CATANIA -- An earthquake measuring magnitude 4.8 rippled through the area north of Catania on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily early on Wednesday, causing some damage to buildings and a few injuries, officials said.
Television footage showed damage to older buildings in the towns of Santa Venerina and Zafferana Etnea.
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VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis called Tuesday in his urbi et orbi message for peace around the world, saying that the universal message of Christmas is that “we are all brothers and sisters.” He urged an end to a constellation conflicts ranging from the Middle East to Ukraine, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis appealed to the international community Sunday to show solidarity with tsunami-stricken, mainly-Muslim Indonesia and urged people living far from their families to turn to the Church at Christmas.
“My thoughts go in this moment to the population of Indonesia, hit by violent natural calamity, that caused serious loss of human life, many missing and homeless and heavy material damage,” the pontiff told pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus address.
ROME - Baby Alessandro Maria Montresor, who has been in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant for some time now, was reportedly operated on at the Vatican’s Bambino Gesù hospital earlier today. “Alex has undergone a haematopoietic stem cell transplant,” a source at the hospital confirmed.
ROME — Brazilian FAO honcho Adoniram Sanches Peraci has been appointed Regional subdirector for central America for the UN agency, based in Panama, FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva, has announced.
FAO sources told the Insider they had expected that the D-1 subdirector post would go to Fernando Servan, the embattled human resources director at FAO headquarters in Rome, but in the end the nomination went to Peraci.
ROME - Award-winning author and journalist Andrea Pinketts has died aged 57 after a long battle with a tumour. The author of thrillers ‘Assenza Dell’Assenzio’ and ‘Il senso della frase,’ Pinketts’ works were littered with moments of explosive chaos, fueled by alcohol and tobacco. "Pinketts wasn't just an author of thrillers, he was a thriller in himself," an old friend declared upon his death.
ROME - Frustrated coach drivers, enraged by Raggi’s proposal to ban tourist coaches from the city centre, decided to fight back Thursday by parking their buses for eight hours in Piazza Venezia. Despite criticisms from authorities and residents, protestors are reportedly only warming up. “The demonstration continues, tomorrow we will protest in Piazza Montecitorio,” one driver insisted furiously.
ROME – Italy has finalised a budget agreement with the European Commission after months of negotiation, avoiding economic sanctions.
Italy’s target deficit, a huge sticking point in previous negotiation attempts, will be reduced from 2.4 percent of GDP to 2.04 percent, as European officials voiced their concern over its effect on Italy’s 2.3 trillion-euro debt, the second-highest in Europe.
NEW YORK - During a service that was held under tight security and attended by 1,200 people, the Catholic Church beatified the seven French Trappist monks and the 12 clerics who were assassinated during the 1990s Algerian civil war.
The 19 members of the clergy were declared martyrs by the Vatican in January 2018 since they were slain in odium fidei (out of hatred for the faith). And the beatification was celebrated on Dec. 8 in the Chapel of our Lady of Santa Cruz which overlooks the coastal city of Oran – west of the capital Algiers.
