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The 280-pound catfish caught by an Italian fisherman is a record-setting wels catfish. With an enormous weight of 280 pounds and a length of 8.8 feet, the catfish caught by Dino Ferrari has some people wondering whether the monstrous catfish could in fact eat a man if it wanted to do so. According to a Feb. 24 USA Today report, the photo taken of the Italian fisherman and his massive catch certainly seems to show “that this thing could just swallow an adult if it wanted to. It’s enormous.” Italian fisherman Dino Ferrari caught the wels catfish on Thursday in...

Separately, the militants hope to cement their control of Libya then cross the Mediterranean disguised as refugees, according to letters seen by Quilliam the anti-terror group ISIS threatens sending 500,000 migrants to Europe as a 'psychological weapon' in chilling echo of Gaddafi's prophecy that the Mediterranean 'will become a sea of chaos' Italian press today published claims that ISIS has threatened to release the huge wave of migrants to cause chaos in Europe if they are attacked And letters from jihadists show plans to hide terrorists among refugees In 2011, Muammar Gaddafi ominously predicted war would come to Libya He...

<p>ANKARA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Turkey will go ahead with plans to order a $3.4-billion missile defence system from China, Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz said, despite U.S. and NATO concerns over security and compatibility of weaponry.</p>

A statement after a meeting of military and security officials said they would guard sensitive sites and targets until at least June. Italy has deployed thousands of troops throughout the country due to security concerns following Saturday’s two shooting attacks in Copenhagen, one of which targeted a synagogue. Italian media said about 500 soldiers would be deployed in Rome, where army troops already help guard diplomatic missions and residences, the capital’s synagogue, and Jewish schools. Last year a pig’s head was found placed outside of Rome’s Grand Synagogue. The new troops are expected to be deployed at tourist venues, such...

The government of Italy appears to be taking seriously the threats posed by the Islamic State (ISIS) to its nation. Italian officials said on Monday that they are considering sending 5,000 troops into Libya to combat the country’s burgeoning jihadist presence. In a recent video purportedly produced by the Islamic State’s Libya affiliate, the group slaughtered twenty-one Christians and vowed to seek out Rome as its next target. “And we will conquer Rome, by Allah’s permission, the promise of our prophet, peace be upon him,” a North American English-accented militant leader said after his comrades slaughtered the Christian hostages. Italian...

As ISIS makes inroads into Libya, officials in Rome are panicking about an Islamic State just across the sea—but have no idea how to combat the crisis. ROME — Last weekend in Italy, as the threat of ISIS in Libya hit home with a new video addressed to “the nation signed with the blood of the cross” and the warning, “we are south of Rome,” Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi shuttered up the Italian embassy in Tripoli and raised his fist with the threat of impending military action. Never mind that Italy has only 5,000 troops available that are even...

Greece's pleas to stop the "fiscal waterboarding" of its devastated economy are substantively no different from President Obama's repeated warnings to Germany to stop bleeding the euro area economy with excessive fiscal austerity. Sadly, the president's reportedly more than a dozen phone calls to the German Chancellor Merkel in 2011 and 2012 urging supportive economic policies in the euro area fell on deaf ears. These calls were not just brushed aside; they were plainly ridiculed as Chancellor Merkel kept telling the media that "it made no sense to be adding new debt to old debt." But -- worrying about one-fifth...

Militants declaring loyalty to Islamic State in Libya single out Rome as a targetIslamist militants claiming loyalty to ISIS have released a video appearing to show the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians who were taken hostage in Libya several weeks ago. The video shows men apparently being beheaded after being forced to kneel next to the Mediterranean Sea. A militant says they are sending a message “from the south of Rome”. At the end of the footage the same English-speaking fighter raises his knife to the water and says ISIS would “conquer Rome”. This morning Egypt and the Libyan government...

A long-lost painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci was confiscated from a bank vault in Switzerland after Italian police said it had been exported illegally and was in danger of being sold for up to £90 million. Swiss police, acting on a request by their Italian counterparts, seized the portrait of Isabella d’Este, a Renaissance noblewoman, from a private bank vault in Lugano on Tuesday. After being lost for centuries, the painting was rediscovered in 2013 in a collection of 400 artworks kept in a Swiss vault. The authorities then were alerted to the existence of the painting, but it...

(ANSA) - Turin, February 3 - Almost 600,000 bookings have been made to see the mysterious Shroud of Turin, reputed to bear the image of Christ, when it opens for public viewing in the spring, officials said Tuesday. The showing, from April 19 to June 24, will be part of a larger program that will include a restored painting of the Lamentation by Renaissance master Fra Angelico, city and church officials. Further bookings are possible via the Internet, they said. The Shroud, which is rarely seen by the public, will be displayed in the Chapel of the Shroud in the...

Researchers may have found the "Mona Lisa" model's skeleton. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons) Scientists are on a mission to find the model for the "Mona Lisa," they plan to dig up centuries-old graves and digitally reconstruct the face of a choice skeleton. Experts believe the model for the famous "Mona Lisa" painting was Leonardo da Vinci's neighbor, Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo, ANSA reported. Several skeletons found in a Florence convent last year could be the remains of the model. Experts plan to identify the most likely candidate and compare the DNA with a body believed to be her son. "Right...

Leonardo da Vinci painted a younger and happier Mona Lisa some 10 years before painting the famous painting, art experts are claiming. Slightly larger in size than the famous portrait,‭ ‬which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris,‭ ‬the painting features‭ ‬a darker tonality,‭ ‬a different and unfinished background framed by two columns,‭ ‬and‭ ‬shows a younger lady with a less enigmatic smile. Known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa,‭ ‬the artwork will be unveiled in Geneva on Thursday by the Mona Lisa Foundation,‭ ‬a Zurich‭-based consortium which has‭ ‬kept the painting in a Swiss bank vault for‭ ‬40‭ ‬years....

The Zurich-based Mona Lisa Foundation said today that it has evidence that a painting that first came to light in the late 1800s is an early "Mona Lisa" also done by Leonard Da Vinci. Known as the "Isleworth Mona Lisa," the painting is a "portrait of a young woman with an enigmatic smile" much like the famous work of art in The Louvre, as The Associated Press writes. The foundation, which was created for the specific purpose of researching the history of the "early Mona Lisa," says it believes the painting was created 11 or 12 years before the more...

MADRID—Spain’s Prado art museum said Wednesday it had discovered an unusual copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “La Gioconda,” painted by one of the master’s pupils at the same time that the original was being completed. The copy had been on display at the Madrid art museum for years without experts being aware of its importance. A routine restoration led experts to discover that the dark background behind the female figure popularly known as Mona Lisa had been added afterward and that it covered an Italian landscape similar to that in da Vinci’s original.

A New York artist believes he's "cracked the code" of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" painting. Ron Piccirillo stated on his blog that the painting is an optical illusion with one painting hidden within another. He refers to a "secret that has been hiding for five hundred years" as he claims to have found a lion's head, an ape head and a buffalo head in the painting while turning it around. "I had first Googled this, but could not find anything on it," he stated. "How could something like this have gone unnoticed for five hundred years?" The key to...

For centuries, people have been speculating about who modeled for Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." Was it Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant? Was it Isabella of Aragon? Was it the artist himself, as some experts believe? Or was it, as new research suggests, none of the above? An Italian art historian, Silvano Vinceti, believes the model for the "Mona Lisa" was a man named Gian Giacomo Caprotti, better known as Salai, a male apprentice (and possible lover) of da Vinci...

Queen’s University Classics professor emeritus Ross Kilpatrick believes the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, incorporates images inspired by the Roman poet Horace and Florentine poet Petrarch. The technique of taking a passage from literature and incorporating it into a work of art is known as ‘invention’ and was used by many Renaissance artists. “The composition of the Mona Lisa is striking. Why does Leonardo have an attractive woman sitting on a balcony, while in the background there is an entirely different world that is vast and barren?” says Dr. Kilpatrick. “What is the artist trying to say?”

BBC reports that Dr. Vito Franco from Palermo University believes that Mona Lisa has a build-up of fatty acids under the skin of her eyes. That is supposed to be a sign of high cholesterol. The news is so absurd I decided to join the fray and come up with few matching thoughts of nonsense.... There was no McDonald’s back in the 1507 when Lisa Del Gioconda posed for Leonardo. I wonder what Mona Lisa’s diet was back then. What we know for sure is that Mrs. Gioconda did not eat French fries because the potatoes were imported from the...

For centuries, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and her enigmatic smile have inspired as much speculation as admiration. Now she's ready to answer questions -- in Mandarin. A digital, interactive version of the renowned 16th century painting is one of 61 high-tech replicas breathing life into classical and ancient art works in the "World Classic Interactive Arts Exhibition" which opened in Beijing last week.

Words cannot describe how powerful this video is, just as its pedecessors have been. Live Action, as part of its Mona Lisa Project, have now visited Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana, Arizona, California, and Tennessee. The story remains the same: young teenage girl, pregnant by her much-older boyfriend seeks help at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Clinic ignores the story and instructs her on how to obtain an abortion, often by lying to a judge (to avoid parental consent) or by crossing state lines (to take advantage of more liberal abortion access laws). By doing so, these clinics are repeatedly violating...

German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the "Mona Lisa" in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait. ADVERTISEMENT Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the sixteenth-century painting. But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself. Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that...

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The "Mona Lisa" has long been shrouded in mystery, including one long-standing question about the famous lady: What happened to her eyebrows and eyelashes? Now, a French engineer and inventor says he's uncovered part of the enigma.

The woman behind Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting may be buried near a now derelict building in the heart of Florence, according to archival documents. The exact location of Mona Lisa's burial site, the convent of Sant'Orsola, was just a about 900 feet away from the house of the artist's father, according to the historian, Giuseppe Pallanti. "The mystery of Mona Lisa's identity is over. My study shows that she did exist indeed," Pallanti told Florence's daily La Nazione. he author of two books on the Mona Lisa, Pallanti has identified her as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the...

ROME - An expert on the “Mona Lisa” says he has ascertained with certainty that the symbol of feminine mystique died on July 15, 1542, and was buried at the convent in central Florence where she spent her final days. Giuseppe Pallanti found a death notice in the archives of a church in Florence that referred to “the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, deceased July 15, 1542, and buried at Sant’Orsola,” the Italian press reported Friday. Born Lisa Gherardini in May 1479, she is thought to have been the second wife of Del Giocondo, a wealthy silk merchant, with whom...

Researchers using three-dimensional technology to study the "Mona Lisa" say the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci's 16th century masterpiece was either pregnant or had recently given birth when she sat for the painting. ADVERTISEMENT That was one of many discoveries found by French and Canadian researchers during one of the most extensive physical examinations ever carried out on the artwork. "Thanks to laser scanning, we were able to uncover the very fine gauze veil Mona Lisa was wearing on her dress. This was something typical for either soon-to-be or new mothers at the time," Michel Menu, research director of...

An early copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, which has bright colours believed to reflect the original painting, will go on display in London for the first time since 1902. The original Mona Lisa painting hangs in the Louvre in Paris. (Canadian Press) The Dulwich Picture Gallery will exhibit a reproduction once owned by portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, who received it from the Duke of Leeds in 1790. ..... The reproduction is wider than the original, showing a pair of columns flanking the figure that are only hinted at in Leonardo's version. As well, the colours are much...

PARIS (Reuters) - Scientists are due to unveil some of the secrets behind Western art's most enigmatic smile this week, when they present the findings of the most extensive three dimensional scan ever undertaken on the Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci's 16th century masterpiece, perhaps the world's most famous painting, is considered a milestone in the art of portraiture and an icon of European culture. A comprehensive examination of the work, painted at some time around 1503-06, was undertaken in 2004, using special 3D technology developed by scientists from Canada's National Research Council (NRC). The scientists scanned the picture on...

After four centuries in which historians have debated the identity of the artist's subject - with theories ranging from his mother to a Florentine prostitute - new research has supported the claim first made in 1550: that she was Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant.

According to findings published in the New Scientist, a British journal, the exact breakdown of Mona Lisa's emotions, as captured by Leonardo da Vinci, were 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry. The enigma of Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa painting has been cracked with the help of emotion-recognition software from scientists at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The painting, which is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, was painted at some point between 1503 and 1506, according to art historians. After...

A FEMME fatale with a mocking, ironic smile, a man in drag, an expectant mother or simply a housewife trying to hide the appalling state of her teeth. The true meaning of Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile has haunted art lovers for years, but scientists now believe they have hit upon a breakthrough. Using a computer programme designed to reveal the emotions of a face, they have worked out that Leonardo da Vinci's muse was 83 per cent happy, 9 per cent disgusted, 6 per cent fearful and 2 per cent angry. The study, which was carried out by Professor Nicu...

PARIS: Four years and almost 5 million euros later, Leonard da Vinci's Mona Lisa has moved into spacious new digs at the Louvre Museum in Paris but her famous smile remains as enigmatic as ever. From Wednesday, visitors will find the 500-year-old painting in the Salle des Etats, a large gallery that served as a parliamentary debating chamber until 1870 and which has undergone a 4.8 million euro makeover since 2001. Peruvian architect Lorenzo Piqueras said he wanted to make it easier for six million annual visitors to find what is arguably the world's most celebrated smile, and to prevent...

The Mona Lisa (search), Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece of a mysterious woman with a slight smile, is deteriorating, and the Louvre Museum (search) said Monday it will conduct an in-depth technical study to determine why. The thin panel of poplar wood that the work is painted on has become deformed since conservation experts last evaluated the painting, the Louvre said in a written statement. It did not say when the last evaluation was. The Louvre said the condition of the Mona Lisa was causing "some worry" and that a new study on the state of the work has been launched....

Leonardo da Vinci, in a Renaissance version of Mad Magazine, may have painted his famous Mona Lisa in a number of ways, including nude. Now, a painting has surfaced that looks much like the original, sparking debate over just how far the master took his iconic painting. The newly revealed painting, hidden for almost a century within the wood wall of a private library, shows a portrait of a half-naked woman with clear links to the famous (and clothed) Mona Lisa. The work, which documents suggest was at least based on never-seen similar work by da Vinci, is now on...

Researchers have discovered the hidden laboratory used by Leonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence. The workshop rooms, located between the Institute for Military Geography and the Basilica, contain frescos painted by Leonardo that have "impressive resemblances" to other examples of his experimental work. The frescos include a triptych of birds circling above a subsequently erased representation of the Virgin Mary that "constitutes a clear citation of the studies by the maestro on the flight...

The Italian government in the state of Northern Lombardy has made a new law: no new mosques will be allowed to be built. According to the report: Milan, January 22 – A regional government commission in the northern Lombardy region on Thursday approved a bill that would limit the opening of new, non-Catholic places of worship. The so-called anti-mosque bill submitted by the regionalist, anti-immigrant and anti-euro Northern League party of Governor Roberto Maroni would also impose security cameras in places of worship. The bill has sparked opposition from the center left and from civil liberties advocates. The bill specifically...

The Head of Rome’s Jewish community and a television film crew made international headlines this week after finding themselves locked in Auschwitz and then interrogated by police after attempting to escape.

The Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice is the continuation of a Greek fraternity founded in 1498 The story began in 1498, a few decades after the fall of Constantinople, when the Greeks in Venice — la nazione greca (or the Greek nation) — gained permission from the Serene Republic to create a fraternity. Merchants and simple migrants from Western Greece, refugees from Constantinople, artists and others from Venetian-ruled Crete — all were Orthodox Christians who spoke Greek. The Most Serene Republic of Venice — the Serenissima — which ruled the Eastern Mediterranean, willingly offered them asylum; first,...

Victory! Something is changing. Some positive effects of the Charlie Hebdo atrocities are felt in Italy, with crackdown on the cult of Islam. First Massimo Bitonci, the mayor of the city of Padua, in the region of Venice (Veneto), Northern Italy, simply and clearly said: "No more mosques in Padua. The city council will not grant any more public space for the building of mosques and Islamic places of worship." Padua's councillor Marina Buffoni sent the city's police to Muslim meeting places, to confiscate posters and images of women in burka. She said: "These posters showed women completely covered...

The Italian government on Wednesday said police had seized more than 5,000 ancient artefacts in a record 45-million-euro haul after dismantling a Swiss-Italian trafficking ring. Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said it was the country's "largest discovery yet" of looted works and consisted of 5,361 pieces, including vases, jewellery, frescoes and bronze statues, all dating from the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The archaeological treasures came from illegal digs across Italy and "will be returned to where they were found", the minister told reporters. Police said the items were worth around 45 million euros ($52 million) and were...

talian oil group Eni has warned oil could shoot up to $200 a barrel if the Opec cartel fails to cut supplies. Eni's chief executive, Claudio Descalzi, said the oil industry would cut capital spending by 10-13% this year because of slumping prices. He said that would create longer-term shortages and sharp price rises in four to five years' time. Mr Descalzi was speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. He said: "Opec is like the central bank for oil which must give stability to the oil prices to be able to invest in a...

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Monday called for an anti-terror alliance with Arab countries to boost cooperation and information-sharing in the wake of deadly attacks and arrests across Europe. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday that "we need an alliance. We need to strengthen our way of cooperating together."...

BRUSSELS -- EU High Representative Federica Mogherini met here Monday Nabil Al-Araby, Secretary General of the Arab League and discussed how to increase counter-terrorism cooperation. Speaking to reporters before the meeting, she underlined that terrorism "is not an issue between the West and Islam, terrorist attacks are targeting most of all Muslims in the world so we need an alliance and a dialogue to face the issue together." "We also need to take full responsibility for what we do and say, I think respect is one of the core values of the EU, drawing the line between freedom and respect...

A man was kneeling in prayer before the statue of the revered Madonna, with the photograph of a loved one in hand, in the small chapel of St. Barnabas in Perugia (Italy), when he was attacked by five “immigrants.” The first thing they did was rip the photo from his hands. Next they unleashed their hatred against the image of the Virgin Mary. They broke the statue to pieces and then urinated on it. Don Scarda, pastor of St. Barnabas, said the event was led byfive “foreigners.” By the time police arrived at the chapel, the unidentified attackers had already fled. The...

Alleged spy seen in video calling Saddam 'our inspired leader' ILLINOIS -- Prosecutors say he spied on dissidents, reported to U.N. mission honeycombed with secret agents. By MIKE ROBINSON Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) -- Jurors watched a video Tuesday in which a man accused of spying on Iraqi dissidents for Saddam Hussein's intelligence service described the dictator as "our inspired leader" and spoke scornfully of "American colonial imperialism." "A light has illuminated our path and our procession toward the struggle and the liberation," Khaled Dumeisi said in describing Hussein at an April 2001 birthday party for the dictator at...

My Kingdom Economics are derived through "Thanksgiving"for it was in this manner the waters parted for Moses and the snakebites were of no consequence(I will lift my eyes to the hills) for as The Son Of God is lifted up doors open and miracles begin ! My endowment to Him( Jesus) is you( My children of Light ) and so it is as your love for Us is poured out ," Truly " it is returned flowing down upon your heads pressed down shaken together and flowing over into My very Will. So enter My Courts with Thanksgiving "YES" but...

Anita Ekberg, the Swedish-born actress who is best known for her role in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, has died at the age of 83. La Dolce Vita actress Anita Ekberg has died at the age of 83 +13 La Dolce Vita actress Anita Ekberg has died at the age of 83. The moment where her character Sylvia, wades through Rome's Trevi Fountain in nothing but a strapless black dress is remembered as one the most iconic scenes ever in a movie and one which turned her into a fully-fledged sex-symbol.

A monumental display of history outside of Redipuglia, Italy, is more than just a climb up Monte Sei Busi; it’s a bitter reminder of the Great War. The Military Sacrarium Redipuglia is about an hour’s drive from Aviano Air Base. Its grand steps symbolize the hard-fought battles soldiers endured during World War I to maintain control of the mountain’s summit. Inscribed on plaques are the names of places considered to be the worst battles fought. The military shrine, completed in 1938, is said to be the largest World War I shrine in Italy. Steps leading up the mountainside hug the...

Giorgio Nadali, a religion teacher in Milan who had taught for 26 years, published 9 books and contributed to several magazines, has been suspended from teaching the Catholic religion. His “crime” was to show his secondary school students the famous 30-minute documentary The Silent Scream (whose video you can see by clicking on the "Enza Ferreri Blog" link above) in Italian. The film was made in 1984 in the USA, narrated by obstetrician and gynecologist Bernard Nathanson, MD. It illustrates the abortion process via ultrasound and portrays an abortion taking place in the uterus. It's a vivid representation of a...

Excerpt - Federal prosecutors charged Raffaello Follieri, an Italian entrepreneur and former business partner of California billionaire Ron Burkle, with funding a lavish lifestyle by using money from a real-estate venture that was supposed to capitalize on his alleged Vatican ties to redevelop surplus Catholic Church properties. ~ snip ~ A criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan Tuesday alleged that Mr. Follieri stole hundreds of thousands of dollars of investor money to pay for a $37,000-a-month New York apartment where he lived for a time with Ms. Hathaway; private jet travel; expensive restaurants and clothes; medical expenses,...

Francis ‘Urbi et Orbi’ Pro-Life Words Censored by Translator According to a source at Priests for Life: Something I wanted to bring to your attention is the address that Pope Francis gave on Christmas day at noon during his “Urbi et Orbi� (to the city and to the world) blessing. He mentioned the babies in the womb, and his exact words in that section of his address were as follows: “The Child Jesus. My thoughts turn to all those children today who are killed and ill-treated, be they infants killed in the womb, deprived of that generous love of their...