Italy News

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - A 55-year-old Italian doctor set a new world record for swimming on the open sea Thursday when he completed a 250km crossing from Tunisia to Sardinia.

Giovanni Brancato swam 11 hours a day for seven days at an average rate of 54 strokes a minute to break his own previous mark of 145km for a 2008 crossing between Corsica and the Ligurian coast on the Italian mainland.

(ANSA) - Florence, July 29 - A man was arrested early Thursday for blowing a vuvuzela in the centre of a town near Florence in the middle of the night.

The 22-year-old resident of Fiorenzuola was briefly detained after residents phoned police complaining they couldn't get to sleep.

The vuvuzela was confiscated.

(ANSA) - Milan, July 29 - AC Milan's Brazilian forward Ronaldinho will have tests Thursday to establish the seriousness of a thigh muscle injury he suffered in training Wednesday, the Serie A club said.

Ronaldinho had been at the centre of speculation linking him to a move back to Brazil or to the United States before owner Silvio Berlusconi deflated it by saying he hoped the 30-year-old would end his career at Milan.

He had a decent season with Milan last term, having disappointed in his first campaign after his 2008 move from Barcelona.

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(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Italian troops in Afghanistan are getting bigger and stronger armoured cars, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa confirmed Thursday after two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.

La Russa said 17 of the new Freccia (Arrow) cars have arrived and they will be up and running from next month.

The minister was briefing parliament after Wednesday's death of bomb defusal experts Mauro Gigli and Pier Davide De Cillis near the northwestern city of Herat.

The pair had just succeeded in defusing one IED (improvised explosive device) when they were hit by the blast of another one.

The deaths brought Italy's military death toll in Afghanistan to 29 since 2004.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Next year's Giro d'Italia will start with a team time-trial in Turin on May 7, organisers said Thursday adding that the world's second-biggest stage race will be used to promote celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.

In 1861 Turin became Italy's first capital after an epic campaign by Giuseppe Garibaldi's forces forged the various states on the peninsular into a single whole.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - For the ninth week in a row Italy's popular SuperEnalotto game is offering the world's biggest jackpot, with 105.3 million euros now up for grabs in Thursday night's draw.

No one claimed the 103-million-euro jackpot in Tuesday night's draw where the biggest win was 757,733 euros which went to someone who bought a slip in a bar in the northern city of Udine.

The current jackpot is the third-highest ever in Italy.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Four Italian productions have made it onto the shortlist of films vying for the coveted Golden Lion at this year's Venice festival, organizers revealed on Thursday.

The four movies will be up against 18 films from a range of countries, including the US, France, Japan, Greece, Chile, Greece and China.

The 67th edition of the world's oldest film fest will open on September 1 with the world premiere of Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, in competition.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Italian troops in Afghanistan are getting bigger and stronger armoured cars, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa confirmed Thursday after two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.

La Russa said 17 of the new Freccia (Arrow) cars have arrived and they will be up and running from next month.

The minister was briefing parliament after Wednesday's death of bomb defusal experts Mauro Gigli and Pier Davide De Cillis near the northwestern city of Herat.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Fiat on Thursday continued its drive to revamp relations with its Italian employees, a process which could revolutionise the country's industrial relations, announcing a new subsidiary will not be part of industrial employers' association Confindustria.

The move regards a company the carmaker has set up to manage its Pomigliano d'Arco plant near Naples, where Panda cars will be produced after a landmark flexible-working procedures deal was agreed with the factory's workers.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - The governor of the northwestern region of Piedmont, Roberto Cota, said on Thursday he was optimistic that a partial recount of ballots cast in the April elections would confirm that his Northern League party had won.

"I'm relaxed because the instructions from the interior ministry were clear: any vote cast was meant for the governor as well as his slate," said Cota of the recount of 1% of the vote on Friday.

(ANSA) - Milan, July 29 - An Italian war-zone NGO's hospital in Afghanistan reopened Thursday after being closed down in April on suspicion of harbouring a bomb plot against a local governor.

Afghan authorities have said the facility will be able to work without interference, the NGO announced at its Milan office.

"The authorities have guaranteed complete autonomy and respect for our neutrality," Emergency officials said.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Italian cyclist Franco Pellizotti was reported Thursday to the Italian Olympic Committee's anti-doping tribunal after the International Cycling Union found "anomalies" in his blood.

The 32-year-old climber, who topped the mountain classification in last year's Tour de France, could face a two-year ban if found guilty.

Pellizotti was pulled from this year's Giro d'Italia when news of the doping case broke.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Italy's 24.9-billion-euro austerity budget was approved Thursday as tensions in the ruling People of Freedom (PdL) party peaked between its co-founders, Premier Silvio Berlusconi and House Speaker Gianfranco Fini.

Approval of the package of spending cuts and wage freezes was seen as a prelude to a showdown between the pair, who have been sniping for weeks.

A meeting of the PdL executive is scheduled for Thursday night when a document of censure against Fini is on the agenda.

Observers say Berlusconi might even ask him to leave the party.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - After 'blue mozzarella' sparked a major health scare in Italy last month, a new alarm has been stirred by the case of some red ricotta cheese.

The red ricotta was discovered by a 33-year-old housewife from the Sardinian town of Olbia on Tuesday after she had bought the packet the day before at a discount supermarket.

''It was covered in a pinky-red mould-like film,'' the woman, who preferred not to be named and is especially careful about what she eats as she is seven-months pregnant, told ANSA.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Confidence in the manufacturing sector in May rose for the tenth month in a row, the Treasury's economic think-tank reported on Thursday.

The Institute for Economic Study and Analysis (ISAE) said its confidence index for the sector rose from 96.3 points in June to 98.3 points, back to a level last seen in June 2008.

The increase was made possible, ISAE explained, thanks to a further decline in inventories and improved prospects for orders and demand in general.