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Over the centuries, they’ve been scorned, persecuted and marginalized. But it was an example of modern-day disdain towards redheads that prompted an Italian photographer’s mission to safeguard their diversity, The Local has learned. Let’s face it, redheads get a tough time, especially in the early years of their life. I should know, because I am one. But more on that later. Marina Rosso, a 29-year-old fine art photographer and researcher from Udine, is not a redhead as the English translation of her surname might suggest. But after hearing in 2011 that flame-haired men were being rejected from the world’s largest...

Abortion may be legal in Catholic Italy but more and more doctors are refusing to terminate pregnancies, with many women now having to resort to procedures carried out in secret, The Local's Angela Giuffrida discovers. Ever since a Benito Mussolini-era ban on abortions as a “crime against the purity of the Italian race” was wiped out in 1978, thanks to a group of determined women, including the former foreign minister Emma Bonino, women in Italy are, by law, entitled to terminate a pregnancy within the first three months. After 90 days, abortions are only allowed if the foetus is badly...

The Pope's visit to the church is likely to be 'extremely quick' (CNS) Pope Francis will pay a brief “private visit” to the Italian church of a Pentecostal pastor he knew from Argentina, a Vatican spokesman has said.The visit to the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation in Caserta, about 130 miles south of Rome, “is under study and likely would take place July 26″, said Fr Federico Lombardi.Fr Lombardi said the Pope knew the church’s pastor, Giovanni Traettino, from Buenos Aires, where the Pentecostal pastor participated in ecumenical events with Catholics, especially Catholics belonging to the charismatic renewal movement. The then-Cardinal...

Twelve EU countries have warned investors not to do business with Israeli settler entities, amid a security crisis in Israel and Palestine. The group includes: Austria; Belgium; Croatia; Denmark; Finland; Greece; Ireland; Luxembourg; Malta; Portugal; Slovakia; and Slovenia. Portugal published its statement on Wednesday (2 July) and the others came out on Thursday. France, Italy, and Spain put out similar communiques earlier this week. Germany and the UK already did it months ago. Poland is expected to publish a warning shortly. The Irish foreign ministry said the action “has been coordinated at EU level”. …

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria launched naval manoeuvres in the Black Sea on Friday with six other NATO countries including the United States, in the latest demonstration of the alliance's resolve to support its eastern European members in light of the Ukraine crisis. Bulgaria's defence ministry said the 10-day war games, dubbed BREEZE 2014, were designed to boost NATO solidarity and regional readiness, though it added they had been scheduled before Russia annexed Ukraine's Black Sea region of Crimea in March. Vessels from Bulgaria and its Black Sea neighbours Romania and Turkey and also from Greece, Italy, Britain and the United...

This is the fourth and final part of the article by Italian journalist Alessandra Nucci. Here are the first three parts: The Looting of ItalyHow the EU and the Left Ruined ItalyEU-Imposed Immigration Is Destroying Italy's EconomyAlso read Italy Invented Banks by Enza Ferreri ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Attack Begins In Earnest2011 is when they began in earnest to train their guns on us, with the military aggression that started with the Nato attack on Libya culminating in half-truths calculated to stampede investors away from Italy in the direction of presumably safe bonds. And what bonds can be safer than Germany’s?...

This is the third part of the article by Italian journalist Alessandra Nucci. Here are the first two parts: The Looting of ItalyHow the EU and the Left Ruined Italy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Never-ending Flow of Illegal Immigrants Overburdens Italian WelfareVery little is ever said about the immigration load, which together with bureaucracy is largely responsible for the burgeoning debt. It is routinely downplayed, while Italy gets lectured to for supposedly not living up to impossible standards that are provably not expected of any other country. The Italian Coastguard and Carabinieri have saved countless lives and generous Italian welfare, including...

Milan - Again the Catholic Church has been a target of sacrilege. The scene of the crime was the Holy Cross Church of San Giorgio su Legnano, in Lombardy. Unknown vandals broke the tabernacle and threw the consecrated Hosts on the floor and smeared it with human excrement, with which they also defiled the altar. The statue of Our Lady of Sorrows they blackened with the soot of candles and hot wax was poured over her head. The face of suffering Jesus and the large cross was blackened, which is venerated in the church, and gave it its name. The...

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of the 'Islamic State' stretching across Iraq and Syria, has vowed to lead the conquest of Rome as he called on Muslims to immigrate to his new land to fight under its banner around the globe.

This is the second part of the article "The Looting of Italy" by Italian journalist Alessandra Nucci. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How the Looting WorksI will venture to suggest that there must be a blue-print out there on how to manage a country after a revolutionary takeover, such as what has been done to Italy (and to Venezuela? Cuba? China? Russia?) I would say that basically, after A) overwhelming the system (the Cloward-Piven strategy), the revolutionary leader will aim at B) impoverishing the middle class in order to prevent its every chance of rebelling. This can be done in various ways, which...

This is an article that was written and sent to me by Alessandra Nucci, an Italian journalist and friend. It describes what the European Union has done to Italy. Since it's a very long article, I've broken it down in 4 parts. Here is the first part. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How would you feel if for years you had been picking up shipwrecked penniless migrants from Africa, dumped by criminal agents all over the Mediterranean, ferrying them to your shores and taking them in by the thousands, only to see yourself made the butt of sarcasm, reproaches and even pecuniary fines...

The president of a court in southern Italy has become so aghast at people parading around the palace of justice "dressed indecently" that he has banned skimpy summer wear. In an official letter sent to the security team at the Brindisi court, President Francesco Giardino laments the “unpleasant situations” that have arisen as high temperatures has given way to plunging necklines and rising hems. “To avoid a repeat of unpleasant situations at the entrance of the court, we inform you that entrance will not be permitted to people dressed indecently,” Giardino wrote in the letter, published on Monday by Ansa....

There were fewer than 200,000 weddings in Italy last year, the lowest level since records began, national statistics agency Istat said on Thursday. There were 197,091 marriages in Italy last year, amounting to 3.3 per thousand and “the lowest ever documented in Italian history”m according to Istat. The figure fell by around 10,000 on the previous year - to 207,138 - and was far from the 246,611 happy couples tying the knot in 2008. Marriage was still, however, proving popular in southern Italy, with a rate of 3.9 per thousand compared to 2.9 in the north. Wedding vows were at...

The first gay marriage will be registered in Naples on Monday after the city’s mayor made it obligatory for his administration to record the marriages of same-sex couples who wed abroad. Roberto, from Naples, and Manuel, a Spaniard, will register their marriage at the city council on Monday after attending Naples Gay Pride this weekend, La Repubblica reported. Two other couples are preparing to register their marriages after the controversial measure was introduced by mayor Luigi De Magistris earlier this month. De Magistris said the move not only had a symbolic value, but also a legal one, and that it...

A gang threw excrement at the office of a gay organization in Rome, while shouting death threats against people inside, Italian media reported on Friday. \Di Gay Project (DGP) in southern Rome was attacked on Wednesday night, with the crime being reported to police on Friday, Corriere della Sera said. A mob threw excrement and other items, such as wooden boxes and vegetables, at the organization’s office, as people were rehearsing a theatre performance inside. Members of the gang, estimated to be aged between 15 and 40, also shouted threats such as “We’ll set you alight” and “you deserve to...

It’s a scene straight out of fiction. Refugees from North Africa, packed like sardines in small boats are streaming in droves across the Med to Italy. “According to Italian interior ministry figures given to the Guardian, 59,880 migrants and refugees have landed on the country’s coast this year – almost as many as in the whole of 2011, which holds the record. The situation is unprecedented. Sicily, which has received more than 53,000 of the new arrivals, is bearing the brunt and struggling to cope. And summer – historically the peak time for boat landings – has only just begun.”...

Pope Francis has declared a sort of holy war on the Mafia. And it's not unreasonable to believe that the Mafia may fight back. On Saturday, the pope traveled to Calabria, the heartland of one of Italy's biggest organized crime enterprises, the 'Ndrangheta, and, in front of a crowd of more than 100,000, blasted the 'Ndrangheta as example of "the adoration of evil and contempt of the common good." Then he dropped the hammer: Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated. [Pope Francis] This is...

Estonian researchers believe they may have finally discovered the whereabouts of “Dracula’s” grave, which is in Italy and not the Romanian Transylvanian Alps as first thought. The inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel “Dracula” is thought to be Vlad III, the 15th century Prince of Wallachia in Eastern Europe. Known posthumously as Vlad the Impaler, the ruler was known for his brand of cruelty across Europe, which included impaling his enemies. Vlad’s ultimate enemy were the Ottomans. Depictions of his endless cruelty made history books, securing his reputation as one of the biggest villains in Turkey’s collective consciousness, as...

The Italian unit of the frozen food company, Findus, has produced what is thought to be the first TV commercial in Italy that touches on the subject of homosexuality. Thousands join Rome's Gay Pride march (08 Jun 14) Ten months after the chairman of the Italian pasta giant, Barilla, said during an interview that the company would never feature gay people in its adverts, Findus Italia has produced a commercial in which a man is seen “coming out” to his mother over a meal. The advert below features Luca, who hosts a dinner party for his mum at the home...

“Num nums!” Perhaps surprisingly, Antonio Cassano has never played a single minute of World Cup football, with his inclusion in Italy’s 2014 squad being the Parma striker’s first ever call-up to an Azzurri World Cup squad. Now aged 31, Cassano has admitted that he thought his chance to appear at a World Cup had passed, but thanks to a serious show of dedication he was able to persuade coach Cesare Prandelli that he was worth taking to Brazil – largely due to him scoring 12 goals and dropping 10kg over the course of the 2013/14 season. As a reward for...