ROME - Pier Paolo Pasolini was a essentially a poet, a film director and a journalist. To Italy, he was a scandalous figure. It seemed that almost every sign of change in tradition was blamed on him. He became the victim of daily attacks from the right-wing press, but also from the left, when the Communist Party expelled him for moral and political unworthiness because of his homosexuality.
Anonymous
Italian lawyer Giandomenico De Tullio presents the legal ins and outs of investing in off-plan properties in Italy.
Investing off-plan is where a purchaser makes a commitment to buy from a property from developer that has not yet been built or is in the process of being built. This type of investment hides a number of risks, the major one being that the builder goes bankrupt and the buyer loses his money.
10 Jan 2013
Laura Simmons
ROME - The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Italy for the state of its prisons, which infringe prisoners’ human rights.
The Court called on Italy to “resolve the structural problem of overcrowding in prisons, which is incompatible with the Convention.”
9 Jan 2013
INSIDER NEWSDESK
DAMASCUS – The World Food Programme (WFP) will start providing ready-to-eat food to 125,000 vulnerable Palestinians and displaced Syrians caught in fighting around Yarmouk camp in Damascus.
The densely populated camp, which is eight kilometers from the centre of Damascus, has been home to the largest Palestinian refugee community in Syriasince 1957 and has recently housed thousands of displaced Syrians who fled heavy fighting in Damascusand the surrounding areas.
7 Jan 2013
Laura Simmons
ROME - Italy’s flagship airline is flagging, with rumours of an Air France takeover causing uproar from Italian politicians.
Alitalia is currently controlled by CAI, a consortium of investors (of which Air France-KLM is a member) which bought it up in 2008 when it was insolvent. All the shareholders in the company will be able to sell their shares when the lock-up period expires on January 12.
7 Jan 2013
SYDNEY SMITH
DETROIT, Michigan - On route back to Rome after the holidays, I caught up with an old friend in Detroit where one of my favourite new folk bands, The Flutter and Wow were performing in a local pub owned by a popular micro-brewery.
What were the odds? Whiskey beer cheese, old school chicken wings, artichoke dip and great music! Who could say no to that?
7 Jan 2013
INSIDER NEWSDESK
ROME - France’s socialist government has announced the creation of a ‘National Observatory of Secularism’ in order to closely monitor religious organisations and prevent what they have called “excesses”, dissolving the associations if necessary, the Dignitatis Humanae Institute reports.
The Observatory is to be created this year, announced French president Francois Hollande. French Interior Minister Manuel Valls highlighted various Catholic organisations, stating that "All excesses are being minutely registered in case we have to consider dissolving it."
7 Jan 2013
DAVID PETRIE
VERONA - In July 2005, I argued that the Italian government should cut the cash it hands out to Italian Universities - Mario Monti’s government did just that.
On Dec. 19, the Italian Minister for Higher Education, Francesco Profumo warned that the cuts in funding threatened to push half of Italy’s universities into default. Three hundred million euros are needed, he claimed, while only 100 million is allocated in the budget which was passed before the Mario Monti government resigned.
4 Jan 2013
MARCO ZOPPAS
TRIESTE – To understand the roots of left-wing and right-wing terrorism, one might very well start from the three regions of the Triveneto -- Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Trentino Alto Adige. Due to their proximity to strategic borderlines with Austria and the Balkans, the three regions have been incessantly in turmoil.
31 Dec 2012