By Gianfranco Nitti
ROME — Severe flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains has affected an estimated 15.4 million people (including at least 7.5 million children) across Pakistan. The floods have damaged standing crops as well as stored grain and seeds for planting, and destroyed or damaged an estimated 900,000 homes.
A number of programmes and projects funded [...]
PAKISTAN FLOODS “SWEEP AWAY” IFAD PROJECTS
September 3rd, 2010
Business · Embassy Row · General · International · Weather
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TAKE LUXURY LINE TO SALENTO
August 21st, 2010
Human trafficking under Finnish flag
By Gianfranco Nitti
ROME — And once again onboard a yacht. The one that was intercepted Tuesday by the Guardia di Finanza (Finance Police) was making the 28th such trip by luxury vessels carrying illegal immigrants from Asia Minor to the province of Lecce, Apulia region, Southern Italy in 2010.
A total [...]
IFAD Chief lambasts “mercenary” staff
July 30th, 2010
Kanayo F. Nwanze. Photo: IFAD.
By JAN FILIPOWICZ
ROME – Felix Kanayo Nwanze, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has exhorted staff to believe passionately in their mission and has cautioned that agency employees who treat their work as just a job will effectively be “mercenaries.”
Mr Nwanze, a native of OPEC-member Nigeria, was [...]
Appointment to Vatican stumps Lib-Cons coalition
August 3rd, 2010
Lady Carla Powell
By EDWARD PENTIN
VATICAN CITY — The new British Government appears to be having difficulty choosing a Catholic successor to Francis Campbell as its next ambassador to the Holy See, diplomatic sources in the Eternal City say. Speculation over who might be appointed now is raging over a constellation of worthy celebrity figures know [...]
Shine comes off Berlusconi’s Aquila “miracle”
July 31st, 2010
From Philip Willan in Rome.
Photos: Nick Cornish
The reconstruction of the earthquake-ravaged Italian city of L’Aquila has been presented as a “miracle”, a triumph for the hands-on, no-messing-about style of government pioneered by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister.
However, there are signs that the shine is coming off the miracle. Angry citizens have twice descended on Rome [...]
Ten thousand to change African history
August 10th, 2010
A pioneering anti-viral programme sponsored by the Sant’Egidio Community has enabled 10,000 healthy children to be born of HIV-positive mothers, PAOLA ROLLETTA writes.
ROME — Neither ten thousand words nor ten thousand images could describe the joy and the satisfaction felt at the birth of Madalisto.
He is not just any baby, he is baby number [...]
Out of darkness: facing breast cancer
August 10th, 2010
By Paola Rolletta*
I feel neither more “good” nor more “patient”. I am a hard-headed woman, as always. Attached to life, as ever!
The day when my friend Pigi, my oncologist, told me that I had breast cancer, I cried desperately. The first thing I did was to phone my partner to tell him this piece of [...]
Gareth Horsfall of AES International - Italy answers your personal financial questions
August 4th, 2010
Q: “I recently renewed my contract with the United Nations in Rome. I have been working for 4 years and have signed another 2 year extension. I am worried about my pension benefits as I understand that the UN pension does not provide me with any retirement income until I have worked there for 5 [...]
Who wants to taste breadfruit?
August 10th, 2010
Scientists around the world are working together to improve the conservation and use of crop genetic resources, including those of neglected species such as breadfruit.
Rome, - The breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a typical example of a highly nutritive species whose versatile applications are still largely untapped by the market.
Breadfruit is a multipurpose agro-forestry tree [...]
Business · General · International · Travel
Underpaid Uzbek police moonlight as pickpockets
August 3rd, 2010
Letter from Tashkent
Predatory policemen plague travellers, Christians and health workers in Uzbekistan as Islam Karimov retains his grip on the Central Asian nation, Shelly Kittleson reports.
TASHKENT– On arrival at this central Asian capital’s infernal airport a distinct lack of order prevails. A battle to get one’s passport checked soon slips into little more than a [...]