govt.
on Brink
of Collapse

Jan 22, 2008 10:48 AM CST

Italian Govt. on Brink of Collapse

PM faces no-confidence vote after allies withdraw support

(Newser) - The Italian government looks set to collapse after a key ally unexpectedly withdrew his support from Romano Prodi's coalition yesterday. The PM will face a no-confidence vote tomorrow, and if he loses, the president will have to decide whether to give Prodi another mandate or dissolve parliament and call early...

Disease Imperils
Mozzarella From Italy

Jan 17, 2008 7:34 PM CST

Disease Imperils Mozzarella From Italy

Bacteria infects 30% of water buffalo herd responsible for famous cheese

(Newser) - A bacterial disease sweeping through the water buffalo whose milk is used to make mozzarella is threatening production of Italy's famous cheese, the BBC reports. As many as 30% of the buffalo in Campania, near Naples, are infected with brucellosis, which leads to reduced milk production and infertility. Italy's government...

Angry Students Block Pope Visit

Jan 16, 2008 4:31 AM CST

Angry Students Block Pope Visit

Profs say appearance would be affront to 'people of science'

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI has scrapped plans to speak at a prestigious Italian university after unprecedented protests by furious students and professors who accused him of justifying Galileo's trial and "affronting" people of science, the Los Angeles Times reports. The pope once described as "reasonable" the 400-year-old heresy trial...

Italy's Favorite Saint to Be Exhumed

Jan 8, 2008 2:00 PM CST

Italy's Favorite Saint to Be Exhumed

Preservation procedure sparks controversy among some devotees

(Newser) - The body of Padre Pio, one of Italy’s most beloved saints, will be exhumed this year for a “checkup” and to be put on display for public veneration, the Guardian reports. "It is our duty to allow the generations that come after us the ability to venerate...

Trash Overwhelms Naples

Jan 7, 2008 2:40 PM CST

Trash Overwhelms Naples

Italian Army struggles to bulldoze massive heaps of garbage

(Newser) - The Italian army has been brought in to clear away some of the mountains of trash blanketing the area around Naples. The region's garbage crisis, which has festered for years, reached crisis proportions when all waste-collection stopped before Christmas. Meanwhile, protesters are trying, in occasionally violent clashes, to stop the...

Stradivarius Market Hits
High Note

Jan 6, 2008 2:10 PM CST

Stradivarius Market Hits High Note

Rush for 300-year-old violins sparks intrigue, drives price to millions

(Newser) - The price of violins by 18th century Italian master Antonio Stradivari has shot through the roof in recent decades, with the instruments now worth 500 times their weight in gold, reports Der Spiegel. Three powerful dealers control a shadowy worldwide market rife with intrigue where frenzied collectors seek out the...

Italian Syndicate Quietly Rules Europe's Cocaine Trade

Dec 27, 2007 4:44 PM CST

Italian Syndicate Quietly Rules Europe's Cocaine Trade

US market tumbles as mobsters flourish

(Newser) - Europe is gaining a foothold in the world’s cocaine trade, elbowing out the US as the largest market thanks to the bravado of one Italian crime syndicate. The ‘Ndrangheta mafia, based in the hills of southern Italy, has won prominence by dealing directly with Colombian kingpins and shunning...

Italians Fuss Over Airline Takeover

Dec 23, 2007 2:20 PM CST

Italians Fuss Over Airline Takeover

Lobbyists take nationalist stance against deal with Air France-KLM

(Newser) - News that Italy's national airline, Alitalia, is in danger of being taken over by Air France-KLM, the world's biggest airline by revenue, has sparked outrage among Italian interests who fear their local carrier will be stripped of major routes. The government promises to decide Alitalia's fate by mid-January, as politicians...

Italy Depressed by News Story
Calling Italy Depressed

Dec 22, 2007 7:12 PM CST

Italy Depressed by News Story Calling Italy Depressed

Portrait of Italian malaise hits a nerve

(Newser) - In a self-referential moment, the New York Times interviews its own reporter, Ian Fisher, about the nationwide soul-searching set off in Italy by Fisher's Dec. 13 article that depicts Italians as wallowing in a collective funk. Fisher's description of a dispirited national mood has prompted an impassioned response from all...

Mold Ravages Da Vinci Codex

Dec 22, 2007 8:04 AM CST

Mold Ravages Da Vinci Codex

Damage wrought for lack of restoration funding

(Newser) - An onslaught of red, black, and purple mold has turned the Codex Atlanticus, the largest collection of writings and drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci, into a "precious sick patient," the Times of London reports. The mold, discovered by an American scholar, is attacking 12,000 codex sheets at...

'Group Attack' Led to Meredith Slaying: Judge

Dec 20, 2007 12:36 PM CST

'Group Attack' Led to Meredith Slaying: Judge

Italian court refuses to release suspects as discrepancies mount

(Newser) - An Italian judge yesterday upheld a decision to detain the three suspects in the murder of Meredith Kercher, saying that "none of them can be said to have played a passive role." The Times of London reports that the court in Perugia has seen evidence suggesting that Kercher's...

Italian Govt. Renames Baby

Dec 18, 2007 1:45 PM CST

Italian Govt. Renames Baby

Under law on 'shameful' names, Italy dubs baby Friday 'Gregory'

(Newser) - He was born, registered, and baptized Friday Germano, but the Italian government is calling him Gregory. The Germanos happen to like the name Friday, but 5 months after they gave it to their baby, a court in Genoa ruled that it had to be changed. In Italy, it seems, the...

Collective Funk Settles on Italy

Dec 13, 2007 8:52 PM CST

Collective Funk Settles on Italy

EU's unhappiest people disillusioned with nation's future

(Newser) - Italy is in a bad mood, and people from Venice to Naples are worried the current “malessere”—or “malaise—will never lift. On the heels of a Cambridge poll showing Italians to be the unhappiest folks in Europe, Ian Fisher of the New York Times finds a...

Court Indeed
a Mickey Mouse Operation

Dec 5, 2007 9:10 PM CST

Court Indeed a Mickey Mouse Operation

Cartoon characters summoned in Italy counterfeiting case

(Newser) - A man is on trial in Italy for counterfeiting Disney and Warner Bros. merchandise, and a surprising set of witnesses has been summoned: Tweety, Mickey Mouse, and Donald and Daisy Duck. Prosecutors in Naples blamed a clerical error for the summons, in which the Italian iterations of the cartoon characters—...

Tape Puts Amanda
at Murder Scene

Dec 1, 2007 2:04 PM CST

Tape Puts Amanda at Murder Scene

Italian police bug her conservation with parents in jail

(Newser) - An American student suggested in a bugged jailhouse meeting with her parents that she was home when her flatmate in Italy was murdered, the Telegraph reports. The disclosure contradicts earlier claims by Amanda Knox. "From the bugged recording it is possible to understand that she was in the house,...

Murder Suspect 'Serene' Behind Bars in Italy

Nov 29, 2007 5:12 PM CST

Murder Suspect 'Serene' Behind Bars in Italy

American student Knox expected at closed hearing tomorrow

(Newser) - Amanda Knox, the American student suspected in a murder in Italy, told an Italian legislator she has adjusted to life in prison, a day before her lawyers will argue she should be placed instead under house arrest. The Times of London reports that Knox said the first few days were...