ROME – The chief prosecutor in Brescia, Tommaso Buonanno, has been landed in difficulty after Carabinieri investigators announced on Monday that his son had been arrested in connection with an armed robbery in the town of Zogno, in Lombardy.

 Gianmarco Buonanno, 32, is accused of having been one of three men who committed an armed robbery of a “Conad” Supermarket on Wednesday, Jan 31. He was said to have been carrying a machine gun while the gang, all wearing masks, stole 12,000 euros from the store.

ROME – The Italian Senate was leading an appeal to the government of Thailand to prevent the execution of Denis Cavatassi, an Italian national accused in 2011 of hiring a killer to murder his business partner, Luciano Butti, in Phuket.  

 Sig Cavatassi was convicted and sentenced to death in Thailand but has always maintained his innocence and is appealing to the Thai supreme court (cq).

ROME – Luigi Di Maio, leader of the Five Star Movement (M5S), accused his centre-left rivals the Democratic Party (PD), of letting those involved in corruption cases run in the March elections, but Matteo Renzi, the PD Secretary hit back by alleging links between M5S and the Spada Clan mafia gang.

 Writing on his blog on Sunday, Di Maio, presented a list of candidates from rival parties who were involved in legal battles. The comments came in response to Renzi’s earlier claim that many of M5S candidates were unpresentable at the upcoming elections.

VATICAN CITY – Pro-Kurdish protesters and police scuffled near the CastelSantAngelo Monday, police said, as Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Pope Francis in an audience, making the first visit of a Turkish head of state to the Vatican in 59 years for talks expected to focus on the status of Jerusalem.