Politics News Event

(ANSA) - Ischia, November 10 - A landslide on the island of Ischia has left one dead and at least 20 injured, officials reported Tuesday.

Rescuers said the victim, a teenage girl, was buried beneath a river of mud which came flowing down from the island's Mount Epomeo early Tuesday morning.

According to the civil protection department, over 20 survivors have been pulled to safety so far, some with bruises and broken bones, including a small child said to be in serious condition.

Rescuers are still searching for an 11-year-old girl reported missing after the landslide.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - A major new drive to make it cheaper for immigrants to send cash back home was unveiled at an international conference here on Monday.

The meeting, hosted by Italy in its capacity as this year's Group of Eight president, is working on a roadmap to halve fees for remittances.

''The average cost of 9.7% is already far too high, and this figures rises to as much as 25% in areas where there is little competition, such as Africa,'' said Janamitra Devan, head of the financial and private sector development division at the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - A major new drive to make it cheaper for immigrants to send cash back home was unveiled at an international conference here on Monday.

The meeting, hosted by Italy in its capacity as this year's Group of Eight president, is working on a roadmap to halve fees for remittances.

''The average cost of 9.7% is already far too high, and this figures rises to as much as 25% in areas where there is little competition, such as Africa,'' said Janamitra Devan, head of the financial and private sector development division at the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - Migration is a growing issue worldwide but should be seen as an opportunity rather than a problem, Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday.

Addressing the first session of the Vatican's World Congress on Migrants, the pontiff said migration was ''a bigger issue than ever before, both in terms of size and complexity''.

''It now affects nearly every country in the world and is part of the vast process of globalization,'' Benedict said.

''Many migrants leave their countries to escape living conditions that are humanly unacceptable but without finding the welcome they hope for elsewhere''.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - A major new drive to make it cheaper for immigrants to send cash back home was unveiled at an international conference here on Monday.

The meeting, hosted by Italy in its capacity as this year's Group of Eight president, is working on a roadmap to halve fees for remittances.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - Migration is a growing issue worldwide but should be seen as an opportunity rather than a problem, Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday.

Addressing the first session of the Vatican's World Congress on Migrants, the pontiff said migration was ''a bigger issue than ever before, both in terms of size and complexity''.

''It now affects nearly every country in the world and is part of the vast process of globalization,'' Benedict said.

(ANSA) - Brussels, November 9 - The European Parliament's Social Democratic caucus leader Martin Schulz "strongly supports" the candidacy of Italian ex-foreign minister and ex-prime minister Massimo D'Alema to be the European Union's new diplomatic chief, caucus sources told ANSA Monday.

The sources said the caucus had swung behind D'Alema after British Foreign Secretary David Miliband appeared to have ruled himself out.

D'Alema said his candidacy was "a very delicate affair on which I cannot and must not say anything".

(ANSA) - Venice, November 9 - Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima has been named head of the Architecture sector for next year's edition of the Venice Biennale.

Sejima, 53, is the first woman to get the job.

"The Biennale must be everything, fundamentally inclusive, in constant dialogue with those who do it and those who see it," she said.

Biennale Foundation Chairman Paolo Baratta called Sejima "one of the most qualified and representative masters of 21st century architecture".

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - A police hotline for the victims of female genital mutilation went live on Monday as part of the government's campaign to combat the practice in Italy.

Unveiling the hotline, Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna said the service ''offers immigrants a new way to ask for help, get information and report the practice to the police''.

(ANSA) - Tripoli, November 9 - Once a new European Commission has been seated, the European Union must work to maintain the commitments it has made with Libya, visiting Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told his Libyan counterpart Younis al-Obeidi when they met here Monday morning.

This was the third time that Maroni has visited the North African country this year and their meeting focused on bilateral cooperation in regard to immigration, based on the accords the two countries signed earlier this year.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago created a need for a new world order which recognises the importance of "a 'Greater Europe' which stretches from the Atlantic to Vladivostock," according to Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago created a need for a new world order which recognises the importance of ''a 'Greater Europe' which stretches from the Atlantic to Vladivostock,'' according to Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

In a joint interview published Monday in the Turin daily La Stampa to mark the anniversary, Frattini said that this new world order needed to be ''based on interdependence and cooperation in order to find solutions to common problems''.

This 'Greater Europe', the two diplomatic chiefs agreed, ''must have a global visions and objectives shared by all in order to guarantee stability on our continent''.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - Former Italian prime minister and ex-foreign minister Massimo D'Alema has an excellent chance of becoming the European Union's first 'foreign minister', Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Monday.

Frattini said there were "excellent prospects" for D'Alema if British Foreign Secretary David Miliband confirms he is not running for the new job.

Miliband, he said, had yet to openly throw his hat into the ring.

"Frankly, that candidacy has so far never been there," Frattini said.

The new job of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is one of two new posts created in the EU's governing Lisbon Treaty, which goes into effect in 2010.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 6 - Illegal immigrants trying to reach Italy pay an average of 2,000 dollars to human traffickers who ferry them across the Mediterranean, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Friday.

"Of the many sorts of organised crime, including arms and drug trafficking, human trafficking is one of the most profitable. On average, an illegal immigrant pays 2,000 dollars to reach Italy from Africa," Maroni told the Foreign Press Association in Rome.

(ANSA) - Milan, November 6 - Tensions between the Italian government and the judiciary affect the ratings international agencies put on Italy's debt, according to an official from Moody's Investors Service.

"Tensions between the executive and the judiciary are a typically Italian phenomenon, it exists nowhere else, and it raises questions and needed to be addressed in assigning ratings," explained Alexander Kockerbeck, Vice President-Senior Credit Officer in Moody's Sovereign Risk Group.