Politics News Event

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Group of Eight and other countries which joined the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative will meet in Rome, probably at the start of 2010, Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia said on Tuesday.

Speaking to ANSA on the sidelines of the United Nations World Summit on Food Security, Zaia said the meeting would focus on channeling the resources for food security agreed to during the July G8 summit in L'Aquila, which Italy hosted in its role of rotating president for 2009.

(ANSA) - Bari, November 17 - Colleagues of a judge whose slackness in writing a report caused the release of more than 20 Mafia members told a hearing on the case Tuesday that Bari Tribunal magistrates were snowed under with work.

Six judges who testified on behalf of colleague Rosa Anna Depalo told a disciplinary hearing that the amount of work at the Tribunal was overwhelming.

The Mafiosi walked out of jail on a technical loophole in April because Depalo failed to write her report in the required legal term.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Italy's support for Turkey joining the European Union was reiterated on Tuesday during a visit President Giorgio Napolitano paid to Ankara and a meeting Premier Silvio Berlusconi had in Rome with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish prime minister was in the Italian capital to take part in the United Nations World Summit on Food Security being held at the headquarters here of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - The election last month of Pierluigi Bersani as the new secretary of the opposition Democratic Party (PD) gave a boost to his party which rose four percentage points in the monthly confidence index put out by the IPR Marketing research group.

Based on a poll taken between November 13 to 16, confidence of Italians in the PD rose to 41%, its best result so far in the current legislature.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Tuesday hailed a "peaceful" first round of local elections in Kosovo as a sign of maturity from the fledgling Balkan republic.

Elections last weekend in 36 municipalities including the capital, Pristina, were the country's first since declaring independence from Serbia in February 2008.

Though Serb minorities largely boycotted the elections, Frattini said the 45% turnout and overall "peaceful climate" made the vote a success.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi weighed in on Italy's crucifix debate Monday night, telling an invited audience of 200 young women that the Red Crescent symbol of Islam was not imposed in Libya.

"In Libya we do not oblige anyone to put up the Red Crescent," Colonel Gaddafi told the second such audience recruited from a Rome hostess agency in his two nights in Rome for a world food summit.

Italy was recently rapped by the European Court of Human Rights for having crosses in its classrooms.

Gaddafi, who is known for giving long answers, was unusually brief in replying to questions from the women, who were a different crowd from the first night in his traditional giant tent.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi weighed in on Italy's crucifix debate Monday night, telling an invited audience of 200 young women that the Red Crescent symbol of Islam was not imposed in Libya.

"In Libya we do not oblige anyone to put up the Red Crescent," Colonel Gaddafi told the second such audience recruited from a Rome hostess agency in his two nights in Rome for a world food summit.

Italy was recently rapped by the European Court of Human Rights for having crosses in its classrooms.

(ANSA) - Berlin, November 17 - Italy this year fell to 63rd place in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from Transparency International, a global organization dedicated to combating corruption.

Italy, which was 55th in last year's ranking, was next to last among European Union members, ahead of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania which were all tied for last place among the EU-27.

The CPI rates 180 countries on a scale of one to 10 on the perceived level of public-sector corruption based on 13 different expert and business surveys.

(ANSA) - Milan, November 17 - Police in Milan on Tuesday arrested 14 people accused of smuggling illegal immigrants into Italy and selling them false documents.

The arrests followed an investigation into fake work papers sold by a Milan restaurant owner to North African immigrants at prices from 2,000 to 7,000 euros each.

Police also seized real estate valuing 40 million euros allegedly financed by the smuggler's profits.

(ANSA) - Milan, November 17 - The Italian government is assessing the possible terror threat from a previously unknown far-left group that sent leaflets about "armed struggle" to television stations and newspapers Monday.

The leaflets, signed by the self-styled Nuclei Armati Territoriali (NAT), threatened a response to "the legalised violence of the regime".

They were sent to the Milan offices of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset media group; a conservative paper owned by the premier's brother, Il Giornale; RAI state TV; and the leftist newspaper l'Unita'.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 16 - World leaders taking part in the the United Nations World Summit on Food Security here unanimously adopted a declaration on Monday pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger in the world sustainably and at the earliest date.

(ANSA) - Palermo, November 16 - Couriers delivering orders for Mafia superboss Domenico Raccuglia were the key to his undoing, Sicilian police said Monday.

Touted as the most significant blow to the Mafia since the 2007 capture of Palermo strongman Salvatore Lo Piccolo, Raccuglia's arrest on Sunday brings an end to a 13-year manhunt for the second most wanted mobster in Sicily.

(ANSA) - Brussels, November 16 - Negotiators must continue seeking agreement ahead of next month's climate change summit, the European Commission said Monday, as ministers gathered in Copenhagen for a final, critical preparatory meeting.

Over 40 environment, energy and climate ministers attended the closed-door conference in the Danish capital, which got under way just hours after US President Barack Obama said there would be no legally binding deal at the December summit.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 16 - Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday declined to talk about an extradition case that has strained relations between Brazil and Italy.

Lula said he had spoken to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi about ex-terrorist Cesare Battisti on the sidelines of a United Nations world food summit in Rome.

"I couldn't come to Italy without addressing the Battisti case, but I don't want to tell you what we said to each other," Lula told journalists as he left the premier's office.

(ANSA) - Turin, November 16 - There are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers in 86 countries but their number is likely much higher as more children are being recruited for active combat, according to experts meeting at an international conference in Turin on Monday.

"You have to take account of girl soldiers who are often not included in the estimates....the increase in conflicts means that the number of child soldiers has probably increased," said Margherita Boniver, the Italian government's special envoy for humanitarian emergencies.