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When ten French soldiers were killed last year in an ambush by Afghan insurgents in what had seemed a relatively peaceful area, the French public were horrified. Their revulsion increased with the news that many of the dead soldiers had been mutilated — and with the publication of photographs showing the militants triumphantly sporting their victims’ flak jackets and weapons. The French had been in charge of the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, for only a month, taking over from the Italians; it was one of the biggest single losses of life by Nato forces in Afghanistan. What the grieving...

Armed tribesmen kidnapped four foreign tourists, believed to be Italians, in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday and took them to a tribal area outside the city, security and tribal sources said on Tuesday. The attack is likely to further damage Yemen's nascent tourism sector and add to the security concerns of foreign firms developing its oil and gas sector. The nationality of the four was not immediately confirmed, but some sources said they were believed to be Italians. Italy's foreign ministry said it was aware of reports of the kidnapping but had no information about the nationalities of the...

<p>Naples — Photographs that depict Italian sunbathers relaxing at the beach despite the nearby presence of the bodies of two Gypsy girls who had drowned, have raised questions about Italian attitudes toward the Roma minority, The U.K. Guardian reported.</p> <p>The incident took place outside of Naples on Saturday. At about 1 p.m., four Gypsy teens, who had reportedly been begging beachgoers, decided to go into the water, despite apparently not being able to swim. The girls were hit by an unusually large wave, resulting in an attempted rescue by life-savers from a nearby beach. Two of the girls were saved. The other two, aged 14 and 16, could not be reached in time, The Guardian reported.</p>

I was walking around Rutgers the other day when I came upon a memorial to students who had fought in World War II. The list of names was impressive, but I imagine most major universities in America have similar memorials. It was only when I happened to walk by Old Queens that I noticed something you wouldn't see on just any campus. It was a plaque honoring the Rutgers men who had fought in the Revolutionary War. Nearby is the spot from which Alexander Hamilton directed cannon fire against the British in cover of George Washington's army. You don't see...

Italians vote as economic disaster looms By Malcolm Moore in Rome Last Updated: 2:41am BST 14/04/2008 Voting began yesterday in Italy's general election but the winner will inherit a country on the brink of disaster. A man in Sorrento was arrested after he announced 'politics makes me sick' and ate his ballot paper According to the International Monetary Fund, Italy's economic growth will not rise above 0.3 per cent this year, and could be zero. The country's growth is the slowest in Europe and Mario Draghi, the governor of the Bank of Italy, warned that "the crisis is not yet...

Arise Sons and Daughters of Italy! We are mocked, insulted, and challenged to respond. We have much of which to be proud.  We are of a people who have been disproportionately in the vanguard of Western Civilization. There is scarcely an artist, musician, politician, lawyer, or architect who can walk a day in his or her profession without hearing the footsteps of an Italian who has preceded them. But let us be candid. There is one thing above all others of which we are proud. We, quite simply, as a people, have the most noble and esthetically pleasing noses ever...

Obama's Pastor Slurs Italians in Latest Magazine Penny Starr (CNSNews.com) - Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a member for two decades, slurred Italians in a piece published in the most recent issue of Trumpet Newsmagazine. "(Jesus') enemies had their opinion about Him," Wright wrote in a eulogy of the late scholar Asa Hilliard in the November/December 2007 issue. "The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans. "From the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth (in a barn in a...

LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters Life!) - Italian scientists have cracked open the genetic make-up of Pinot Noir, responsible for the great red wines of Burgundy, in a breakthrough that may lead to hardier vines and cheaper fine wines. The researchers said on Wednesday they had found more than 2 million genetic variants within the Pinot Noir grape, providing winegrowers with a "treasure trove" in the hunt for new strains. Pinot Noir, made famous by the 2004 film Sideways, has been dubbed the "heartbreak grape" because it is so difficult to grow and susceptible to disease. Understanding what makes up the...

All the world loves Italy because it is old but still glamorous. Because it eats and drinks well but is rarely fat or drunk. Because it is the place in hyper-regulated Europe where people still debate with perfect intelligence what, really, the red in a stoplight might mean. But these days, for all the outside adoration and all its innate strengths, Italy seems not to love itself. The word here is "malessere," or malaise, and it implies a collective funk - economic, political and social - summed up in a recent poll: Italians, despite their claim to have mastered the...

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British forces help free Italians in Afghanistan Last Updated: 1:43am BST 25/09/2007 British special forces were involved in a daring raid to rescue two kidnapped Italians in Afghanistan. Commandos from the Special Boat Service (SBS) joined a multi-national military team led by Italian troops to free the two intelligence officers who have been missing since Saturday. A fierce gun battle broke out when the SBS force ambushed the kidnappers as they tried to move the Italians in two four-wheel drive vehicles. One of the Italians was seriously wounded while the other has non-life threatening injuries. At least nine of the...

Shooting Massacre In German Town Updated: 07:02, Wednesday August 15, 2007 Six people have been shot dead in a west German town - all of them suffered bullet wounds to the head. Duisburg in western Germany Five bodies were found in two cars near the train station in Duisburg and a sixth person died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. Police spokesman Hermann-Josef Helmich said police do not yet know who could have committed the killings or what the motive might have been. "A witness heard the shots and stopped a police patrol car which was incidentally...

The troops fighting in Iraq usually keep quiet when they hear critics say the war is going poorly.  Command Sgt. Maj. Neil Ciotola is a notable exception. The 49-year-old Elizabeth native, who is serving as the top enlisted soldier in Iraq, had a visceral reaction in May when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "this war is lost."   Ciotola described his reaction to a reporter from the Tampa Tribune this way: "I felt compelled to pull out my sidearm," using military parlance for an urge to pull his gun. Ciotola said his choice of words, which are extreme even...

VICENZA, Italy (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Italians under heavy police guard marched through the city of Vicenza on Saturday to protest at the expansion of a U.S. military base that has divided the center-left government. Leftists who last year voted for Prime Minister Romano Prodi, an Iraq war opponent, turned out in droves to decry his approval for U.S. plans to expand the base in Vicenza, home of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Pacifists waved rainbow-striped peace banners while some protesters carried anti-American slogans like "Yankees go Home" as they marched through the city and gathered in a main...

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...

MANAMA, Bahrain - Italian Navy Rear Adm. Salvatore Ruzittu relieved U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Ray Spicer as commander of Combined Task Force (CTF) 152, June 28, marking the first time that all three of the major maritime CTFs in the region have been commanded by officers from nations other than the U.S. or U.K. The change of command also marks the first time a non-U.S. officer has held command of CTF 152, which conducts Maritime Security Operations (MSO) in the central and southern Arabian Gulf . Rear Adm. Shahid Iqbal of the Pakistan Navy and Commodore Peter Lockwood of the...

It would be enough to give Tony Soprano agita. Continuing a string of off-screen run-ins with the law, two more fringe characters from "The Sopranos"_ the television mob boss's favorite chef and his muscle-bound bodyguard - have been charged in separate criminal cases. John Ventimiglia, who plays temperamental chef Artie Bucco on the HBO hit, was arraigned Monday on drunken driving, drug possession and other charges after officers spotted him weaving in and out of traffic. A criminal complaint alleges that when police pulled him over, the actor had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and smelled of booze. His blood-alcohol content...

Famously feisty Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia yesterday denied that he made an obscene gesture Sunday inside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, accusing the Herald staff of “watching too many Sopranos episodes.” In a letter to the editor, an almost unheard-of step for a Supreme Court justice, Scalia said a reporter misinterpreted the gesture he made when she asked whether his participation in Sunday’s special Mass for lawyers might cause some people to question his impartiality in matters of church and state. “Your reporter, an up-and-coming ‘gotcha’ star named Laurel J. Sweet, asked me (o-so-sweetly) what I said to...

Italians find ancient Ur tabletsWritings could lead to buried library (ANSA) - Rome, March 28 - Italian archeologists working in Iraq have found a trove of ancient stone tablets from the fabled civilisation of Ur . The tablets bear around 500 engravings of a literary and historical nature, according to team leader Silvia Chiodi . "This is an an exceptional find," she said, noting that the area in question had previously only yielded prehistoric artefacts . She said the tablets, made of clay and bitumen, were discovered by chance at an archaeological site not far from the location of the...

Italians Unveil Secret of Bulgaria's Precious Thracian Head Lifestyle: 22 January 2006, Sunday. Italy's restorers have unveiled the secret hidden in the eyes of King Sevt III's unique bronze mask discovered in Bulgaria, archeologist Georgi Kitov has said. The sculptors who have worked on the mask probably knew a lot about chemistry too, Kitov was quoted as saying by actualno.com. Italian restorer Edilberto Formili has discovered that the eyes of the unique Thracian mask were made from a glass paste mixed with alabaster and iron, which produced the brownish tint in Sevt III's look. The bottoms of the eyeballs were...

NIAF TO HOST ITALIAN AMERICAN RALLY FOR JUDGE ALITO IN N.J.             (Washington, DC—December 20, 2005)  The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) will host a rally in support of the Supreme Court nominee, Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., with the Italian-American community in Jersey City, N.J.,  on Friday morning, January 6.  The bi-partisan rally will be held at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson, 2 Exchange Place, Jersey City, in the Manhattan Grand Ballroom at 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.              Constitutional law experts and fellow attorneys including: Honorable Donald DiFrancesco, former Acting Governor of New Jersey; Justice Marie...

As it praises a mother who raised 11, the Vatican frets over low birth rate ROME — It’s an enduring image — the extended Italian family crowding around a dining-room table piled with food and wine, surrounded by nieces, nephews, cousins and screaming children. Trouble is, it is no longer a widespread reality. Nowadays it takes a Christmas or Easter holiday to gather a crowd in the average Italian household, and the result is a lot more like Thanksgiving dinner in “Everybody Loves Raymond” than the 4th of July barbecue at Tony Soprano’s. The plain fact is that Italians just...

The 11 Commandments of a THANKSGIVING DINNER           To-Do's, to make your Holiday brighter..1) Make a list and check it twice.. Plan your menu in advance, and for heaven sakes write it down.. Pull out the recipes and jot down the ingredients and check to see if you have everything on hand to complete the meal without having to run to the store at the last minute.. Be sure to check the expiration date on spices and milks and dated stuff.. There isn't a good time on the day of a big dinner to run to any store, and the...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "[I]'m Sitting Here Holding In My Hands, A Pretty Disgusting Document, This Is Put Out Not For Attribution. But It Comes From The Democrats, They're Circulating It. I Can Say That." (MSNBC's "MSNBC Live," 10/31/05) Matthews: "[T]hen Their Complaint Sheet Against Judge Alito's Nomination. The First Thing They Nail About This Italian American Is He Failed To Win A Mob Conviction In A Trial 20 Years Ago, Or Something Way Back In '88." (MSNBC's "MSNBC Live," 10/31/05)    Matthews: "In Other Words, They Nail Him On Not Putting Some Italian Mobsters In Jail From The [Lucchese] Family....

Zagreb, 20 Oct. (AKI) - Recent suggestion by Italy's foreign minister Gianfranco Fini that Croatia would have to pay damages to the Italians expelled after Second World War, before joining the European Union, has caused alarm in the Croatian press, prompting a stern reaction from president Stipe Mesic. He told a Zagreb radio that the former Yugoslavia had signed an agreement with Italy, under which the Rome government would compensate the “exiles” - Italians forced out when it lost the Istria and Dalmatian coast territories in World War II - while Belgrade reduced demands for war damages from Italy. Mesic...

Weighing the Columbus cargo By Edward Hudgins ehudgins@objectivistcenter.org Published October 10, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------- Many critics argue Christopher Columbus gave us a devil's bargain. In October 1492 that Italian explorer, working for Spain, opened America to his fellow Europeans. The result: We got a prosperous New World by impoverishing, enslaving and murdering the natives who were already here. But this fails to distinguish between two types of exploitation, one over other humans and the other over nature. The former should be expunged from our moral codes and civilized society, the latter is the essence of morality and civilization. Human exploitation was...

Italians on the Way to Rescue Bam Allocating a 400-thousand-dollar fund and dispatching a team of experts, Italy is going to maintain its prominent role as one of Iranian principal partners in Bam rescue project. Tehran – 26 July, 2005 (CHN) – A team of Italian experts will come to Iran next week to negotiate with the officials of Bam rescue project for starting their activities on one of the castle’s tower. Bam citadel, which dates back to 2 thousand years ago, is one of the biggest complexes in the world made of adobe bricks that was ruined almost up...

Italians discover hoard of Roman statuesThe works have been protected by a temple wall which collapsed during an earthquake 1,600 years ago By Edek Osser CYRENE. An Italian team of archaeologists has discovered 76 intact Roman statues at Cyrene in Libya. The discovery is remarkable because the site, once a thriving Greek and then Roman settlement, has been under excavation for the last 150 years. With a nearby coastal port, Apollonia, serving it, Cyrene was once a conurbation equivalent to Alexandria, Carthage and Leptis Magna. An important Dorian colony, founded by Greek settlers from the island of Thera in 631...

First of all I can't believe 60 minutes Wednesday is still on the air but it was last night and the timing couldnt have been any worse for this fictitious report from Italian communist journalist Giuliana Sgrena Below is her account of what happened on March 4. Scroll down to see what MSNBC has found out from the Joint US-Italian investigation.....

THE Italian hostage who was freed by her captors in Iraq only to be wounded by “friendly” American gunfire, returned to Rome yesterday and gave friends a brief, anguished glimpse of the suffering that she had endured. Giuliana Sgrena, a 56-year-old journalist, was in visible pain as she was helped out of the private jet that had brought her home. The journey that began with the joy of her release had been brought to a juddering halt when American soldiers opened fire on the car taking her to Baghdad airport, killing the Italian intelligence officer who had negotiated her freedom....

THE Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini, whose government has been accused of paying to free hostages in Iraq, has ruled out buying the release of the latest kidnap victim Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist.Sgrena, 57, who works for Il Manifesto, a left-wing newspaper, was seized nine days ago while driving away from a mosque in Baghdad after interviewing Sunni Muslim refugees from Falluja. An unnamed source quoted by the newspaper claimed to have seen her twice since her capture and said she was well. Asked whether his government would agree to a ransom, Fini, 52, said in an interview: “Italy does...

DENVER - The Denver City Attorney dropped charges against protesters who blocked the Columbus Day Parade, after eight organizers argued that the celebration of Columbus represents hate speech and encourages the theft of land and loss of language and culture in Indian country. ''Our acquittal last week and the dismissals today are a great victory for historical accuracy and for the power of our spiritual ways - both the pipe and the drum were present in the courtroom and I believe that our trial was the first time in history that the AIM song was sung in open court,'' co-organizer...

Celebrity panel examines popular perceptions of Italian-Americans SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Comedian Joe Piscopo wants to change the popular stereotypes of Italian-Americans promoted on television and in movies. The former "Saturday Night Live" star attended a panel discussion at Seton Hall University Saturday that examined why, according to one attendee, prejudice against Italians is tacitly accepted in popular culture. Piscopo, who said he is embarrassed by some of the stereotypical Italian characters he has played, is at work on a movie that portrays an Italian-American family from northern New Jersey. He is determined to get the film made, though he...

Well, it's that time again, when we old timers dust off the holiday recipes. For you newcomers, just bear with us, it won't take long, and you could just move on if this is too corny for you to handle. Otherwise, cut and paste, and have a great Thanksgiving.. This is a bit early because I will once again be on the great oceans this years cookin and spinnin my tales of the kitchen.. ENJOY..God bless you and your family!.. Chef Remembering Our first recorded Thanksgiving DayThe Mayflower 1620- 2002 The voyage of the Mayflower in 1620 from Plymouth England,...

WASHINGTON – "Call me back on November 3rd," Willis Anthony had said. I had sincerely not intended to do so. But then I did. Because he had been right. He and his wife had both been right, when in that living room in St. Peters, Minnesota, buried between the grain silos that stood like towers in the vast emptiness of the northern lands, in that little house as polished as a mirror and that atmosphere of neat simplicity, they explained their beliefs, with a bit of embarrassment. They had been right when, in response to my incredulity in the face...

Israeli police today detained two of Madonna’s bodyguards after they assaulted photographers waiting for the star outside her Tel Aviv hotel. Two of the photographers and a policeman who tried to break up the brawl were wounded, said Tel Aviv police spokesperson Liat Pearl. “Two security guards were detained for questioning by the Tel Aviv police department,” said Pearl. The pop diva has been in Israel since Wednesday with 2,000 other students of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Madonna’s visit to the country has sparked a media frenzy with the local dailies devoting pages detailing her luxury hotel suite and even...

Over the centuries the belief lingered on that here had been a great, wealthy, powerful commercial city that dominated the mouth of the Po and the shores of the Adriatic, a city of luxury and splendor, a kind of ancestor and predecessor of Venice, founded more than a thousand years later. Classical scholars also knew about Spina, for ancient literary sources indicated that there must once have existed a thriving maritime trading settlement of great economic importance, until the Celtic invasion of the Po valley destroyed it... The final key to its ultimate discovery came from aerial photography. Some...

A dying father summons his daughter, a lawyer, to reveal a terrible secret: before she was born, her immigrant grandparents were declared enemy aliens by the federal government. F.B.I. agents raided their home and confiscated items that could be used to signal invading troops. What does the daughter do now? It sounds like the start of a legal thriller, except it happened in real life — to an author of best-selling legal thrillers, Lisa Scottoline, who incorporated the incident in her latest book, "Killer Smile" (HarperCollins). The encounter with her father took place in the summer of 2002, in his...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say they have mounting evidence to suggest al-Qaida operative Abu Musab Zarqawi has had a hand in multiple attacks in Iraq, including those on a mosque in Najaf, the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and Italy's paramilitary police station in Nasiriyah. Another al-Qaida member, Hassan Ghul, was arrested this month while entering northern Iraq and is believed to have met with Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S. and coalition forces, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.Now in U.S. custody, Ghul is believed to be cooperating with interrogators. He known as a facilitator...

Italians reject hostages plea (Filed: 28/04/2004) Italy's political leaders refused yesterday to bow to Iraqi kidnappers' threats to kill three Italian hostages unless there are mass protests against their country's military involvement in the country. But the men's relatives urged people to turn out at rallies next week. The men, captured outside Baghdad, were working for a private American security firm. A fourth Italian captive was killed after the kidnappers demanded the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq.

Defiant hostage's murder on video outrages Italians By Bruce Johnston in Rome (Filed: 16/04/2004) The Italian hostage executed in Iraq tried to tear off his hood seconds before he was shot dead and screamed: "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies." Details of the final moments of Fabrizio Quattrocchi deepened Italy's shock and outrage at the hostage crisis as it awaited further news of the three other men seized with him on Monday. The four Italian hostages were filmed holding their passports The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, yesterday hailed as a hero Mr Quattrocchi, 36, a former baker....

The dead man was identified as Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, a security guard. As the gunman's pistol was pointing at him the hostage "tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'now I'll show you how an Italian dies,'" he said. Meanwhile, three Japanese hostages held in Iraq have been released, the government in Tokyo has confirmed. The Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera has broadcast images of the three, who it said had been handed over safe and well to Muslim clerics. Japan is investigating reports that two more of its citizens - freelance journalists - have been abducted. Tape withheld Al-Jazeera...

Fallujah, Iraq - A U.S. AC-130 gunship raked Iraqi insurgents Friday night after hundreds of women and children fled the besieged city Fallujah during a U.S.-declared pause in the marine offensive. On the anniversary of the fall of captive Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime, Baghdad and parts of central Iraq were chaotic. At a square in the capital where Saddam's statue was toppled a year ago, soldiers took down a new icon: pictures of the radical Shiite Muslim cleric whose followers have risen up against coalition forces in the south. Gunmen running rampant on Baghdad's western edge attacked a fuel...

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Radical Shi'ite militiamen fought gun battles with Italian troops in the southern town of Nassiriya on Tuesday and two civilians were killed, witnesses said. The violence was part of a surge of unrest led by Moqtada al-Sadr, a cleric fiercely opposed to the U.S.-led occupation. The fighting in Nassiriya erupted at about 4 a.m. (0000 GMT) and continued into the morning. Four Italian vehicles had been burned in the clashes in the Zeitoun district, witnesses said. Pro-Sadr fighters were still controlling the area, near the local headquarters of Iraq (news - web sites)'s Coalition Provisional...

Warming has skiing on slippery slope By Andrew Dampf Associated Press TURIN, Italy -- Global warming is threatening the world's ski resorts, with melting at lower altitudes forcing the sport to move higher and higher up mountains, according to a United Nations study released Tuesday. Downhill skiing could disappear altogether at some resorts, while at others, a retreating snow line will cut off base villages from their ski runs as soon as 2030, warned the report by the U.N. Environment Program. "Climate change is happening now. We can measure it," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. program. "This...

Last night, as part of a school assignment, I took my son to an exhibit on aviation. There was only one display at the exhibit that spotlighted ethnicity, and true to form, it was about Italians -- Italian pilots to be exact. How embarrassing and insulting to feature my ethnic group and no others, as if it was surprising to the organizers of the exhibit that Italians have enough intelligence to fly an airplane. There was a front-page story the same day about Italians in the Arizona Republic, which is the largest-circulation daily in the Gannett empire next to USA...

Most Americans did not know there was an Italian military unit operating in southern Iraq, both because the press rarely provides information having to do with allies supporting the Bush administration, and also because it doesn't fit the stereotype we have — and which Italians themselves share, by the way — of non-threatening, charming people who shy away from military conflict and armed violence. The Italians came to believe that they were welcome wherever they go, because they always charm the locals in ways that Americans, Germans, Russians, and the others just can't match. The evidence seemed to support the...

Italy's tiny Jewish community was joined at Saturday prayer services by politicians, priests, nuns and others in synagogues across the nation in a show of solidarity after the suicide terrorist attacks against two synagogues in Istanbul a week earlier. Among those participating in the initiative dubbed "Open Synagogues" were the mayors of Milan and Florence, the president of Parliament's Chamber of Deputies and several leaders of the center-left political opposition. "Today is a special day because in synagogue we have so many friends, visitors who wanted to bring us their solidarity and friendship in a particularly difficult and critical moment,"...

Italians believe terrorists cut power (Filed: 29/09/2003) Almost half of Italians believe terrorists caused the power outage that left most of the country paralysed yesterday. A fast food van provides the only light at the Colosseum The national grid company, GRTN, blamed the blackout on problems in the Swiss and French networks. The Swiss power firm ATEL said a tree had been uprooted by strong winds and knocked out a line carrying power to Italy over the Alps. It agreed that that alone could not block power to the whole country and blamed Italy's power grid for not reacting quickly...

SOME 4,175 more elderly Italians died in the summer heat wave that scorched Europe compared with the previous year, the Health Ministry said today, offering their first official figures related to the searing summer temperatures. The ministry said there were 34,071 deaths during the period of July 16 to August 15, as opposed to 29,896 in 2002 - a 14 per cent increase. The Health Ministry had initially refused to release any data on deaths during the heat wave, saying it was impossible to determine whether heat was the cause. But it changed course after a public outcry erupted following...