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Editor's Note: Italian media report that Al Qaeda is moving operatives through Italy on their way to North Africa and Europe with the help of a Naples-based criminal network similar to the Mafia. Italian investigators say Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization is moving deep into the Mediterranean peninsula's underworld of organized crime. Italian media recently revealed that hundreds of Al Qaeda operatives coming from North Africa are being sent to Northern Europe though a maze of safe houses belonging to the Neapolitan Camorra, a Naples-based criminal network akin to the Mafia. The internationally connected Camorra organization specializes in drug...

ABOARD THE USS MOUNT WHITNEY, Oct. 21, 2005 – Business leaders participating in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference today got to visit a one-of-a-kind Navy ship and sail off the coast of Naples, Italy. The USS Mount Whitney, the flagship for the 6th Fleet, is the only Navy ship with a hybrid crew of civilian and military personnel. About 60 percent of the crew are Navy personnel, and 40 percent are civilian mariners from the Military Sealift Command. The USS Mount Whitney is being used as a test platform for the hybrid crew model, said Navy Capt. Tadd Wheeler, commanding...

September 19 SAINT JANUARIUS BISHOP AND MARTYR AND HIS COMPANIONS MARTYRS Januarius is ever preaching the Gospel to every creature; for his miraculous blood perpetuates the testimony he bore to Christ. Let those who say who say they cannot believe unless they see, go to Naples; there they will behold the martyr's blood, when placed near his head which cut off sixteen hundred years ago, to liquefy and boil as at the moment it escaped from his sacred veins. No; miracles are not lacking in the Church at the present day. True, God cannot subject Himself to the fanciful requirements...

Miracle of San Gennaro repeatedDried blood of Naples' patron saint liquefies (ANSA) - Naples, September 19 - Thousands of people packed into this city's cathedral Monday morning to watch the blood of patron saint San Gennaro liquefy in the repetition of a centuries-old 'miracle.' The miracle officially took place at 09.56 (07.56gmt) and was announced by the archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Michele Giordano, who held up a phial containing the blood while a white handkerchief was waved from the altar to the applause of the crowd. This year the miracle took on special importance because it marked 1,700 years from...

Rush Guitarist Alex Lifeson Breaks Silence on Arrest and Trial Douglas Maher-All Headline News Staff Reporter June 9,2005 1:47 EST Toronto,Canada (AHN)-The guitarist for the rock trio Rush has responded to the events leading to his arrest on New Years Eve 2003 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Naples,Florida. Lifeson issued the following statement today appearing on Blogcritics.org: "In like a lion, out like a lamb. These words appeared in a Naples Daily News editorial on April 27, describing the outcome of the criminal charges against my family and myself. After fifteen months of living in fear and anxiety, and...

Rush Guitarist Alex Lifeson and Family Want Ritz To Pick Up Tab In Lawsuit Douglas Maher-All Headline News Reporter June 3,2005 3:15 EST Naples,Florida (AHN)-Guitarist for the rock band Rush, Alex Lifeson, his son Justin, and daughter-in-law Michelle filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Ft.Myers, Florida against the Ritz-Carlton, its security director and three sheriff’s deputies stemming from a New Year’s Eve 2003 altercation at the Naples hotel. Alex, Justin and Michelle Zivojinovich allege the defendants violated their civil rights, battered and falsely imprisoned them before their arrests on criminal charges that were either later dropped or...

ALARM - Explosion In Naples: several casualties ROME - Several people were wounded Friday in an explosion close from a market in Naples (southern), announced the Ansa agency specifying that this one seemed to be caused by a car.

A trial date has been set for the lead guitarist of the internationally known rock group Rush, who is facing felony charges for an altercation with Collier County deputies at the Ritz-Carlton on New Year's Eve 2004. Alex Zivojinovich, who is accused of pushing a female deputy down a hotel stairwell and spitting his blood on a male officer, is scheduled to stand trial for assault charges on May 16. "I think it's going to trial May 16," said his Naples defense attorney Jerry Berry as he was leaving the courthouse on Wednesday morning. But trial could be avoided if...

Criminal case against Rush guitarist expected to be resolved next month By JOHN HENDERSON, jfhenderson@naplesnews.com January 6, 2005 Alex Zivojinovich aka Alex Lifeson Justin Zivojinovich A criminal case involving the lead guitarist for the rock group Rush is expected to be resolved next month. It has been more than a year since Alex Zivojinovich, known on stage as Alex Lifeson, was arrested for scuffling with Collier County sheriff's deputies at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples at a New Year's Eve bash ringing in 2004. He is facing two third-degree felony charges that could carry five-year prison sentences. Lawyers for both sides will...

Thirty people have been killed in Naples, Italy, in the past two months, including two on Monday.NAPLES, ITALY - Christmas might be just a few days away, but here in Forcella, a neighborhood in the heart of old Naples, you'd hardly know. There are no decorations festooned across these dark, decaying alleyways - just the usual strings of drying jeans and underwear. That's not because the locals have lost their faith. Far from it. They are among Italy's humblest and most devout Catholics. But nobody here is celebrating; the entire street is still in mourning. Nine months ago, on a...

One of the world's best-preserved Bronze Age villages has been found at Nola, a few miles from Vesuvius, during routine tests before construction of a shopping center. A catastrophic eruption of the volcano, known to have taken place between 1800 and 1750 B.C., left this "Prehistoric Pompeii" in a state of remarkable preservation... Although much of the structure of the prehistoric huts was destroyed by the eruption, falling ash and volcanic mud hardened to create a kind of mold of the village in reverse, much like the casts of the victims of Vesuvius' more famous eruption. In addition to...

Gold bracelet found on arm of (slave?) girl killed near Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. On the inside of the bracelet is carved "from the Master to his slave girl" (DOM[I]NUS ANCILLAE SUAE).

The Associated Press NAPLES, Italy Jan. 31 — Police arrested 28 Pakistanis found in possession of explosives, hundreds of forged documents and maps of the Naples area with "sensitive targets" circled, authorities said Friday.In a statement, police said they had uncovered an "al-Qaida terrorist cell," but gave no further details on the Pakistanis' alleged involvement with al-Qaida or any other international terrorist group.A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said late Friday officers "might have gotten ahead of themselves" in announcing an al-Qaida link in the headline of their news release.The official also dismissed Italian news reports that the...

TERRORISM: Al Qaeda Group Busted in Italy February 2, 2003: During a routine sweep for illegal immigrants, Italian police rounded up 28 Pakistanis suspected of being terrorists. Police found two pounds of dynamite, 165 feet of explosive fuse and various detonators, as well as hundreds of forged documents and maps of metropolitan Naples. Authorities said "sensitive targets" were circled with a pen but would not elaborate, while Italian news reports said the possible targets included the U.S. Consulate in Naples and nearby NATO bases. One map was to the town of Bagnoli (outside Naples), where the NATO southern headquarters is...

A Naples podiatrist announced Tuesday he is closing his foot and ankle practice shortly to relocate to his native Iraq to run for the presidency in the 2005 elections. Rasool Sharif, 58, said he has returned to Iraq twice in the past two months and recently was asked by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's influential Shia cleric, to return for more meetings. "I was the only American who has met with him," said Sharif, who owns the Foot & Ankle Clinic at 198 Ninth St. N. "I met with a lot of people there, a lot of intellectual people." Sharif...

A Lee County middle-schooler fought her school district this week for the right to hand out anti-abortion literature on school grounds and lost, but she said Friday she's not backing down. Michelle Heinkel, an eighth-grader at Cypress Lake Middle School, had one last chance Friday morning to garner permission to distribute the literature Friday on the national Day of Remembrance." The day observes pregnancies terminated through abortion and the women who underwent the procedure. Michelle's attorney, Joel Oster, asked U.S. District Judge John E. Steele on Friday to reconsider his Wednesday ruling barring Heinkel from distributing the pamphlets, produced by...

HAVENS On Florida's West Coast, a Would-Be Palm Beach By ROBERT ANDREW POWELL Published: March 12, 2004 WE'RE HERE. Larry White, a real estate agent, and his wife, Mary Catherine, at a gated entrance in Naples, Fla. YOUR HOUSE HERE. Paved streets lead to empty lots in a future neighborhood in Naples, Fla. AS you drive in from the Everglades on the Tamiami Trail, Naples announces itself on billboards. "Premier master-planned gated" communities with names like Veronawalk and Grandézza offer "patio homes, single-family homes, and townhomes" from the $200,000's in some developments to more than $4 million in others. At...

Something called the Arlington South protest is coming to Florida. The first one will be 3/20/04 in Naples. I would be happy to have some support to counter this demonsrtation. Thanks....Here is part of the e-mail I recieved.... "Peace activists in the SW Florida area have nearly completed the assembly of 600 crosses out of recycled construction site wood to use in a similar display as shown in the above photo" "We are looking to take our crosses on the road, possibly down as far as Key West, up the east coast, and even along the gulf coast if possible."

Still Supporting the Troops One Year Later 2/2/04 by Christopher Pritchard. It all started one year ago in late February 2003 Support America and Support the Troops rallies sprang up all over this country. They were started to counter the worldwide well funded and well-organized anti-war rallies. These spontaneous rallies were word of mouth and homemade sign events. It doesn't make the papers but this one is still going on. Carol Grubbs and Everett Short just two of the people that have continued to show up every Sunday mourning from 10am to Noon to wave flags and hold signs. The...

Mzzz. Curatolo at work"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." That’s exactly how the first amendment to the constitution reads regarding the practice of religion in America. Would someone please tell me how a school board invocation before commencing business is congress making a law respecting the establishment of religion? Nobody can, because congress isn’t making any law establishing religion when such happens. The Naples School board has been saying a prayer before their board meeting for some 50 years. Board member and Northeastern liberal Kathleen Curatolo (who ran as a...