'OLDEST' CAESAR BUST FOUND IN FRANCE (ANSA) - Paris, May 14 - The world's oldest bust of Julius Caesar has been found in the River Rhone near the French city of Arles, French culture experts say. The marble bust, which experts say was sculpted when Casear was alive, was probably thrown into the river immediately after the dictator was assassinated in 44 BC ''because it wouldn't have been a good idea to show you were ...

PREMIERS CALLED AT CIA SNATCH TRIAL (ANSA) - Milan, May 14 - Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his predecessor Romano Prodi have both been admitted as witnesses in a landmark Italian trial into the 2003 CIA abduction of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr from Milan. Judge Oscar Magi also gave his green light to calling the ex-defense ministers at the time of the events to testify. A request that the government of...

FEATURE ARTICLE: MILVIAN BRIDGE Many young lovers had imitated the ritual that the lamppost had begun to buckle under the weight of so many padlocks. The loss of the lamppost did not stop young lovers from the rest of Italy coming to the bridge in order to chain their locks and so the Mayor of Rome had to find a solution. Recently, the Mayor has had all of the original lovelocks have been moved to Rome's City Hall and are on display...

NAPLES RESIDENTS BURN DOWN GYPSY CAMPS (ANSA) - Naples, May 13 - Residents in a Naples suburb on Wednesday set fire to a series of gypsy camps as anger mounted over the attempted kidnapping of a baby by a Roma gypsy earlier this week. Around 400 gypsies in the neighbourhood east of the city have been forced to flee over the...

CIA SNATCH TRIAL ADJOURNED TO MAY 28 (see previous) (ANSA) - Milan, May 14 - A landmark Italian trial into the CIA abduction of a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003 was adjourned Wednesday until May 28. Bruno Megale, head of the Milan unit of Italy's anti-terrorist Digos police, will on that date testify on the kidnapping of Hassan Mustaf...

GIRO: TIRED RIDERS GET SHORTER STAGE (ANSA) - Salerno, May 14 - Giro d'Italia riders, tired and stressed by bad weather and a string of mass falls, have managed to get what would have been the race's longest stage cut short to ease their weary legs. ''By mutual consent with the riders and in view of the complaints of the ...

ANIMAL STINK WOMAN RAPPED (ANSA) - Rome, May 14 - Italy's highest court on Wednesday upheld a conviction against a woman adjudged to have allowed her animals to turn her garden into a dung heap. The Cassation Court said the case of the woman and her 30 cats and dogs was covered by Italy's law against noxious e...

TUSCANY: REGIONAL EXPERIMENT AGAINST DRUG DEPENDENCE (ANSA) - Florence, May 14 - The largest anti-dependency programme in Europe is beginning in Tuscany. The unprecedented experiment will involve 200 patients to be treated with two promising new drugs, aripiprazole and ropinirole. The leader of the experiment is Pisa's Asl 5, who, al...

ROMA IN PENSIONER SEX SCAM (ANSA) - Turin, May 14 - Romanian sex slaves belonging to a Roma gang drugged and robbed northern Italian pensioners after promising them sex, Italian police said Wednesday. Two Roma men were arrested after four Turin pensioners went to the police. The sting is believed to have had...