Italy News

(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 - Day two of an international food summit in Rome opened Tuesday with an address by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

Addressing the 60 international delegations present to discuss the plight of the world's one billion hungry, the controversial African leader demanded that "western countries lift the illegal sanctions" imposed on his government.

Mugabe is banned from visiting the European Union except under special circumstances including United Nations business.

(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 17 - The 0.6% increase in Italy's gross domestic product in the third quarter of the year, over the previous three-month period, was a clear indication that "the most difficult period of the (economic) downturn is over," Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said on Tuesday.

Speaking on a morning TV news program, the minster added that what was needed now was to "help business by stimulating the recovery".

(ANSA) - Rome, November 17 - Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary expects his budget airline next year will surpass Italian airline Alitalia in terms of passengers carried and become the leading carrier in Italy.

Speaking Tuesday at the presentation of Ryanair's new flights from Rome's Ciampino airport to Krakow, Poland, and Seville, Spain - which will begin in March 2010 - O'Leary said that his airline this year "increased the number of passengers (in Italy) it carried by 22% to 18 million, while Alitalia lost 23% of its passengers and also carried 18 million".

(ANSA) - Pompeii, November 16 - The world-famous archaeological site of Pompeii is seeking adoptive parents from around the globe for its community of stray dogs, as part of a drive to improve the lives of animals living there.

Strays have lived on the site for decades, scavenging for food, posing a health risk to visitors and undermining the site, Pompeii's emergency commissioner Marcello Fiori said on Monday.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 16 - The number of H1N1 flu fatalities in Italy rose to 58 on Monday with three new victims.

Two of the Italians who died with the virus were from the Campania region, whose 25 flu victims account for nearly half the nation's total.

All of the victims on Monday had severe health problems prior to contracting the flu.

The first death was a 32-year-old Campania woman who came down with the virus just before giving birth last month.

(ANSA) - Florence, November 16 - Italian researchers have developed a new technique that regenerates the breast tissue of cancer survivors without using invasive surgery, an expert said Monday.

The team at the Careggio University teaching hospital have successfully tested a method that uses stem cells, explained Professor Luigi Cataliotti.

''Stem cells extracted from fatty tissue can help improve the quality of the reconstruction after a full mastectomy,'' he said.

(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) - Rome, November 16 - Italy's popular SuperEnalotto game has already raked in over three billion euros this year and is expected to break its all-time record of 3.15 billion euros set in 1999, game organizers Sisal said on Monday.

Money collected from SuperEnalotto bets already broke last year's record intake of 2.509 billion euros by mid-September and the 2008 record was a 29.3% jump over the previous year.