ROME – A naked rapper performing at the Rock in Rome festival was dragged off stage Thursday as an audience made up mostly of youngsters looked on, witnesses said.
The rapper known as Pretty Solero, who was said to have appeared to have been in a state of psychophysical alteration, jumped on stage and undressed to screams and applause but also boos.
According to witnesses, staff removed the Roman rapper after he began spitting at people backstage and head butted a bouncer.
MENFI - The village of Menfi, on Sicily’s southwest coast, has been rocked by eight tremors, sparking fear among residents who have not forgotten the tragic earthquake of 1968, which killed hundreds and left 100,000 homeless.
The first tremor at 8:57 p.m. on Thursday evening, which had its epicentre six kilometres east of Menfi, recorded a magnitude of 2.4. This was followed by seven aftershocks ranging between 2.2 and 1.2 magnitude, which were also felt in Sciacca, Sambuca di Sicilia and Santa Margherita di Belice.
TRIESTE – A flash mob has been organized in solidarity with an Austrian tourist who was fined 300 euros for sleeping in a hammock hung in the pine forest along Trieste’s Barcola Riviera.
Local police spotted the tourist sleeping in the hammock, which had been hung between two trees near I Topolini – 10 semicircular terraces overlooking the sea - at around 4:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.
ROME – Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio pledged to abolish Italy’s unpopular car tax Friday morning. Because of good economic performance in Italy, “we can begin eliminating the odious tax that is the car tax,” he said on RAI’s morning show Uno Mattina.
At present, the car tax is paid annually on all cars whether they are used or not. It is calculated using a number of measures like horsepower, fuel type, manufacture year and emissions.
ROME – The renowned Italian writer and film director Luciano De Crescenzo died Thursday, aged 90, after being hospitalised in the Eternal City two weeks ago with pneumonia, according to his publishing house Mandadori.
“The actor and director Luciano De Crescenzo died today, Thursday 18 July, at around 4 o’clock at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS as a result of complications from a serious illness,” said a hospital source. “His family and dearest friends were with him in the final stages of his illness.”
BOLOGNA – Joint operations by Bologna and Turin police targeted a Nigerian mafia clan which allegedly ran large drugs and prostitution operations in Piedmont and Emilia Romagna. Many of the 40 individuals arrested Thursday morning were heads of the so-called Maphite group, according to police sources.
ROME – Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi has applied to host the European Aquatics Championships in 2022, but this threatens the contract the city signed to hold the prestigious Ryder Cup in the same period. This oversight may cost the Eternal City the opportunity to host the significant biennial golfing event, reports Il Messaggero.
The relevant “Host Agreement” contract provides for Rome to host in September 2022 the competition between the U.S. and Europe, an event which comes globally comes third in terms of media coverage after football’s World Cup and the Olympics.
AMATRICE – Italian President Sergio Mattarella Thursday formally inaugurated the "Romolo Capranica" school of Amatrice, the town in northern Lazio, central Italy, devastated by the earthquake of 2006.
AGRIGENTO – Carola Rackete, the captain of migrant-rescue ship Sea Watch 3 who was arrested June 29 after forcibly entering Italian waters, Thursday morning faced questions from Sicilian prosecutors. Afterwards, she said she was “happy to have the opportunity to explain everything,” according to local sources.
