ROME – Following pressure from the United States not to use Chinese tech giant Huawei's products for the development of Italy’s 5G infrastructure because of cybersecurity risks, the League party have requested that the government overturns its agreement with Huawei to provide advanced network services to Italian companies.
Isabella Ferrari
ROME - The Five Star Movement (M5S) are pressuring the State Property Agency to formalise a complaint calling for the eviction of squatters from the Esquiline building occupied by the neo-fascist political party CasaPound Italy (CPI).
Headed by the Ministry of Economy, and owner of the building occupied since 2003, M5S are hoping that the State Property Agency can formalise the complaint in order to get an eviction order.
22 Feb 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
PALERMO - King of online betting Calgaro John Luppino has been arrested along with two other businessmen on suspicion of supplying funds to the Sicilian mafia organisation Cosa nostra, judicial sources said on Friday.
Luppino, 39, who built a small empire around the business of online betting and slot machines, has been jailed along with collaborators Salvatore Giorgi (his uncle), 60, and Francesco Catalanotto, manager of a betting centre in Campobello di Mazara.
22 Feb 2019
JAN FILIPOWICZ
ROME -- Cameroon plans to present a candidate to stand for election to be the next FAO director general and diplomats from the African state claim they have the support of all countries on the continent, diplomatic sources say.
Cameroon's candidate is expected to be the former Chair of the Finance Committee at FAO, Medi Moungui, who served for some four years in the senior post at the Rome-based agency, the sources told Italian Insider.
22 Feb 2019
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME - Low cost airlines Ryanair and Wizzair have been fined millions for their cabin luggage charges.
Italy’s Competition Authority (AGCM) on Thursday issued penalties of three million euros to Ryanair and one million to Wizzair.
Customers have only been allowed a small bag on board at no cost.
The authority deemed the practice of charging between five and 25 euros for additional carryon luggage as deceptive and unfair.
22 Feb 2019
Isabella Ferrari
ROME – Leading Pennsylvania politician Mark Rozzi, nationally known for his unwavering defence of survivors of child sexual abuse, and himself a victim of rape at the hands of a priest, called for the Vatican and bishops to stop hindering civil reforms and delaying justice for victims.
On the opening day of the special Anti-Paedophilia Summit called by Pope Francis in the Vatican, Mr Rozzi, Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, highlighted the crucial need to bring “the voices of Catholic clergy victims to light.”
21 Feb 2019
Isabella Ferrari
ROME – Political tension mounted in the Eternal City after reports that the daughter of North Korea's former envoy to Rome, Jo Song-Gil, was taken back to Pyongyang from Italy by force in November.
The 17-year-old’s father, Jo Song-Gil, had gone missing in November in an act that was seen as an attempted defection. The operation to forcibly take his daughter back took place before she made an attempt to be reunited with her parents, according to a report by a South Korean news agency.
21 Feb 2019
Isabella Ferrari
ROME - On the eve of the Anti-Paedophilia Summit, French author of ‘Sodoma’ Frederic Martel spoke at the Eternal City’s Foreign Press Association, reiterating the claim pronounced in his book that the Vatican is “the largest gay community in the world.”
Martel clarified that the argument of the book is a systematic investigation into “the question of homosexuality within the Catholic Church,” which explores the “gay subculture within the Vatican and in other countries.” In particular he spoke about the question of abuse.
20 Feb 2019
JAN FILIPOWICZ
ROME – Three veteran journalists, an American, a Spaniard and a Turk, are battling to become the new president of the Foreign Press Association grouping hundreds of foreign correspondents based in Italy.
Candidates Patricia Thomas, of AP television news, and Rossend Domenech, of El Periodico, met with colleagues Tuesday evening as the club celebrated its 107th anniversary and paid tribute to a year of inspiring leadership by Esma Cakir, the first Turkish correspondent and the first woman from an Islamic country to head the august institution.
20 Feb 2019