ROME- It’s official: From September 15, Italian MPs and senators will enjoy yet another pension upon their retirement. The payments will commence when they turn 65 (or 60, if they are re-elected) and will consist of a monthly payment of 1000 Euros, to be added to any other pension they are entitled to.
Despite being extensively described as a ‘vitalizio’ (an annuity) by Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment Movimento 5 Stelle, the payment will effectively be a bonus to collect upon retirement.
PONTIDA- The recent municipal decision in Pontida, courtesy of its mayor Luigi Carozzi (Northern League), which instituted reserved parking spaces for women, but only if straight and with EU citizenship, has shaken the Italian political world, causing Pontida’s first citizen to backtrack.
ROME- A young girl, now 17-years-old, who is originally from Eastern Europe but resident in Florence, managed to escape being married to a man she did not know in a deal stuck by her father for the sum of 15,000 euros.
The girl was kept secretly in a house for four years and promised in marriage to an unknown man. She only managed to get help by explaining the situation to a peer on the chat feature of an online game.
According to sources, her father was arrested and is being tried on grounds of reduction to slavery.
LECCE- Sixteen-year-old found dead after boyfriend stoned her to death during a fit of jealousy. Noemi Durini had been missing for 10 days, until her 17 year-old boyfriend confessed his crime, and revealed the location of her burial. She was still wearing the clothes she had disappeared in when, on September 3, she left home with her boyfriend, never to return.
ROME- In the past few years two diplomatic crises (the threats to the stability of the EU and the Middle Eastern situation) have intertwined. But if in the past months the EU has stabilised itself, while the Levant has experienced further politcal difficulties. According to many, the EU must, form its newly found position of strength, lend a helping hand to Middle Eastern countries.
ROME- "Is the Pope a Catholic?" Normally it's a joke question, but in the frenzied climate surrounding Pope Francis' doctrinal reforms, some conservative Catholics are answering: "No. He's a heretic."
Controversy over Jorge Mario Bergoglio's attempts to modernise church teaching on marriage, the eucharist and papal authority itself have created a strange alliance that stretches from anxious theologians and cardinals to some of the more eccentric faithful, who don't believe there has been a valid Pope in the Vatican since Pius XII more than half a century ago.
ROME- On Thursday, sources announced that there have been now been 17 reported cases of Chikungunya, the mosquito-borne disease, in the Lazio region with six actually in Rome itself.
The first cases of the infection were seen in Anzio, 60 kilometers south of the capital and there have now been ten recorded cases in the commune.
Asl Roma 2 has suspended all blood donations because of the disease. This suspension is in place in the southern part of the city (with around one million inhabitants) and in the commune of Anzio.
ROME- A 23-year-old Belgian student managed to avoid an attempted attack at the bottom of Campidoglio in the capital, Tuesday night.
The attacker, a 26-year-old Israli man working at Fiumicino airport, met the girl in a bar and tried to kiss her and allegedly rape her on the steps. The girl apparently tried to resist and shouted out, attracting attention of the police who happened to be nearby. They were separated by the police.
CAIRO- After two days of incessant investigations Ibrahim Metwally, the human rights lawyer working with the NGO representing the Regeni family in Egypt, has been found. Metwally is detained in an Egyptian tribunal in the Eastern district of Cairo.
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