(ANSA) - Rome, October 19 - The photographic archive of
Italian news agency ANSA is an important part of the country's
heritage, President Giorgio Napolitano said on Wednesday.
"ANSA's photographic archive is a unique asset, an asset for
the whole country and we must value it and hold it in high
regard for the history of Italy," Napolitano said.
(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) - Ravenna, October 14 - An Italian hairdresser
claiming disability benefit for blindness has been charged with
defrauding the state after tax police filmed her working in her
salon and riding a bike, officials said Friday.
The woman, 62, was judged "completely sight-impaired" by a
medical panel and had been claiming benefits "for at least three
years," they said.
Authorities will now try to get their money back and are
suing for damages.
(ANSA) - Verona, October 14 - A former construction worker
is struggling to make ends meet after the Italian pension system
stopped his cheques because they thought he was dead.
"I don't why they stopped paying someone who's alive when
there are so many swindlers getting pensions from dead relatives
around the country," said Giulio Marchetto, 62, from the town of
Boschi Sant'Anna south of Verona.
Marchetto will now have to submit various documents to
prove he is alive.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 23 - The number of single Italians
of all ages rose by 39% in the ten years from 2000 to 2010,
research institute CENSIS said Friday.
The number of couples with children fell by more than 7%
over the decade, said CENSIS President Giuseppe De Rita.
Almost seven million Italians live alone, or 13.6% of the
population over the age of 15.
Of these, almost two million are aged between 15 and 45,
1.7 million 45-64 and 3.3 million 65 or over.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 22 - A new proposal brought before
parliament Thursday would see that those who deface, damage or
steal public art objects would serve jail time.
According to the law, offenders would spend one to six
years in prison plus pay a fine of 5,000 to 10,000 euros for
crimes such as the one committed in early September when a local
man snapped off pieces of the Fountain of the Moor in Piazza
Navona, one of Rome's most famous fountains.
(ANSA) - Bolzano, September 20 - Italy's famed Iceman mummy
had an anniversary bash this week as his purpose-built
museum celebrated 20 years since two German tourists spotted him
peeping out of a northern Italian glacier.
''Oetzi has been great for us, the city and tourism in
the entire region,'' South Tyrol Archaeology Museum Director
Angelika Fleckinger said after the Copper Age man, 2,000
years older than Tutankhamen, welcomed kids to play with
prehistoric bows and arrows and offered 'neolithic' food for
visitors.
An ongoing row over whether to turn on an expensive new
liquid-nitrogen-fed chamber for the mummy slightly dampened the
fun at the foot of the Similaun glacier.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 19 - Italy has 16,145 people aged
100 or over, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Monday,
adding that the vast majority of the nation's centenarians are
women.
ISTAT said there were 13,040 women centenarians in Italy,
compared to 3,105 men.
Italy has some of the highest life-expectancy rates in the
world.
ISTAT said in January that the average lifespan for men
here was 79.1 years in 2010, up 0.3% from 2009, while women's
average lifespan was up 0.2% to 84.3 years.
(ANSA) - Verona, September 16 - Four people have been
accused of promoting a fake university in the northern city of
Verona and inviting students to pay 7,000 euros each to enrol
there.
The university scam was uncovered by local finance police
after a dozen students said they had paid money to register at
the university called 'Carolus Magnus' (Charlemagne).
Renowned theatre director and choreographer Gino Landi was
among the names of a dozen prestigious teachers on the bogus
faculty list publicised by the fake university.
(ANSA) - Turin, September 16 - Judges have ruled to deny
custody of a toddler to two elderly parents and said on Friday
that age had nothing to do with their decision.
"No court, and especially not the one for minors in Turin,
would declare parents to be unfit because they were too old,"
said judges Anna Maria Baldelli and Fulvio Villa in a written
statement.
Contrary to accusations, they said that their decision was
based upon evidence of repeated cases of abandonment and
neglect.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 14 - Births fell in Italy between
2009 and 2010 but more children were born to unmarried couples,
Istat said in an annual report Wednesday.
There were 15,000 fewer births in 2010 compared to 2009, at
561,944, the statistics agency said, breaking a steady rise
since 1995 when there were 526,064 births.
Births from couples with at least one Italian member fell
25,000 in the two years while births from couples with at least
one foreigner rose by 5,000 both years.
