Culture Lifestyle

(ANSA) - Rome, October 30 - An Italian organization created to offer assistance to victims of stalking has opened an office in Rome after successfully operating one in Milan.

The new Codici office staff will include two lawyers and an expert in psychology, Codici National Secretary Ivano Giacomelli said at the presentation of the new Rome branch on Friday.

According to recent studies, one out of five Italians have been the target of stalking at some time in their lives and of these 75% are women and in 80% of the cases the victim knows the molester.

(ANSA) - Rimini, October 30 - A paraplegic was arrested in Rimini Friday after police found his garage had been converted to grow marijuana.

Police ignored the man's claim that he needed the drug for medical reasons.

Some 15 plants, 1.7m high and ready to be harvested, were confiscated along with dried marijuana and hashish.

A second man was caught helping tend the plants and was also arrested.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 30 - Italy's popular SuperEnalotto game continues to offer the world's biggest jackpot, although it is still far from the European record of 147.8 million euros it set over two months ago.

Saturday's draw will see 80.2 million euros up for grabs, while Europe's EuroMillions game is offering 77 million euros and America's PowerBall pot is a distant third at almost 35.8 million euros.

(ANSA) - Naples, October 29 - A mafia execution caught on surveillance cameras shocked Italians on Thursday when Naples prosecutors released the video in an attempt to find the killer.

Police have had no success in finding the killer of Mariano Bacioterracino, a man with possible mafia links, gunned down in broad daylight outside of a bar in central Naples last May.

The security video shows a number of witnesses to the shooting, but so far none of them have come forward to identify the shooter.

(ANSA) - Perugia, October 29 - A hungry son spoiled a Romanian carer's plan to take an old lady's jewels back home hidden in a cake.

The carer baked what she said was ''a special cake'' for her relatives in Romania but made the mistake of putting it in the fridge before she set off, Umbrian media reported Thursday.

The son arrived by chance, opened the fridge, spotted the cake and took a big slice to find ''a rich filling'' of bracelets, earrings, necklaces and other jewels.

The carer lost her job in the village of Sanfatucchio on Lake Trasimeno.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - A new university reform bill aims to reward merit, root out nepotism, lower the average age of professors and stop a brain drain of researchers, Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said after the cabinet approved the bill.

She said the reform plan was ''the fruit of talks with the entire Italian university system''.

The part of the reform that ''is most close to my heart,'' she said, are efforts to give researchers permanent jobs, ''ending years of part-time contracts''.

(ANSA) - Genoa, October 28 - A man who turned to robbery when he fell behind with alimony payments broke down in tears when a sympathetic post-office cashier told him a life of crime wasn't for him.

Antonio M,. a forest ranger, couldn't make ends meet and decided to steal the money he needed for his son and estranged wife, Genoa daily Il Secolo XIX reported Wednesday.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - There are over 4.5 million legal immigrants in Italy, amounting to one in 14 residents, according to a report released Wednesday by Catholic charity Caritas.

According to the report, legal aliens now account for 7.2% of the population, exceeding the European Union average of 6.2% for the first time ever.

Earlier this month, national statistics bureau Istat, placed the number of foreign residents at the beginning of the year at 3.8 million, amounting to 6.5% of the population.

(ANSA) - Naples, October 28 - Police on Wednesday found a weapons cache in Naples in a flowerbed near a statue of Padre Pio.

The cache near the statue of the popular saint contained two foreign-made handguns, police said.

In the weapons sweep through a working-class district of the southern city, police also found a bullet-proof vest and a gun barrel.

The Camorra, or Naples mafia, recruits its 'soldiers' from the poorest parts of the city.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - There are over 4.5 million legal immigrants in Italy, amounting to one in 14 residents, Catholic charity Caritas announced Wednesday.

According to the organization, legal aliens now account for 7.2% of the population, exceeding the European Union average of 6.2% for the first time ever.

Earlier this month, national statistics bureau Istat, placed the number of foreign residents at the beginning of the year at 3.8 million, amounting to 6.5% of the population.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 27 - Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini is writing a book of fairy tales she hopes will encourage Italians to resume the habit of reading to their children at bed time.

''Kids today are left in front of the TV until it's time to go to bed. I think it would be very nice if people started reading stories to them again,'' the minister told a TV show.

Gelmini, who has been at the centre of fierce polemics over education reforms, said her book would be based on traditional tales taken from all Italy's 20 regions.

(ANSA) - Geneva, October 27 - Italy has dropped three places in the annual Gender Gap Report compiled by the Davos-based World Economic Forum (WEF) and published Tuesday.

In 72nd spot, Italy is behind countries like Lesotho (up six spots to 10th), Botswana (up 26 to 39th), Kazakhstan (47th), China (60th) and Vietnam (71st).

But it beats Tanzania (73rd), the Czech Republic (74th) and Japan (up 25 to 75).

(ANSA) - Rome, October 27 - Italy's popular SuperEnalotto game continues to offer the world's biggest jackpot, even though it is still far from the European record of 147.8 million euros set two months ago.

Tuesday's draw will see 77.7 million euros up for grabs, which is still ahead of the 77 million euros being offered by Europe's EuroMillions game while the pot for America's PowerBall is a distant third at some 27.5 million euros.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - Choppy seas and high winds continued to hamper Italian efforts to rescue over 200 boat migrants adrift in the Mediterranean on Monday.

A rescue mission was launched on Friday but rough seas have prevented other vessels from approaching the troubled boat.

The Italian coastguard has now sent a tugboat, speedboat and patrol vessel to the area in a bid to either rescue the migrants individually or tow the vessel to safety.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 23 - Four Carabinieri policemen were arrested in Rome Friday for allegedly blackmailing Lazio Governor Piero Marazzo with a purported video of an encounter with a transsexual.

Governor Marazzo, who vowed not to step down, said the case was a ''bogus attempt to smear me'' ahead of regional elections in March.

''I will continue my work with great determination and a clear conscience until the last day of my term,'' he said.

''I have a family I hold dearer than anything and want to preserve with all my strength''.