ROME – The Italian women’s Volleyball team suffered a narrow defeat to Serbia in the Final of the World Championships on Saturday in Yokohoma, Japan.
The Azzurri twice led the contest, taking the first and third sets, but the Serbs ultimately prevailed in a nervy final set tie-breaker. The win grants them their first ever World Championships gold, following on from a silver at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
ROME – FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva and his wife took time off the other day to join a rally in support of PT Brazilian candidate Fernando Haddad outside the Brazilian Embassy in Piazza Navona, the Libero Quotidiano newspaper reported Saturday.
Mrs Graziano joined a group of militants holding a banner in the square and the couple posed for photographers. Diplomatic observers were surprised that a UN agency head should take part in a partisan political demonstration in a host country.
ROME - A silent march will take place on Sunday to mark 75 years since the deportation of Roman citizens to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 16th October 1943. Out of the thousands deported, just sixteen people were to return, only one of whom was a woman.
ROME - Authorities prohibited the use of drinking water and closed schools in Matera after bacterial levels rose above safe parameters on Friday. Supermarkets have consequently been immensely overcrowded, and mineral water provisions have almost all been exhausted.
NEW YORK - I am writing this article with a deep sense of grief and sorrow now that it has been revealed that the Saudi journalist Mr. Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
This is the news we all dreaded.
While Reuters and other media outlets reported that Khashoggi had been murdered inside, Saudis authorities threw a handful of sand in the face of the international community when they maintained thathe left the consulate shortly after he went in. This Saudi denial was also debunked by CCTV.
ROME – Li Yonghong, previously an owner of Italian football giant AC Milan, has been added to China’s blacklist of untrustworthy people over millions in unpaid debts, according to a local Chinese court.
The Chinese businessman owed 8.7 million dollars to a Hubei province investment company, as well as a fine of 12 million yuan. However, the court found no assets in his name to repay the creditor with.
ROME - A violent storm hit eastern Sicily on Thursday night, forcing people to abandon their homes and take refuge on roofs. Areas most affected were Francoforte, Lentini and Sigonella, where streets resembled “rivers” and cars were swamped. Irrevocable damage was caused to shops and houses, and many roads were temporarily blocked off, including a stretch of the SS417 in Mineo and the SS385 in Palagonia.
Firefighters and divers were immediately called to the scene, while Navy helicopters rescued residents stranded on their roofs.
VATICAN CITY – On a visit to the Vatican, the number two cleric in the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion, has accused the United States of engineering the independence of the Ukrainian subsect of the Church, Il Messaggero reports.
ROME – Pundits payed tribute to the Italian women's volleyball team on Friday after they finally saw off the challenge of opponents China in a gruelling two hour contest to reach the final of the World Championships in Japan.
