Culture Lifestyle

(ANSA) - Milan, November 20 - Twelve enormous pink snails have moved in to Milan city centre for a new outdoor art installation designed to encourage the fast-living residents of the Lombardy capital to slow down.

Three metres long and two metres high, the huge molluscs are currently circling Piazza Scala in front of Milan's famous opera house and the nearby square in front of the Church of San Fedele.

Passers-by have been unable to resist stopping to touch the bright pink snails made from recyclable plastic, whose tentacles are perkily extended to the sky.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - Italian prosecutors have opened a murder probe into the death Friday of a transsexual prostitute linked to disgraced Lazio ex-governor Piero Marrazzo.

Brenda was one of two prostitutes linked to Marrazzo, who resigned last month after it emerged he had been blackmailed over a video showing him with another transsexual sex worker, Natalie.

The dead prostitute's personal computer was found in her sink during a search of her fire-damaged apartment, police said.

(ANSA) - Milan, November 20 - An offer to sell parts of Mussolini's brain and blood was "immediately" taken down by eBay after it appeared Friday morning, the on-line auction site said.

The starting price set by the seller was 15,000 euros ($22,000), it said.

No one had a chance to bid, eBay said.

It stressed its regulations prohibited the sale of human parts.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 16 - The Italian population is steadily growing older according to a report released Friday by national statistics bureau Istat.

According to the study, one in five Italians is now over the pensionable age of 65, outnumbering children under fifteen by 1.4 to one.

Istat said Italy's senior citizen index makes it the second oldest country in Europe behind Germany and followed by Greece and Bulgaria.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - A US student accused of the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, hated her ''snobby'' roommate and meant to punish her, prosecutors said Friday while delivering their final arguments.

Amanda Knox, 22, is on trial together with her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 26, for stabbing Kercher while forcing her to participate in what prosecutors described as a ''perverse sex game'' in November 2007.

The two then allegedly broke a window in an attempt to simulate a break in.

(ANSA) - Milan, November 20 - A unique retrospective of work by Steve McCurry, one of the world's best known living photojournalists, has opened in Milan in a show specially designed to pack a punch.

Instead of being hung on the walls, the American photographer's powerful images have been illuminated and suspended in mid-air or set on free-standing screens in the darkened recesses of the Palazzo della Ragione.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - A photocopy of a document recording the handover of Benito Mussolini's body to his family in 1957 is on sale on eBay's Italian site, sources said after his granddaughter claimed his brain was on sale.

The document registered the Italian State's consignment of the body to his widow Rachele at his birthplace Predappio where it was re-interred that year.

It also certified that the ex-dictator's brain was handed over separately.

(ANSA) - Milan, November 20 - A unique retrospective of work by Steve McCurry, one of the world's best known living photojournalists, has opened in Milan in a show specially designed to pack a punch.

Instead of being hung on the walls, the American photographer's powerful images have been illuminated and suspended in mid-air or set on free-standing screens in the darkened recesses of the Palazzo della Ragione.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - The personal computer of a dead scandal-linked transsexual prostitute was found in her sink during a search of her burned-out home, police said Friday.

The PC belonging to Brazilian sex-worker Brenda was still wet.

It appeared to have been doused in an attempt to make its contents irretrievable.

The PC has been taken to a police lab where computer experts will try to get what they can from it, police said.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - Nearly half a million of foreigners settled in Italy over the past year, according to a new report released Friday by national statistics bureau Istat.

The influx of 458,644 foreign residents brings the total number of immigrants in Italy to 3.8 million, amounting to 6.5% of the population.

According to Istat, 29% of foreign residents in Italy are citizens of other European Union countries, while immigrants from non-EU countries in eastern Europe account for 24%.

(ANSA) - Naples, November 20 - Some of pre-war dictator Benito's Mussolini's brains have been stolen from a Milan hospital and put up on eBay, his granddaughter said Friday.

Alessandra Mussolini said she would be reporting the case to police.

The rightwing MP said the brains and blood had been taken from Milan's Policlinico hospital where it was stored.

She described the incident as "very serious".

"You have to be on your guard against things like this".

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - Rome prosecutors have opened a murder probe into the death of a transsexual prostitute linked to disgraced Lazio ex-governor Piero Marrazzo, judicial sources said Friday.

Brenda was one of two prostitutes linked to Marrazzo, who resigned last month after it emerged he had been blackmailed over a video showing him with another transsexual sex worker, Natalie.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - A transsexual prostitute linked to an Italian regional governor who resigned in a sex scandal last month was found dead in her burned-out apartment Friday.

A bottle of whisky and packed suitcases were found near the semi-naked and burned body of the Brazilian transsexual, who called herself Brenda.

Brenda was one of two transsexual prostitutes involved in the case of former Lazio governor Piero Marrazzo who resigned on October 27 after it emerged he was being blackmailed by rogue cops.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 19 - Seven people who died with H1N1 flu virus on Thursday brought the pandemic's death toll in Italy to 75.

According to doctors, all of the victims suffered from serious pre-existing health problems aggravated by flu infections.

Three of the victims died in Naples bring the number of flu deaths in the Campania region to 28, the highest in Italy, despite having only the fifth highest estimated rate of infection.

(ANSA) - Naples, November 19 - Italian children are more likely than ever to be born out of wedlock and have two working parents, while they continue to be shaped by their social background, according to a new report on Thursday.

The report, offering a snapshot of modern childhood in Italy, was released at a conference timed to coincide with the United Nations' Universal Day of the Child taking place Friday.