Italy News

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Senate Speaker Renato Schifani said on Tuesday the country should head towards early general elections if the centre-right government is unable to heal rifts and fulfil its electoral pledges.

Schifani made no direct reference to House Speaker Gianfranco Fini, who has increasingly distanced himself from Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin must return the silver medal he won in last year's Olympic road race in Beijing, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.

The IOC's decision came after news in April that Rebellin had failed a test for CERA, the latest generation of the blood booster EPO.

Rebellin, 37, has been suspended since the April 29 news that CERA had been found in a re-tested blood sample.

Rebellin came second to Samuel Sanchez of Spain.

(ANSA) - Udine, November 17 - Italy are ready for the physical challenge posed by South Africa in the second of their three autumn tests Saturday, centre Mirco Bergamasco said Tuesday.

"The world champions like a physical battle and we're ready for it," said Bergamasco, as we showed against New Zealand," he said.

In front of a capacity crowd at San Siro last Saturday Italy competed well up front with the world's most famous team but a war of attrition and a couple of defensive lapses led to a 20-6 defeat - still one of Italy's best results against the All Blacks.

(ANSA) - Brussels, November 17 - Former Italian premier Massimo D'Alema would do a "great job" if chosen to become the European Union's new foreign policy chief, the EU's foreign policy representative Javier Solana told reporters on Tuesday.

"I've worked with him over the years, in his capacity as premier and foreign minister and I really think he'd be excellent," said Solana, who also dismissed reports that D'Alema doesn't know English well enough to do the job.

(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) - Rome, November 17 - Wizards from around the world will swoop into Rome later this week for the 2009 world championships of the fantasy game 'Magic: the Gathering'.

Some 5,000 participants from over 60 countries are expected to take part in more than 25 tournaments of the cult game to be held November 19-22 at the Palazzo dei Congress convention center.

Magic: The Gathering is one of the first modern collectible card games which has an estimated six million players in over seventy countries.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Nearly one in four Italian children are living at or below the poverty line, European Parliament Deputy Speaker Roberta Angelilli announced on Tuesday.

Reporting on EU funding for the disadvantaged, Angelilli said that 27% of Italian households struggled to make ends meet, a figure which rises to 39% in the country's economically lagging south.

The EU average, including new entries Bulgaria and Romania, is 25%.

(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) - Vatican City, November 17 - Pope John Paul II's beatification process has taken the last formal step and now needs just Pope Benedict XVI's approval, Vatican sources said on Tuesday.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has given the go-ahead by approving the late pope's 'heroic virtues' and the paperwork will now be sent to his successor, the sources said.

The Polish pope's beatification is expected to take place sometime next year, perhaps in April, to coincide with the fifth anniversary of his death.

(ANSA) - Cesena, November 17 - Italy coach Marcello Lippi is using Wednesday's friendly against Sweden as another chance to fill in the few blanks in his squad when Italy defend its world crown in South Africa next year.

The World Cup-winning coach has made nine changes to the team that drew 0-0 with Netherlands on Saturday.

Livorno midfielder Antonio Candreva is confirmed along with Juventus stalwart Giorgio Chiellini.

Candreva, 22, impressed against the Dutch and has his eye on becoming a back-up midfielder for the World Cup Campaign.

(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 Turin shroud, revered by many as the holiest relic of Christ, will be placed on public display from April to May, for the first time since 2000, the Italian Bishops Council (CEI) said on Tuesday.

Believers say the shroud wrapped the body of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.

Pope Benedict XVI has never commented on the authenticity of the relic but the Vatican has announced that he will visit Turin on May 2 to see it along with other pilgrims.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Thousands of student protestors took to the streets across Italy on Tuesday for International Student Day demonstrations against the government's package of education reforms.

Organizers said 150,000 protestors turned out in at least 50 cities to demonstrate against cuts in education spending and moves towards privatization in the university system.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - The Catholic Church in Italy is to issue new rules on cremation that ban scattering ashes outside cemeteries, a statement from the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) said Tuesday.

Italians have traditionally shied away from cremation amid Church disapproval of the practice and a lack of local-government authorisation in most of Italy.

But there has been a rise in recent years and last month Turin caused a flap by saying it was going to allow citizens to scatter ashes in the River Po.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Today's adolescents appear to be discouraged about their prospects for earning a university degree and finding a steady job, according to a new study out on Tuesday.

A poll included in an annual report from the Eurispes research group found that 33.6% of young people believe it will be very difficult to get a degree, 49.4% think it will be hard to get a steady job and 42.9% doubt they will find a job that they like.