ROME -- Pat Conroy and Mike Mewshaw were great friends but it did not last. Conroy was a best-selling novelist while Mewshaw is a talented but less successful novelist, memorialist and journalist. Conroy never made that weigh and admired Mewshaw’s writing. Lonely on arrival in Rome in the early 1980s, Conroy rang Mewshaw asking for his friendship and they were great mates for the next 14 years.
INSIDER NEWSDESK
TARANTO – Steel giant ArcelorMittal have announced that they would be terminating their contract and withdrawing from the Ilva plant in Taranto, putting at risk over ten thousand jobs, said business sources Tuesday.
5 Nov 2019
JAN FILIPOWICZ
ROME -- The new Director General of the FAO, Qu Dongyu, has underlined his emphasis on the UN agency's work in Africa by appointing as a special advisor a Zimbabwean diplomat, Godfrey Magwenzi, who made headlines in Italy by promoting crocodile meat from his homeland at the Milan Expo universal exhibition.
5 Nov 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ALESSANDRIA – Three firefighters have been killed and three people hospitalised due to an explosion in a building in Quargnento, near Alessandria, Piedmont, says the fire brigade.
According to a reconstruction based on the testimony of local residents, the fire brigade and carabinieri were called out after an explosion at 2 a.m. Tuesday in an unoccupied farmhouse. This was followed by another explosion, killing three firefighters, who were aged 47, 38 and 32, reported Il Fatto Quotidiano.
5 Nov 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
VATICAN CITY – In addition to the building it has been found to own in Chelsea, the Secretariat of State also bought property in North Kensington with “Peter’s Pence” money, La Stampa said Monday.
La Stampa reports that the Vatican’s Secretariat bought the second London property, this time on Kensal Road, North Kensington, for 11.7 million dollars.
This money is understood to have come from the charitable donations known as Peter’s Pence, said La Stampa.
4 Nov 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
PALERMO – A colleague of an Italia Viva MP has been detained on charges of carrying orders and messages from imprisoned mafiosi to the outside world, reports Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Antonello Nicosia, 48, is a radical activist who has been working as a colleague of Italia Viva MP Pina Occhionero. He has for many years been an advocate for prisoners’ rights.
He has been detained along with four others as part of an inquiry conducted by the Palermo public prosecutor’s office. Nicosia is charged with offences of mafia association.
4 Nov 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
VENICE – The sixth outing of Venice’s “submarine gondoliers,” who clear up rubbish in the canals, took place between 6 p.m. and midnight on Sunday, said the town council.
They have already collected over 2.5 tons of rubbish from canals in five separate operations between February and June.
Sunday was the first time they had worked at night, said the council. The dive took place outside the Pescheria fish market, on the Grand Canal.
4 Nov 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME – A number of Italian cities were hit by bad weather over the weekend, including Rome, where a metro station remains closed and several roads are flooded or blocked by fallen trees.
Liguria has also been seriously affected by rain and strong winds. The rivers Petronio and Vara are in flood, reports Il Messaggero. Several towns have taken emergency measures – in Sestri Levante, Liguria, residents have been asked to stay indoors by the mayor, Valentina Ghio.
4 Nov 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME -- Florentin Albu, the former head of the CIO at the FAO, has given Insider chief editor an ultimatum to pay up some 14,000 euros in provisional damages and court costs for alleged defamation or else he will begin seizing assets, judicial sources say.
3 Nov 2019