Maserati prepares to launch new models

Gianfranco Nitti

ROME --Economic Development Minister Flavio Zanonato has visited the Maserati plant in Grugliasco where the new Quattroporte and Maserati Ghibli, to be launched this August, are produced.

 Touring the Giovanni Agnelli plant Monday with Mr. Zanonato were Fiat CEO, Sergio Marchionne, and head of EMEA for Fiat-Chrysler, Alfredo Altavilla. During the visit, the Minister had the opportunity to see the body shop and assembly lines for both models, as well as stopping several times to speak with employees.

Italy
23 Jul 2013

Zebra-donkey born in Florence

LEAF ARBUTHNOT

ROME – A rare mix between a zebra and a donkey has been born in an animal reserve in Florence, owners have confirmed.

Named Ippo, the ‘zonkey’ has a zebra for a father and a donkey for a mother, who is herself part of an endangered breed. Ippo’s father, Marti, was adopted by the Floricoltura Aglietti foundation from a zoo that was unable to look after him.

Italy
23 Jul 2013

FAO won't hire Samba dancer

JAN FILIPOWICZ

ROME– FAO chief José Graziano da Silva dropped plans to hire consultant Telma Viale as HR chief after viewing an artistic  video in which she apparently strips to the buff, FAO sources say.

U.N., World
22 Jul 2013
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Nourishing Italy's 2014 World Cup hopes

COLIN O'BRIEN

 ROME --The Italian national team is an odd beast. Historically one of world football's heavy hitters, Cesare Prandelli's men have only lost two competitive games in open play since 2010. One was in the final of the European Championships, against Spain, and the other in the Confederations Cup, to Brazil, with a depleted line-up and only after qualification to the semi-final was assured.

Sport
22 Jul 2013
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"Gay lobby" charges blight Pope Brazil trip

LEAF ARBUTHNOT

VATICAN CITY – Members of the “gay lobby”in the Curia covered up the past of an allegedly gay prelate appointed by the Pope to clean up the Vatican bank, L’Espresso magazine reports.

On June 15 Monsignor Battista Ricca, 57, was tasked with spearheading an inquiry into the IOR following a string of corruption scandals that shocked Catholic communities worldwide.

Although the file checked by Pope Francis was found to be completely clean, within a week of the appointment, Mons. Riccca’s scandalous past – and the cover-ups that had kept it under wraps – began to come to light.

Vatican
22 Jul 2013

Police seize Verga manuscripts

LEAF ARBUTHNOT

ROME – Police have seized 36 manuscripts and thousands of letters, drawings and notes made by Giovanni Verga in an operation conducted by the Cultural Heritage Protection Department.

The items had been at the centre of an eighty-year battle between descendents of Giovanni Verga and those of a scholar entrusted with the manuscripts in 1930. A police unit specialising in repossessing cultural heritage items was deployed from Rome and Pavia.

Italy
19 Jul 2013
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A Summer with Shakespeare in Villa Borghese

Natalie Lyubomirsky

ROME -- In its 10th year, Silvano Toti’s Globe Theatre Rome is showcasing a variety of Shakespeare’s plays throughout summer. Having started July 10, the theatre will operate until the 22nd of September with productions of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard the Third and King Lear.

Culture
19 Jul 2013

Win £1,000 in cash! Expat survey for Insider readers

INSIDER NEWSDESK

ROME -- The world’s largest expat survey has been launched this week, offering participants the chance to win £1,000 in cash.

 Led by the ex-head of research for BBC World, the questionnaire is the largest independent research study ever undertaken on migration and expatriate life. It is does not divulge information to third parties and is not tied to any government organizations.

World, Italy
19 Jul 2013
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Disappeared RAF crew receive official burial

LEAF ARBUTHNOT

ROME – The crew of an RAF bomber discovered nearly 70 years after it was shot down by anti-aircraft gunfire have been buried at an official ceremony in Italy.

 The four men on board were all under 21 years old when they set forth from Rimini in April 1945, just weeks before the war came to a close. On board were Sgt. David Raikes, an aspiring poet whose works were published in a posthumous collection in 1954; radio operator Sgt. Alexander Bostock, navigator Sgt. David Perkins and Australian air gunner Warrant Officer John Hunt.

Italy
18 Jul 2013
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