Rome-- Russian ballet star Svetlana Zakharova, a former deputy in Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, is set to perform in Rome this March, despite recent protests that led to the cancellation of her Florence appearances.

 ROME – William Supple, an Irish former senior accounts executive at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with a colourful sense of humour and a gift for friendship, has died at age 85, his family said. Bill Supple joined the FAO after a spell working in South Africa for a diamonds company and rose to a high-level position at the Rome-based UN agency under the reign of the Lebanese director general Edouard Saouma.