ROME - The recent meeting of the G20 – scheduled to take place in Riyadh but held virtually due to the Coronavirus pandemic – has been an eloquent example of how the world is drifting, in a crisis of leadership. It was, in a sense, a showcase. Everybody had to accept the view that the host of the meeting, the ailing King Salman of Saudi Arabia, was accompanied on TV screens by his apparent heir, Prince Mohamed bin Salman, who is clearly the mastermind of the brutal assassination, dismembering and disappearance of the body of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

 VATICAN CITY – The former butler of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Paolo Gabriele, who was convicted in the first “Vatileaks” case, has died aged 54, Vatican officials said.

 According to Vatican media Gabriele died Tuesday in a Rome hospital after a long illness.

  ROME -- Four members of the 18-member Staff Council of the World Food Programme’s Professional Staff Association have resigned in the past six weeks including the Treasurer responsible for the considerable coffers of the PSA, which has squirreled away more than dlrs 1 million held in secretive offshore accounts far from its members languishing in the Eternal City, WFP sources say.

 SASSARI – Images recovered from cell phones in a gang rape case against Beppe Grillo’s son Ciro, show a second alleged victim being sexually abused while unconscious, La Verità reported.

 The investigation into the alleged rape of a Scandinavian woman at the Sardinian villa of Mr Grillo, co-founder of the Five Star Movement political party, has closed with revelations the girl’s friend was sexually abused and photographed without her knowledge.