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 [...]

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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 [...]

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By Insider reporters

LONDON — Britain’s Defence and Foreign Secretaries met Thursday with their Italian counterparts at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and discussed the ongoing working relationship of the two nations as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, officials said. Italy together with France will be the fourth largest contributor to [...]

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ROME — Entrepreneur Wendy Holloway, owner of Flavor of Italy, a culinary tourism company catering to foreigners and residents alike, has been selected as the only foreigner to participate in the Chefs Move to Schools initiative hosted by Michelle Obama at the White House this month. The initiative is another tool in the Obama arsenal [...]

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 From Philip Willan
ROME — Italy is often criticised as a ­nepotistic gerontocracy, but a 25-year-old showgirl from Argentina is challenging that cliché and becoming in the process the face of Silvio Berlusconi’s image-conscious Italy.
Belen Rodriguez arrived here five years ago as a lingerie model with little more to recommend her than a pretty face, sensuous [...]

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By GIORGIA GIGLIONI

 ROME – Hundreds of millions of euros being invested in Montenegro by the Italian Government evidently are being syphoned off into private bank accounts controlled by the Montenegrin Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, and his family, Italian opposition leaders say.
Italy decided to increase massively its investment in the tiny Balkan nation, a former Italian [...]

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Fun-loving holidaymakers on the Turks and Caicos

By Philip Willan

ROME — Last January’s earthquake in Haiti revealed the devastating results when poverty, misgovernment and corruption combine with a massive natural disaster. A little over 100 miles north, the tropical paradise of the Turks and Caicos Islands appears the polar opposite of Haiti.
White sandy beaches and a [...]

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Analysis
 By GIANFRANCO NITTI
 ROME — The budget cuts just approved by the Government of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, worth 24 billion euros over the next two years as part of European efforts to reduce deficits in order to defend the single currency, represent a sharp political reversal compared to the highly optimistic declarations the media [...]

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By Philip Willan

ROME — While France and ­Belgium debate the merits of a ban on the burka, the Northern League mayor of the Italian town of Novara has forged ahead with a by-law forbidding the wearing of clothes that conceal a person’s identity and levying a €500 (£430) fine on the first person found violating it.

The action [...]

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Commentary
 

 By EDOARDO CAMPANELLA*

ROME — Last month, Italian citizens chose their regional representatives in 13 out of 20 regions. A stunning debacle for the centre left was accompanied by an historically low voter turnout, that mainly involved fewer young people taking part — only 64 percent cast ballots compared to 72 percent at the last regional [...]

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