ROME -- The European Commission is preparing infringement proceedings against Italy for discrimination against British lecturers working in Italian universities, diplomatic sources say.

ROME - Italian car giant Fiat has said it will cut 1,500 jobs in Poland to match falling demand.

ROME - Perhaps the most dazzling yet under-utilised resource for English authors in Italy is the Open Door book shop in Trastevere’s via della Lungaretta.

 REYHANLI, TURKEY -As the Assad regime continues to conduct air strikes on rebel-held medical facilities, Syrian doctors across the border are hindered by government and banking regulations. 

ROME- Italy’s real GDP growth is to fall further in 2013, the OECD has forecast.

ROME -- Australia may withhold its funding to the FAO in protest against alleged inefficiency at the UN agency, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has cautioned.

ROME – FAO Director general Jose Graziano da Silva has fuelled outraged comments from female colleagues at the UN agency by lamenting a shortage of “really good candidates” among women for top jobs

ROME – FAO’s communications chief lashed out at Italian Insider’s coverage as “highly inaccurate” and “shameful” this month as Lamberto Dini strongly denied influencing staffing at the UN agency.

 ROME- We all knew Gore Vidal. How could we not? Ubiquitous on television, as driven as an Olympic athlete, he described himself as "a third-generation celebrity."

ROME--The Eternal City is a treasure trove for history lovers and culture buffs.

 ROME– Christian Mersmann, the respected head of the UN’s Global Mechanism combating desertification, was sacked with two days’ notice by IFAD chief Kanayo Nwanze, UN sources said.

ROME– Kuwait is optimistic the Arab Spring will usher in political democracy throughout the Middle East with many countries following the Kuwaiti example of a parliamentary constitution and freedom

ROME– Aid to Ethiopia from donors and organisations including the UN World Food Programme “directly supports political oppression,” says a Human Rights Watch report.

ROME –Tens of thousands of struggling migrants, many providing services for tourists in the Eternal City, live in squalid windowless basements, some rented by landlords linked to the Vatican bank,