Lea Garofalo credited for arrest of 17 'Ndrangheta members

INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME - Police have arrested 17 suspected members of the 'Ndrangheta mafia due to the posthumous help of former informant Lea Garofalo, investigators announced on Tuesday.
 
Anti-mafia police used former testimony given by Lea Garofalo to find and arrest 17 members of the criminal organisation 'Ndrangheta for their involvement in seven murders, illegal firearm possession, and drug peddling. The arrests were conducted throughout Italy in the Abruzzo, Emilia-Romanga, Lombardy, and Piedmont regions. Police also seized several properties.
 
Italy
29 Oct 2013

Poverty has doubled but Italy will prevail

INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME  --  The number of people living in absolute poverty in Italy has doubled from 2.4 million to 4.8 million, but the country is expected to rise from the recession by year's end, the national statistics agency Istat has reported.
 
Antonio Golini, the president of Istat, spoke before a bicameral parliamentary committee on budget stability on Tuesday where he explained that Italy's economic recession "has led to serious consequences." 
 
Italy
29 Oct 2013
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Special Arabic and spook talk

JAMES WALSTON

ROME- The office dealing with the prying and spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel apparently goes under the coy euphemism on Special Collection Service -- A long time ago, a colleague on the University of Maryland’s programme for the US military told me of another spooks’ euphemism used back then (and now for all I know).

Comment, Embassy Row, World, Italy
29 Oct 2013
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Vesuvius appeal to European Court

ANDREW GARGANO
ROME - A group of 12 residents living in the "red zone" of Mount Vesuvius has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for a solution to what they call "inadequate" evacuation plans.
 
World, Italy
29 Oct 2013
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Books: Pope Francis's controversial past

Philip Willan

ROME-Pope Francis's embryonic papacy has been fresh air for many Catholics-The enthusiastic extrovert, impatient of formality, eager to preach and practice the essential message of God’s untiring forgiveness and predilection for the poor could not be more at odds with the gloomy rigour of Pope Benedict’s inward-looking reign.

 Many hope he will succeed in flinging open the windows and sending a vivifying wind through the stale air of the Curia, blowing away the spiritual cobwebs and the poison-pen papers of the Vatileaks saga.

Culture, Embassy Row, Vatican
27 Oct 2013
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Maradona wants tax help from Sophia Loren

INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME - Diego Maradona has stated that he "wants to meet" famous actress Sophia Loren to find out how she "beat the taxman."
 
Football icon Diego Maradona recently sparked outrage from Italian officials after he made an obscene gesture in a television interview when questioned about taxes. He owes Italy €39 million in unpaid taxes and is now seeking financial advice from Sophia Loren.
 
Italy
25 Oct 2013
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Datagate Scandal: Britain spied on Italy too

ANDREW GARGANO
ROME - New Datagate details have emerged revealing Britain has also played a key role in spying on Italians, using information to further the country's interests while passing data to the NSA.
 
 The disclosures appeared in the preview of an article by L'Espresso that is due out tomorrow. In the article, journalist Glenn Greenwald, who first published the classified documents that were leaked by Edward Snowden, spoke to L'Espresso about American and British surveillance programmes that gather information from Italy.
 
Embassy Row, World, Italy
24 Oct 2013
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Sex charge rocks UN agencies

JAN FILIPOWICZ

  ROME --The rise of an influential Asian clan at the UN food agencies has snagged with the suspension of a top IFAD official over a sexual harassment complaint, UN sources say.

U.N., Embassy Row, World
23 Oct 2013

FAO jobs saved by Insider

JAN FILIPOWICZ

ROME–FAO’s CIO chief Florentin Albu, bowing to pressure, has agreed to re-deploy four axed staffers to new posts, following Italian Insider’s disclosing his plans to dump them in violation of labour accords at the UN agency, FAO sources say.

The existence of the new jobs was “kept under wraps in extreme secrecy” at the hunger-fighting agency, a senior FAO source told the Insider, disclosing that “four or five new positions will be available at the P-2, P-3 level.”

U.N., Embassy Row, World
23 Oct 2013
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