Culture Lifestyle

(ANSA) - Rome, February 8 - Three out of four Italian teenagers have been contacted online by strangers, a study by US software giant Microsoft revealed on Monday.

The European study looked at the web surfing habits of 14,000 under-18s in 11 different European countries and found that some 73% of those in Italy had received emails or messages from people they did not know, against a European average of 63%.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 8 - Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno warned on Monday that litterbugs and graffiti writers will face stiff fines if they don't clean-up their act.

The city has launched an awareness campaign to give residents - and presumably tourists too - an advance warning before municipal police start handing out fines.

"I rang up the municipal police chief on Sunday asking him to put his men on the alert. These rules have to be enforced," said Alemanno.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 8 - Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno warned on Monday that litterbugs and graffiti writers will face stiff fines if they don't clean-up their act.

The city has launched an awareness campaign to give residents - and presumably tourists too - an advance warning before municipal police start handing out fines.

"I rang up the municipal police chief on Sunday asking him to put his men on the alert. These rules have to be enforced," said Alemanno.

(ANSA) - Treviso, February 8 - A contested bill on living wills will probably be approved by parliament with part of the opposition's support before the summer, Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi said on Monday.

He said it was very likely, in view of amendments to the bill, that some opposition MPs will back the measure.

The living wills bill has recently moved from the Senate to the House, where Speaker Gianfranco Fini said he hoped it would be amended from the highly restrictive draft that bans removing feeding tubes.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 5 - Fiat will do all it can to help ease the social impact of the closure of its Termini Imerese plant in Sicily, institutional affairs chief Ernesto Auci told a meeting at the industry ministry Friday.

Auci stressed that there were two years to find "the best industrial alternatives" for the Termini plant and its ancillaries after it shuts next year, sources said.

(ANSA) - Florence, February 5 - Italian police on Friday dismantled an international drug trafficking gang led by Albanians.

The gang operated in central and northern Italy using drugs from northern Europe and Spain, police said.

Police arrested 32 people in Florence, Prato, Carrara, Brescia, Monza, Modena, Bergamo, Vicenza and Rome.

They seized 100kg of cocaine with a street value of more than 18 million euros.

(ANSA) - Florence, February 5 - Italian police on Friday dismantled an international drug trafficking gang led by Albanians.

The gang operated in central and northern Italy using drugs from northern Europe and Spain, police said.

Police arrested 32 people in Florence, Prato, Carrara, Brescia, Monza, Modena, Bergamo, Vicenza and Rome.

They seized 100kg of cocaine with a street value of more than 18 million euros.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 4 - Hunting accidents killed 30 people and wounded 87 others during the five-month season that just ended, the Italian Association for Hunting Victims (AVC) said on Thursday.

According to the ACV annual report, presented in the Senate by association president Daniela Casprini, 23 of the fatalities and 57 of those injured were hunters.

Casualties among general members of the public accounted for seven deaths and 30 injuries.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 4 - Rents in Italy have more than doubled in less than 20 years while household incomes have risen by some 18%, according to a report presented to parliament on Thursday.

The report, drawn up by the Bologna-based Nomisma economic research group, said that between 1991 and 2009 rents leapt by an average of 105% compared to household incomes which rose by around 18%.

The study also found that households who rent pay 27.8% of their available income, an increase of 121% over 1991.

(ANSA) - Valletta, February 4 - Witnesses to a Maltese casino heist said on Thursday that the robbers who made off with 500,000 euros were probably Italian.

Though the five men who raided the Casino di Venezia on Wednesday night were all wearing face masks, a number of witnesses said they were speaking in Italian.

They said the five men entered the casino with their guns drawn and ordered gamblers and staff to lie on the floor while the emptied the game room's cash drawers.

(ANSA) - Savona, February 2 - A gay Italian man petitioning the Spanish government for asylum briefly lost consciousness on Wednesday after nearly a month on hunger strike to demand civil union rights from the Italian government.

Francesco Zanardi, 39, said he felt ''tired, but better'' after receiving first aid from doctors at home, who said he refused to be hospitalized despite showing signs of severe malnutrition.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 2 - An Italian gay couple on hunger strike applied for political asylum in Spain on Tuesday on the basis the government had ignored their appeals for gay rights and was ''content to let them starve''.

''The situation is critical. We live in a dictatorship,'' said Francesco Zanardi, 39, and his partner Manuel Incorvaia, 22, in a letter to the Spanish Embassy.

The two have been on hunger strike, on and off, since January 5 when they issued an appeal to the Italian government to reconsider its stance on civil unions.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 2 - Conditions in Italy's migrant holding centres are so abysmal that some should be closed down, according to a new report published by an international aid organization on Tuesday.

The study by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which looked at 21 of Italy's 27 sites between December 2008 and August 2009, warned that residents suffered serious deprivations.

''These centres provide substandard services and lack the basic necessities,'' noted the report. ''Furthermore, health authorities are entirely absent''.

(ANSA) - Rome, February 1 - Hundreds of workers from two Alcoa plants in Italy are set to stage a sit-in demonstration in front of the premier's office on Tuesday during a scheduled meeting inside between representatives from the American multinational, trade unions and the Italian government.

(ANSA) - Rome, January 29 - Italian kids in hospital are in for a dose of "clown therapy" according to Equal Opportunity Minister Mara Carafagna who on Friday unveiled fresh funding for a scheme to treat young patients with a bit of fun.

''The idea is reduce the stress of hospital recovery and make our pediatric wards a little more child-friendly''.

''We think a little laughter is important to the healing process, especially for kids, and we're happy to support any effort to do that,'' she said.