LATIN TEACHER CAUSES UPROAR WITH BERLUSCONI TRANSLATION

LATIN TEACHER CAUSES UPROAR WITH BERLUSCONI TRANSLATION

(ANSA) - Rome, November 13 - A Latin teacher in southern Italy who had students translate phrases about Premier Silvio Berlusconi caused a furor on Friday when the story received front-page coverage in a right-wing newspaper.

Reported in Il Giornale, a daily owned by Berlusconi's brother, Angela Di Nanni's exercises referred to trials facing the premier after an constitutional court ruling last month quashing a law granting the premier immunity from persecution.

"Silvio Berlusconi will be called before judges," read one of the passages.

"Berlusconi is accused of corruption and fraud, but says he will not resign," read another.

The Il Giornale article described Di Nanni as "a political militant" and accused her of "using a dead language to insult the premier".

The article concluded with a plea for teachers "not to contaminate the classics with their political anger".

But the principal of the school where Di Nanni teaches, Luciano Gigante, said she had no such intention.

"Di Nanni was just trying to get some of her more difficult students interested in the lesson," he said

The principal explained that the exercise came from a website popular among teachers that offers Latin versions of top news items.

"The students also translated a piece about the death of Michael Jackson," Gigante said.

''This is as all just a tempest in a teapot''.

Local education officials called an emergency meeting after the article came out to decide whether the translations called for disciplinary action.