(ANSA) - Rome, October 20 - The leader of Italy's
regionalist Northern League party Umberto Bossi said migrants
from Libya living in Italy should be sent back after former
dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed Thursday.
"Now (Italy) can send the illegal Libyan immigrants back
home," said Bossi, a strong ally of Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called Gaddafi's death
a positve step forward for the North African country and its new
government.
"It turns a dramatic leaf in Libya," he said. "Now we hope
a new country can be built, one that is free and united".
(ANSA) - Rome, October 20 - Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno
called for a state of emergency Thursday as heavy storms wreaked
havoc in the capital, causing transport chaos and leaving one
person dead.
"The intensity of the storm was unexpected," said Alemmano,
who has activated a toll-free emergency hot-line for people to
report emergencies and request information (800 854 854).
(ANSA) - Rome, October 20 - Upon hearing reports that fallen
Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed Thursday, Italian
Premier Silvio Berlusconi reportedly said he believed the war
was over.
"Sic transit gloria mundi," said the premier in Latin,
meaning the glory of the world is fleeting. "Now the war is
over".
(ANSA) - Rome, October 20 - Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno
called for a state of emergency Thursday as heavy storms wreaked
havoc in the capital, causing transport chaos and leaving one
person dead.
"The intensity of the storm was unexpected," said Alemmano,
who has activated a toll-free emergency hot-line for people to
report emergencies and request information (800 854 854).
Torrential rain and thunderstorms flooded basements across
the city, drowning an elderly man in his underground apartment.
In another incident, a senior citizen was reported missing.
(ANSA) - Rome, October 20 - French first lady Carla Bruni
has given birth to a baby girl.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Italian wife gave birth
in a Paris clinic at around 8pm on Wednesday, French media
reported.
Sarkozy reportedly was not present at the birth but came
to visit Bruni and their new child late on Wednesday.
The 43-year-old mother, a former singer and model, has a
10-year-old son from a previous relationship and the president
has three sons from his two previous marriages.
(ANSA) - Milan, October 19 - Patrizia Reggiani, who is
serving a 26-year sentence for the murder of her husband and
heir to the Gucci fortune, has refused parole.
Maurizio Gucci was shot dead in front of his office in
March 1995.
Reggiani was convicted of ordering the killing and has been
at Milan's San Vittore prison since 1997.
The 62-year-old recently became eligible for day release if
she accepted a job, but declined the offer.
"I have never worked in my life," Reggiani told Milan
judges.
(ANSA) - Rome, October 18 - Interior Minister Roberto Maroni
on Tuesday announced tough new measures to crack down on street
violence after what he called "unprecedented urban terrorism" in
Rome at the weekend.
In a report to the Senate, Maroni condemned the "blind
violence" during Saturday's demonstration which he attributed to
"3,000 masked people who had overshadowed the protest by
thousands of others".
(ANSA) - Rome, October 18 - Italian Foreign Minister Franco
Frattini said Tuesday that he hoped the release of Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian
prisoners will help push forward the Middle Eastern peace
process.
Hamas had held Shalit hostage after capturing him inside
Israel near the border with Gaza, which it controls, in a raid
in June 2006.
(ANSA) - Milan, October 18 - A Milan judge on Tuesday
cleared Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in a fraud case
related to his private Mediaset television empire.
Judge Maria Vicidomini dismissed the case against Berlusconi
but ordered his son Pier Silvio, the deputy chairman of the
company, and chairman Fedele Confalonieri to stand trial.
"Silvio Berlusconi had no involvement in this affair," his
defence lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told reporters outside the court.
(ANSA) - Rome, October 18 - A young student considered the
symbol of the street violence that rocked the Italian capital at
the weekend was arrested by police on Tuesday.
Fabrizio Filippi, a 24-year-old student from Bassano Romano
in the province of Viterbo, was allegedly pictured in
photographs hurling a fire extinquisher at police and was
reportedly identified by a distinctive tattoo.
When questioned by police he reportedly said he "used the
fire extinguisher to put out the fires" that had been ignited
when the protest turned violent.
(ANSA) - Assisi, October 17 - The town of Assisi, the
birthplace of Italy's patron saint St. Francis, appears to be
sinking.
According to satellite data collated by the European Space
Agency and Italy's electromagnetic institute (IREA), the Umbrian
hill town has dropped 15 centimetres in the past 20 years or 7.5
millimetres a year.
Scientists are analysing the satellite data in a bid to
learn more about the movement of the earth in sensitive areas
around the Medieval town.
(ANSA) - Rome, October 17 - Italian police on Monday
impounded a theatre in Rome as part of a wider seizure of assets
of a Rome businessman suspected of links to the Calabrian
organised crime syndicate 'Ndrangheta.
The Teatro Ghione was among 110 millions of euros seized
from property broker Federico Marcaccini, who last December was
linked to international drug trafficking by 'Ndrangheta.
(ANSA) - Rome, October 17 - The Catholic charity Caritas
said Monday it had seen an 80.8% rise in requests for help at
its offices across Italy during the four years of economic
crisis from 2007 to 2010.
The number of people asking for help, mainly to make ends
meet, rose by 19.8% in the same period, and by 69.3% in the
poorer south of Italy, Caritas said.
Most requests were for help in getting out of poverty while
some sought assistance in getting jobs or solving family issues,
Caritas said.
(ANSA) - Manila, October 17 - An Italian priest was shot and
killed in an ambush outside his parish church in the southern
Philippines on Monday.
Father Fausto Tentorio, 59, was reportedly gunned down by a
lone attacker on a motorcycle as he left the church in Arakan in
the province of Cotabato.
Tentorio, who came from the northern town of Lecco, had been
a missionary in the Philippines for more than 30 years and was
leaving church after morning mass to attend a clergy meeting in
Kidapawan when he was shot.
