LONDON - News of the Pope’s resignation has sent shockwaves throughout the world. Readers are flabbergasted, "can the pope do that?" asked one of my co-workers, "but, I thought they had to die..." said another.
London headlines read: "shock resignation breaks '600-year taboo'"(The Guardian); "A pope of surprises" (The Telegraph).
ROME - A low-level currency war has been simmering away since the autumn. The growing fear now is that it is about to go nuclear. The start of 2013 has proved to be buoyant. We saw the FTSE 100 rise to over 6300 and although some of this may be speculatively driven, there is no doubt that the more positive noises coming from the US have had an effect on confidence. Were this to happen, what would be the fallout for the UK and sterling? As with most currency wars, this one results from everyone trying to devalue at the same time, while of course denying that they are doing any such thing.
MELBOURNE - Only hours after winning his fourth Australian Open trophy, Novak Djokovic was beginning to feel the approach of the French Open four months away. But The No. 1 had little time to savour his 6-7 (2-7), 7-6, (7-3), 6-3, 6-2 Melbourne title win over Andy Murray which made the Serb the first man in the post-1968 Open era to win three titles in a row in Melbourne.
MILAN– Imperius Europe is expanding in Italy with the opening of a Milan office as it markets innovative new investment products for expatriates and Italians. European Development consultant Agata Balazy is now based in the Italian business capital running the new office, underlining the importance Imperius attaches to growing business opportunities in Italy, company sources said.
ROME-- Lance Armstrong's admission of guilt got people talking about performance enhancing drugs but other successful athletes likely will be discovered frauds before the storm blows over.
ROME - Oscar-prediction rages as English cinemagoers have a handful of Best Picture nominees to choose from. In each of my top picks for the week, there are no flirtations with the avant-garde or the gritty realism the Academy occasionally applauds – instead, each film is a star-studded affair with straightforward storylines and pitch-perfect performances.
ROME – Glamour actress Gina Lollobrigida has made a complaint against her ex-fiancé who she claims married her by proxy and without her consent.
Lollobrigida, once called “the most beautiful woman in the world”, met Spanish businessman Javier Rigau y Rafols in the 1980s. In 2006 they got engaged, but the actress called off the wedding that same year.
ROME– The World Food Programme has defended an increase of some 24,000 euros in the housing allowance of the UN agency’s executive director, Ertharin Cousin, taking it up to 160,000 euros a year. A spokesman called the extra funds for the American former diplomat living in Rome, disclosed by the Inner City Press news agency in New York, “a nominal increase” though whistleblowers are concerned about alleged waste and even fraud at WFP, (see http://www.innercitypress.com/wfp4cousin120312.html)
ABOARD THE TRANS SIBERIAN EXPRESS -- I am sitting in the somewhat dated but cosy Restaurant Car as we speed across the forested plain between Krasnoysk and Irkutsk on the Trans Siberian railway. A plethora of trains take different variants over the world’s longest rail network from Moscow to Vladivostok. Technically we leave the Trans Siberian at Irkutsk and switch to the Trans Mongolian to journey through Mongolia to Beijing.
