Jim Butler strongly denies he threatened to quit as agency No.2

 
By JAN FILIPOWICZ
 
ROME –The most senior American official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), James Butler, has denied that he is contemplating resigning from his post as Deputy Director General, saying he is “strongly committed” to continuing his work at the Rome-based [...]

Bertolaso is embarrassed by allegations he exchanged contracts for sexual favours

 By PHILIP WILLAN

ROME – The head of Italy’s Civil ­Protection Department came to international prominence this year when he criticised US co-ordination of the first earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
Having led Italy’s swift and efficient response to its own earthquake in L’Aquila last year, Guido [...]

THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT’S PLANS
As Claudio Scajola, Italy’s Economic Development Minister, sees it, the worst is over. However, he says, the risk is that the recovery may take too long – and speeding up the process is essential.
CLAUDIO SCAJOLA was born in the Liguria region 61 years ago. He has served two terms as mayor of [...]

By Megan Williams
ROME — In an attempt by municipal politicians to rid the city of the scribbles, scrawls and phallic symbols that cover many downtown buildings, Mayor Gianni Alemanno’s office has announced a package of tough new measures. Anyone caught spray-painting city walls or selling paint cans to minors will now be fined up to [...]

 
Erich Kusch, a distinguished Rome-based foreign correspondent and broadcaster who in 1961 became the first German to reach the South Pole, has died after a long illness at age 79. He was six times president of Italy’s Foreign Press Association and a key figure in post-war German-Italian relations.
Kusch was “an extraordinary member who over many [...]

 
 
By Milica Ostojic
 
MATERA, Italy — The city of Matera (approximately 60km from Bari) has been around for a very long time — continuously inhabited since the Palaeolithic era,  Matera’s claim to antiquity has been well established. In the middle of the historical part of the city lie the tourist-famed Sassi or caves, but it [...]

By Philip Willan
A proposal by the mayor of Milan to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Bettino Craxi by naming a street after him has set off a furious debate over the legacy of the discredited former Prime Minister.
 The row has generated particular controversy because of the similarities between Craxi and Silvio Berlusconi, his former [...]