ROME -Yohannes Mengesha, a grandson of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, has joined the constellation of high-paid "special advisors" to FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva, FAO sources say.
Mr Mengesha, a former Assistant Secretary General to the United Nations, has been given an office at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation with a dubious brief to coordinate between the Rome based UN food agencies -- FAO, WFP and IFAD -- at the Milan Expo 2015 trade fair, the sources say.
BRUSSELS -David Petrie, ALLSI president, and ALLSI lawyer, Prof Lorenzo Picotti, met senior EU officials Monday to ask the Commission to press Italy to end discrimination of foreign lecturers.
The European Commission officials was headed by Armindo Silva, Director Employment and Social Legislation, Social Dialogue who is responsible to Commissioner László Andor. The crucial meeting was held Monday, Jan. 27 at 2:30 pm in Brussels. Mr Silva told Prof. Petrie that the Commission will make a decision on the case within two months.
ROME--The FAO professional association head, Wolfgang Prante, sought compensation of dlrs 50,000 from the agency for sending a slur against him by email to thousands of staff, FAO sources have claimed.
Herr Prante did not respond when contacted by Italian Insider to ask about the report, which was backed by what is purportedly a copy of a confidential memorandum by Herr Prante requesting the compensation from the Rome-based UN humanitarian agency.
ANZIO –British veterans who fought to free Rome in the Anzio battle made an emotional return to the port town yesterday -“It was terrifying...it was muddy, freezing cold, all you could hear was gunfire,” said Alex Munro, who served as an observation officer in the thick of the fighting with the Scottish Horse, an artillery regiment.
ROME –The violent Casalesi clan of the Camorra has been linked to construction work at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery and pop star Sting’s Chiantishire villa, police say.
The Casalesi clan who operate part of the Neapolitan criminal underworld were connected to the two construction firms (GGF and PDP) who are overseeing the Uffizi construction, whose headquarters are based in the province of Arezzo (Tuscany), according to police sources quoted by Ansa news agency.
ROME –FAO management issued another burst of job cuts on New Year`s Eve, despite pledges by “DG” Jose Graziano da Silva that his purge of the UN agency was over, FAO sources say.
At least four staffers at the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Agency received formal notice Dec. 30 that they are being axed effective March 31. The AP staff association had asked management not to spoil New Year`s festivities by e mailing the grim news to staffers before the New Year but the request was ignored, the sources said.
ROME–Inter Press Service’s quest for a new “director general” succeeding Mario Lubetkin at the radical organ raises questions over autocratic management under failed politician Giovanni Spinelli, media sources say.
ROME-More than 5 million people visited the Vatican Museums in 2013, underlining the appeal of Pope Francis, the museums director says.
ROME- Australians and New Zealanders are sometimes struck by a sense of inadequacy in Europe- Compared to antecedents in Ireland, Britain and Italy, our history is short and our cultural legacy still stretching its wings.
