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Mauritania government has increased security for tourists in the country following the abductions last week of two Italian tourists near the border with Mali. Sergio Cicala and his wife Philomene Kabouree were kidnapped in an area of Mauritania where armed groups with links to Al-Qaeda are known to operate, diplomats said. There are suspicions the couple may have been smuggled into neighbouring Mali. "After these new kidnappings, it has been decided to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the personal security of foreigners in our country," the government said, quoted on Monday by pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi. It was the...

Berlusconi 'Suffers Blow To Face' Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has reportedly been struck in the face after leaving a meeting in Milan. He was reportedly left bleeding from the mouth. It was not clear whether the injury was caused by a punch or an object thrown by a protester.

With an international conference of philosophers, scientists, and artists, all aimed at putting God back at the center of a culture that denies him. And meanwhile, Benedict XVI teaches that God reveals himself not to the learned, but to the "little ones" ROME, December 7, 2009 – Halfway through the season of Advent, an international event is being held in Rome that has at its center that God "who has come, who is coming, and who is to come." The event is organized by the Italian bishops' conference, more precisely by the committee for the cultural project headed by Cardinal...

NO HOLDS BARRED: Congressman Hopeful Bobby Labriola Shows Pelosi "Love, Italian Style"

NEW YORK – Now that's Italian! A Staten Island restaurant is relying on a group of Italian-born grandmothers for its menus. The women take turns cooking at 35-seat Enoteca Maria, using recipes from the different parts of Italy they come from.

ROME — An Italian cruise ship fended off a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia, with its security forces exchanging fire with the bandits, the commander said Saturday. Cmdr. Ciro Pinto told Italian state radio that six men in a small white boat approached the Msc Melody and opened fire Saturday night, but retreated after security forces aboard the cruise ship returned fire. Domenico Pellegrino, head of the ship-owner Msc Cruises, told ANSA news agency that all 1,500 passengers and crew aboard the Melody were safe, and credited Pinto for his "cool-headed" handling of the incident. The attack occurred...

From Il Corriere della Sera: Call for directive to prevent episodes like Duomo demonstration in Milan from happening again ROME – Places of worship, supermarkets and shopping malls will join public institutions, political party headquarters and diplomatic premises as being off-limits for demonstrators. Organisers will also have to pay a deposit as a guarantee against damage.NEW RULES – Interior minister Roberto Maroni has proposed new rules for public demonstrations, revealing that he is working on a directive to be sent to prefects and chiefs of police. A week ago, the minister explained to a hearing of the Senate’s constitutional affairs...

Palestinian civilians have accused Hamas of forcing them to stay in homes from which gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers during the recent hostilities in Gaza, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Thursday. More than 1,250 Palestinians were reportedly killed during Israel's offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory. Israel has been harshly criticized for the large number of civilians among the Palestinian dead, of whom they numbered more than half according Gaza officials. But the Italian paper also quoted a doctor at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital as disputing the number of Palestinians said to have been killed in the...

Sanger's plans for genetic cleansing for the sake of "racial health" were racist as well. She was horrified by the fertility of the immigrant "Slavs, Latins [i.e., Italians], and Hebrews," ...As for the black population in the United States, Sanger "did not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population..."

(IsraelNN.com) Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi accused Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday of "lunacy" and warned against taking his words too lightly. "I think we must pay the utmost attention to the lunacy of someone who says, perhaps for internal reasons, that Israel must be wiped off the map," Berlusconi said in a speech to a Jewish organization in Paris. Iran began a broad military exercise of its air defenses on Monday, according to Iranian news reports. The aim of the exercises was reportedly to improve the readiness of Iran's anti-aircraft capabilities in the event of a possible aerial attack....

(IsraelNN.com) In a letter appearing in the weekend edition of the respected Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga revealed that the government of Italy agreed to allow Arab terrorist groups freedom of movement in the country in exchange for immunity from attacks in Italy. Cossiga wrote that the government of the late Prime Minister Aldo Moro reached a "secret non-belligerence pact between the Italian state and Palestinian resistance organizations, including terrorist groups," in the 1970s. According to the former president, it was Moro himself who designed the terms of the agreement with the foreign Arab terrorists....

Day in and day out, I get served slop in a bowl for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess it’s not so much slop as it is dry hard pellets that taste like cardboard and lamb. So imagine my surprise when my old man pulled his chair up to the computer and surfed over to blissful biscuits to order me my very own Heaven Scent Pizza. I drooled uncontrollably as my father read me the ingredients…whole wheat flour, carrots, celery, parmesan cheese, garlic, basil, etc. No additives whatsoever. Sure it didn’t have any lard, but this pie tastes and smells...

ROME - For presidents and premiers at summits, delicacies washed down by fine wines are all part of the agenda. But the puff pastries with corn and mozzarella, pasta with pumpkin and shrimp, and rolls of thinly sliced veal served up Tuesday at a U.N. conference on fighting hunger were a contrast to bleak accounts of starving people around the world. The menu was in French but the fare was strictly Italian, served in a dining room at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. The repast was accompanied by a chilled white wine from Orvieto in the...

BOISE, Idaho - Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules. EnergySolutions Inc. is applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons of waste from four Italian nuclear reactors, with a portion of it to be buried at its private disposal site in Clive, Utah. But members of the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management said their rules would need to be changed to allow roughly five or six rail cars of waste a year...

Italian builders uncover 2,000-year-old tombs ARCHAEOLOGISTS were yesterday celebrating the discovery of 27 2,000-year-old tombs in Italy's "Valley of the Dead". The tombs, some dating back to the 7th century BC, were found by chance while builders carried out work. The whole area was sealed off yesterday and put under police guard to prevent anyone from trying to steal artefacts inside the burial chambers. Grave robbers, or tombaroli as they are known in Italy, make a lucrative living from selling such objects to museums or private collectors. Archaeologists say there is also a "good chance" that there may well be...

The mayor of the small Italian town of Cervino, north of Naples, has been found burnt alive in his car, in a Mafia-style killing.Police quoted by Italian media say Mayor Giovanni Piscitelli, 52, was shot and wounded and his feet bound with wire. Then his car was set alight. Reports said Mr Piscitelli had recently acted against some municipal staff and the dispute had been featured on TV. Police have not yet named any suspects in the case. Mr Piscitelli's charred body was found next to his car - apparently after he had managed to open a door to...

This business owner expresses his feelings very clearly on the signs over his Pa. restaurant. I happen to agree with most of them. He spanks the politicians and supports our troops at the same time! I've never been to the place. I just like the signs!

ROME (Reuters) - A 1.5-kg white truffle found in the Italian countryside will be sold at a charity auction in Macau where it is expected to fetch 150,000 euros (108,000 pounds). Truffle hunter Cristiano Savini displayed his precious find at a five-star hotel in Rome on Tuesday before it was flown to the Chinese enclave for Saturday's auction. Savini's dog, Rocco, sniffed out the truffle, one of the biggest unearthed in the past 50 years, by an oak tree near Pisa last weekend, in an area of Tuscany where Cristiano and his father scout for truffles every year. Ten years...

This Little Britain, about the various ways in which we Brits have a history of being the exception. In areas such as law, government, economics, agriculture and science, we've often been a uniquely British exception to a general European rule. Ditto, in such things as men's fashion, Victorian sewers, drunken yobbishness, and - not least - in the whole area of language and literature. Take spellings. George Bernard Shaw famously commented that English spelling would allow you to write the word 'fish' as 'ghoti' - ... Throw in other pronunciation changes and an appetite for foreign borrowings, and it's no...

Manager reports his death.

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2007 – A busload of wounded servicemembers brought their appetites to the Italian Embassy here July 13 as the ambassador and his staff transformed the building into Washington’s most authentic Italian restaurant. Wounded troops and their family members load their plates with authentic Italian cuisine July 13 at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., where Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta hosted them for an evening of dinner and entertainment. Stars and Stripes photo by Joe Gromelski  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For nearly 200 Friday evenings since October 2003, about 75 wounded troops recovering at Walter Reed...

An Italian university closed one of its campuses for the day Friday to prevent a planned lecture by a retired French professor who denies gas chambers were used in Nazi concentration camps. Robert Faurisson, who has been convicted five times in France for denying crimes against humanity, is expected to speak at a local hotel instead. The University of Teramo cited security fears in announcing the closure of its law, political sciences and communications departments. "[There is] a climate of tension which could put in danger the safety of the students," the university said in a statement. The Nazi-hunting Simon...

Murky Italian olive oil to be pored over By Malcolm Moore in Rome Last Updated: 12:44am BST 07/05/2007 The secretive world of Italian olive oil will be laid bare after the government insisted that every bottle should show where it comes from. Large olive oil brands, such as Filippo Berio and Bertolli, have long cultivated the image that its oil comes from rustic, rolling groves in the Italian countryside. Instead, it often arrives in Italy in tanker trucks from destinations as diverse as Tunisia, Turkey, Greece and Spain. advertisement According to EU laws, foreign oil can be sold as Italian...

An Italian researcher is working on a project that could lead to the development of a real-life 'spider-man' suit. Nicola Pugno, a 35-year-old researcher at the Polytechnic University of Turin, says he has spent the past 10 years working on a form of adhesion based on the feet of gecko lizards. "It's a field that can have very interesting applications in science, like in space, for example," Mr Pugno said. "An astronaut could use a suit with a suction-cup adhesion system." He estimates the suit could be constructed in another 10 years.

The Swedish royals have beaten off accusations of illegally trading on the good name of an Italian underwear maker. The complaint comes from the Italian company Calzificio Pinelli, which owns the trademark Solidea, under which it sells underwear. The company claims that the name of Solliden, the royal's summer palace on Öland, breaches this trademark.

Abductions follow exchange for Italian KABUL, Afghanistan, April 7 (UPI) -- A string of kidnappings have occurred in Afghanistan following last month's exchange of five Taliban prisoners for an abducted Italian journalist. At least 13 Afghans and two French aid workers have been kidnapped in three incidents in the past two weeks, the Los Angeles Times said Saturday. The Taliban is holding at least 10 of the hostages and will free some of them only if more jailed Taliban are released. Critics of the deal that set Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo free March 19 -- after his driver had been...

KANDAHAR (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Sunday they had released an Italian journalist held for spying, along with his Afghan translator, but Rome said it still had no reason to believe the reporter had been freed. Karachi-born La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released after Afghan authorities freed two Taliban officials, rebel spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location. "We handed over the two to a third party after we got two of the three people we wanted to be freed," Yousuf said. A provincial official said two Taliban were released late Saturday...

Special trains and buses brought in protesters from across Italy Thousands of people have been arriving in the north-eastern Italian city of Vicenza for a march against a planned extension of the US army base there.Organisers say the majority of local people are opposed to US plans. They say Prime Minister Romano Prodi has ignored strong local objections. Thousands of extra police are on duty in Vicenza for what is planned as a peaceful march. There are fears that extremist fringe groups will try to cause violence. Vicenza's mayor fears the march will be infiltrated by left-wing extremists from...

Breaking on Fox News. Giuliani Files Statement of Candidacy for President No article yet.

Carrying a wad of 100s and 50s as fat as a ball of mozzarella, Carmen Salvatore DiNunzio was busted by state police yesterday in the North End near the spot where the alleged Boston Mafia kingpin runs a cheese shop, authorities said. DiNunzio, 49, of East Boston was charged with extortion, maintaining or organizing a gaming operation and conspiracy to maintain gaming operation, said Essex District Attorney Jon Blodgett. “It went down peacefully,” a state police source told the Herald last night. DiNunzio said nothing when police grabbed him from his car at the corner of Cooper and Lynn streets...

Rudy Rising His 9/11 legacy and 2008 prospects. By Deroy Murdock America’s still-vivid memories of that miserable morning five Septembers ago may be brightened by recollections of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s focused, confident performance on 9/11. The ongoing goodwill his leadership generated may explain why he outpaces his potential rivals for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Recent polls show Giuliani waxing on the right, regardless of any misgivings conservative GOP voters may have with him on abortion, gay rights, or gun control. Among 432 registered Republicans and pro-GOP independents who CNN and Opinion Research Corp. surveyed from August...

Hi there! Do you remember me? (PLEASE DO NOT ZOT ME, I'M YOUR FRIEND). I'm Claudia, an Italian FRiend of FR. I really love the United States, read my home page if you don't trust me! Some days ago I asked for your help with the traslation of a web site the Major of my town asked me... Well, you all were really so kind with me! AND I WANNA THANK YOU FOR YOUR GREAT HELP. I know my English is really bad, and I apologize for that. Well I wanna show you the web site of the Tourist Office...

Originally from Freehold, New Jersey, Donna Attlee knew that she had a lot to learn about Southern culture when she married her husband, Victor. Little did she know that her cooking skills would be put to the test right off the bat. "I had to master my mother-in-law's cornbread recipe before she would allow me to marry her son," Mrs. Attlee joked. Mrs. Attlee, who has lived in the East Ridge area for 13 years, has since expanded her repertoire of Southern recipes while holding onto the tried and true favorites that she learned from her Italian mother. "I am...

Italian prisoners freed in amnesty go on the rampage Nick Pisa in Rome (Filed: 06/08/2006) An amnesty that freed more than 5,000 inmates from Italian jails backfired when dozens of the former prisoners reoffended - and were back behind bars within hours. The early release scheme, which cuts sentences by three years, was introduced to reduce overcrowding of the prison system which has more than 62,000 inmates - 20,000 more than it can handle. Although convictions for Mafia-related crimes, terrorism, rape, paedophilia and people-smuggling are exempt, more than 12,000 prisoners will be released in the next few weeks. But within...

Posted on Mon, Jul. 17 Matera: A southern Italian town revives its ancient cave dwellings By Carol Pucci The Seattle Times (MCT) MATERA, Italy - Nicola Rizzi stands in front of his boyhood home where chickens and ducks used to wander, closes his eyes and smells bean soup and tomato sauce boiling on pots heated by wood fires. He was 11, a survivor in a neighborhood of windowless caves and damp walls, where animals and humans slept side-by-side and half the children born there died, among them three of his brothers and sisters. Mostly though, Rizzi remembers the smell of...

Italian spy chiefs held over investigation into CIA rendition of terror suspect By Malcolm Moore in Rome (Filed: 06/07/2006) Two Italian spy chiefs were arrested yesterday on suspicion of helping the CIA to snatch an imam in Milan and fly him out of the country. Marco Mancini, the head of counter-espionage at the military intelligence agency Sismi, and Gustavo Pignero, the agency's chief official in the north of the country, were placed under investigation to examine whether they will face kidnapping charges. They are suspected of assisting American agents three years ago when they abducted Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also...

Kenya orders Italian to stop ruining historic site Posted Mon, 22 May 2006 Nairobi - Kenyan authorities have moved quickly to protect one of the country's historical sites along the Indian Ocean coast by ordering a foreign investor from Italy to immediately stop developing a piece of land where an ancient ruin with historical values stands. The piece of land holds the ruins of an ancient mosque where a prominent Chinese sailor, Zheng Hess, prayed when he visited the historical town of Malindi in 1415.The ruins of Khatiba mosque lie less than a kilometre from the Indian Ocean shores in...

To find out why economists have cast Italy as the sick man of Europe, visit this dreary town of little factories huddled in the foothills of the Italian Alps. [...] What is different in Italy is that the economy — though famous for its supple leather handbags and full-bodied Tuscan wines — depends, to a greater extent than its European neighbors, on mom-and-pop manufacturers that produce everything from valves to mother-of-pearl buttons. [...] Italy's thousands of family-owned companies, the secret to its export success in the 70's and 80's, appear ill-suited to the demands of globalization. They make products that...

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, is expected to resign this morning after weeks of refusing to concede election defeat. Mr Berlusconi is expected to lead a final Cabinet meeting before handing in his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, which will clear the way for centre-left leader Romano Prodi to form a new government. Italian state TV reported that Mr Berlusconi would go to the presidential palace on the Quirinal Hill at about 1100 GMT after the end of the Cabinet meeting. It is not known how quickly Mr Ciampi will give the mandate to form a government to...

ROME - Italy's foreign minister will ask the government to grant asylum to an Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity. Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, who was among the first to speak out on the man's behalf, will ask for the permission at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the ministry statement said in a statement Tuesday. Abdul Rahman, 41, was released from prison late Monday, a day after the court dismissed the case under pressure from the Bush administration. He quickly dropped out of sight, as Muslim clerics in his country continued to...

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2006 – Wounded troops can eat a lot of steaks on $75,000, which is the amount the Italian company, Finmeccanica, Inc., gave Washington's Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse today during a Pentagon ceremony hosted by the deputy secretary of defense. Holding a replica of the $75,000 check presented to Washington's Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse are co-owner Marty O'Brien and Pier Francesco Guarguaglini (right), chairman and chief executive officer of the Finmeccanica, Inc., of Rome, Italy. The company donated the money to help the restaurant provide free steak dinners to wounded servicemembers. Standing in the background are servicemembers...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -- Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he will not attend a meeting of European politicians with Pope Benedict this month after opposition leaders accused the Vatican of meddling in politics. Berlusconi had been expected to go to an audience with members of the European People's Party but the announcement had sparked uproar amongst the opposition who said he should not be meeting the pope so close to the April 9-10 elections.... The center-left opposition had accused Berlusconi of looking to transform the audience at the end of March into a papal blessing for the centre-right coalition. Throughout...

Nearly 90% of Italians call themselves Catholics, but more than two-thirds favour legal recognition for unmarried couples despite opposition from the Church, according to a study sociologists say is evidence that Italians tailor their religion tofit their lifestyles. The survey released this week by the Rome-based research institute Eurispes also found that 78% of Italian Catholics believe people who are divorced and remarry should not be forbidden to receive Communion. The poll also revealed that a mere one-third attend Mass at least once a week. Catholics are expected to go to Mass every Sunday. "It's tailor-made religion," Domenico De Masi,...

LOS ANGELES — Lamborghini introduced the retro Miura concept, which hews closely to the celebrated 1966 original version, on Thursday at the Los Angeles auto show. In a statement, Automobili Lamborghini said the new concept is "strictly a concept, with no firm date set for its production launch." However, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann recently told Car magazine: "We are not yet talking about production. But every project has its meaning." The Miura concept is a landmark vehicle and the first Lamborghini to be designed by Walter de'Silva, head of design at the Audi Group. The company said de'Silva aimed at...

The head of the Italy’s Roman Catholic episcopal conference has called on priests to advise Catholics against marrying Muslims. Cultural differences over issues such as the role of women and the education of children made such partnerships very difficult, said Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar General of Rome. In a document released to the conference of bishops yesterday, Cardinal Ruini wrote: "The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages. "Mixed Catholic and Muslim couples who intend to have a family have other difficulties above and beyond...

A hot issue will be a 1991 ruling on a Pennsylvania law requiring a woman to tell her husband before having an abortion — except in cases where spousal abuse or threat is involved or the child isn't her husband's. Alito voted to uphold the provision, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court. Polls, however, show most Americans favor spousal-notification laws. But Alito's dissent was limited and said nothing about his overall legal views on abortion. In more recent cases, he ruled against a ban on "partial-birth" abortion and against restrictions on Medicaid-funded abortions for rape victims. Italian-American...

National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) Statement: The NIAF is distressed by the attempts of some senators and the media (CNN, CBS) to marginalize Judge Samuel Alito's outstanding record, by frequent reference to his Italian heritage and by the use of the nickname, "Scalito." Appropriately, no one mentioned that Justice Breyer was Jewish or suggested that he was lock-step ideologically with the other Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it would have been outrageous to do so. We still do not know Justice Robert's ethnicity. We are justly proud of Justice Alito's Italian heritage and his sterling academic and judicial...

ROME - The head of Italy's military secret services will be questioned by a parliamentary commission next week over allegations that his organization gave the United States and Britain disputed documents suggesting that Saddam Hussein had been seeking uranium in Africa, officials said Tuesday. Nicolo Pollari, director of the SISMI intelligence agency, will be questioned on Nov. 3 by members of the commission overseeing secret services, said Micaela Panella, a commission spokeswoman. She said Pollari asked to be questioned after reports Monday and Tuesday in the Rome daily La Repubblica claiming SISMI passed on to the CIA, U.S. government officials...

USS NIMITZ, PERSIAN GULF, Sept. 20, 2005 – Sailors and Marines aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) were served a steak dinner Sept. 14 cooked by employees of Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba’s Italian Grill. According to Joel Barker, director of research and development for Serious Food Operations, Outback sponsored the all-day buffet, known as “Feeding Freedom”, for the crew of more than 4,600 men and women in uniform as a way of saying thank you. “When I was approached with this opportunity, there was no question in my mind about it,” Barker said. “I’m sure that sometimes being...

ROME - Italy's Red Cross treated four Iraqi insurgents with the knowledge of the Italian government last year and hid them from U.S. forces in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped aid workers, a top Italian Red Cross official said in an interview published Thursday. Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing chief of the Italian Red Cross, told the Turin newspaper La Stampa that he kept the deal secret from U.S. officials, complying with "a nonnegotiable condition" imposed by Iraqi mediators who helped him secure the release of Italians Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. They were abducted in Baghdad Sept. 7...