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talian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced Pope Francis will attend the G7 meeting in Italy this June, accepting an invitation from the Italian government in order to discuss artificial intelligence. In a video published on Friday afternoon, Meloni stated that the 87-year-old pontiff had accepted an official invitation from Italy to attend the event. “I am honored to announce today that Pope Francis will be attending the G7 working session dedicated precisely to artificial intelligence,” she stated in a video posted on X. “This technology can create great opportunities, but also brings huge risks,” said Meloni in a video...

Jessica Vincent had just started surveying the shelves of a Virginia thrift store when a vase caught her eye. It was shaped like a bottle and had ribbons of color, aqua green and amethyst purple, that spiraled up its glass surface like stripes of paint. The piece looked old amongst the clutter of measuring cups, candles and other tchotchkes. After adjusting her eyes, Vincent made out the words “Murano” and “Italia" on its base. “I bought it thinking it would look beautiful in my house somewhere,” said Vincent, 43, a horse trainer who paid $3.99 at a Goodwill outside of...

Besides fettuccine Alfredo, is there a dish reviled by pasta snobs as much as penne alla vodka? The other day, one of these detractors summed up the recipe for us as follows: Bring a large pot of water to a roiling boil, add salt, toss in penne, and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, in a small pot, heat up a can of cream-of-tomato soup. Drain pasta. Dump soup over pasta. Mangia! Although the pasta snob was just being extra snooty and probably secretly craves the stuff, he wasn’t so far off the mark. The problem with vodka sauce is the...

Regular readers of this column know that this is my favorite time of year. Baseball has started, tax season is over and my wife and I are traveling. This year we spent time in Italy and Istanbul. You meet the most interesting people when you travel. It's not because the people who surround you on a daily basis are boring; it's because no matter how exciting their lives may be, they are still so familiar. Radio personality Dennis Prager and I discussed this not too long ago. He mentioned that my column was building a real following, to which I...

Leopard-Trek's Wouter Weylandt was fatally injured today in a crash on the third stage of the Giro d'Italia. The 26-year-old went down on the Passo del Bocco and was unconscious at the scene. Paramedics worked to revive the Belgian, doing CPR for an extended period of time before airlifting him to a nearby hospital. Doctors were unable to revive Weylandt. "Today, our teammate and friend Wouter Weylandt passed away after a crash on the third stage of the Giro d’Italia," said Leopard-Trek Manager Brian Nygaard. "The team is left in a state of shock and sadness and we send all...

In Palermo, Sicily hundreds of Italians gathered today "to commemorate murdered anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino 18 years after his death" as reported by David Willey for BBC News: "He was killed by a car bomb in one the most brutal attacks on Italian justice. * * * After several trials, the truth about who organised the murder of Borsellino, and fellow judge Giovanni Falcone the same year, remains elusive."

The coalition of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has made strong gains from the centre-left in regional polls.Mr Berlusconi's alliance won six of the 13 regions where voting took place, final results show. It previously controlled only two. > The Northern League, a federalist party that opposes immigration, took two regions for the first time. > "The people want federalism, and we will give it to them quickly," said League leader Umberto Bossi, pledging to secure more powers for Italy's wealthy northern regions. "The left no longer exists in the north," he said. >

His wife has already declared that enough is enough - and yesterday it was the turn of Roman Catholic bishops to take Silvio Berlusconi to task for his wandering eye. Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily, reprimanded the Prime Minister for his “self-declared weakness for actresses in the bloom of youth”, and called on the 72-year-old billionaire to control himself. As Mr Berlusconi and his soon-to-be former wife, Veronica Lario, drew up the battlelines for a bruising divorce, the newspaper - the voice of the Italian bishops' conference - threw its weight behind growing calls for the Prime Minister to moderate...

Manager reports his death.

The Sicilian Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, is facing a revolt by local businessmen who refuse to pay protection money. Until now almost every business in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, has paid off the Mafia or faced retribution.

The Axis occupation of former Yugoslavia and the domestic reaction to it present a complex picture. The legacy of these experiences has still not been completely overcome. The German-led onslaught on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941 and ended with that country's capitulation 11 days later. Known from 1918 to 1929 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, the Serbian-dominated state did not make a serious effort to remove the sources of its main domestic problem, namely Croatian discontent, until 1939. In that year, the Belgrade authorities cut a deal with Vlado Macek of the Croatian...

Pope John Paul II has been taken to hospital in Rome after falling ill with influenza, Italian media have reported. The move is being described as a "precaution", Ansa news agency reported The 84-year-old Polish-born pontiff came down with the virus on Sunday, and has cleared his schedule after advice from his doctors. The Pope also suffers from Parkinson's disease and painful knee and joint conditions, but normally takes part in a hectic schedule of engagements.

Italian police have defused a bomb near Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Sardinian holiday villa, hours after a visit by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Police have denied local reports that a second device was also found in the Porto Rotundo area after a newspaper received the bomb warning. Italian news agency Ansa said the caller claimed to be from the leftist Proletarian Combatant Groups (NPC). Mr Blair and his wife Cherie left Sardinia on Tuesday after a short stay. Italy has been on heightened security alert after a general terror threat from a group linked to al-Qaeda. The group had...

Italian cell part of wider European terror web Its contacts, however, extended to Iran, Malaysia and Afghanistan. Their aim - hit American targets PARIS - A suspected terrorist cell broken up recently in Italy is believed to be part of a wider European network with contacts in Iran, Malaysia and Afghanistan that is suspected of plotting attacks on American targets. Five North Africans were arrested on Thursday and Friday in Milan, Naples, San Remo and the island of Malta. A sixth is at large and a seventh, the alleged leader, is in a British jail. Italian authorities said their activities...