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Italian authorities said a woman who collected a state disability pension by claiming she was a complete invalid was caught jogging with her dog. Police in the city of Monteforte Irpino said the 62-year-old woman was being monitored by police for some time before her arrest July 29. She had been repeatedly seen jogging with her dog and tilling land on her farm, ANSA reported Wednesday. The woman, who had received a state disability pension as well as state support for a personal caregiver, was charged with fraud.

ROME, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When the Italian drug agency approved the sale of the deadly abortion drug RU 486 late Thursday night, senior Vatican officials responded strongly saying that doctors who prescribe it and the women who take it risk excommunication. The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) said the drug, to be sold under the brand name Mifegyne, would not be sold in pharmacies and only be administered by physicians in hospitals. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, a bioethics professor, author and former vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) told Corriere della Sera newspaper, "This is a compound which...

Silvio Berlusconi has been a busy man of late. Aside from hosting the recent G8 summit - and trying to hose down yet more revelations about his personal indiscretions - he's also ushered in a tough new immigration policy. For years we've seen thousands of North African boat people risking their lives to land in Italy, just part of the country's estimated 1 million illegal immigrants. As Amos Roberts reports, the 'Italian Solution' to this complex problem is creating international controversy. REPORTER: Amos Roberts The hunt is on. A group of Italian citizens patrol a neighbourhood in the city of...

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's drug regulation agency has authorized the use of the abortion pill despite protests from the Roman Catholic church which threatens to excommunicate doctors who prescribe the drug and patients who use it. (snip) QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE The Vatican, which opposes all forms of abortion in the belief that human life is sacred from the point of conception, says the pill is no different from surgical abortion. "There will be excommunication for the doctor, the woman and anyone who encourages its use," said Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, emeritus president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the pope's...

The transsexual man who attacked a priest at St. Babila in Milan Milan, Italy, Jul 29, 2009 / 04:12 pm (CNA).- Police in Milan detained a Brazilian transsexual on Sunday after he stripped naked in front of the altar during Mass and began to attack the priest who was presiding over the Mass. The incident occurred at the Church of St. Babila at the 8:30am Mass on Sunday. According to ANSA news agency, the subject entered the church and approached the altar, where he stripped naked. “Afterwards he took a pole used by the sacristan to close doors and approached the celebrating...

Pope Benedict XVI confirmed his intention to visit the Shroud of Turin when it goes on public display in Turin's cathedral April 10-May 23, 2010. Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin, papal custodian of the Shroud of Turin, visited the pope July 26 in Les Combes, Italy, where the pope was spending part of his vacation. The Alpine village is about 85 miles from Turin. The cardinal gave the pope the latest news concerning preparations for next year's public exposition of the shroud and the pope "confirmed his intention to go to Turin for the occasion," said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit...

ITALY’S flame-haired tourism minister, Michela Brambilla, has announced a campaign to stop her fellow countrymen ripping off holidaymakers after a Japanese couple were charged nearly €700 (£605, or $992) for a seafood lunch in a historic restaurant in Rome. The worldwide headlines that the exorbitant bill attracted could not have come at a worse time for the Italian tourist trade, already suffering from a drop in foreign visitors because of the economic downturn and swine flu. The Japanese tourists – a 35-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman – complained to police last month after they were made to pay the...

24 HOURS after Italy's PM made light of allegations about encounters with a prostitute, sensational new audio tapes and transcripts were released purportedly recorded while they were having sex. In the third series of tapes and transcripts to be published by the left-leaning weekly L’Espresso this week, the escort Patrizia D’Addario is recorded apparently telling Silvio Berlusconi that it is several months since she had sex and that a younger man would have already had an orgasm "by now". Mr Berlusconi is then recorded purportedly telling Ms D’Addario that "you should have sex with yourself, you should touch yourself often".

On June 29th the Treasury on Via XX Settembre tried to throw a net around the Gold Bullion stored beneath Rome's Palazzo Koch. It stands at 2,451.8 tonnes – the third largest central bank hoard in the world. And there it's stood – unchanged at 2,451.8 tonnes – for the last 11 years or more. That makes Italy the only Eurozone nation not to sell any of its gold reserves since 1998. It's also the only signatory to the Central Bank Gold Agreements of 1999 and 2004 not to sell any gold either. Which makes you wonder why it bothered...

Under-fire Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has tried to laugh off the increasingly sordid sex scandal enveloping him, joking that he was "no saint". It was his first public comment since a magazine released what it said were conversations between him and a prostitute. Mr Berlusconi has been entangled in scandal for months over his alleged encounters with young women. But the controversy took on new life this week when L'Espresso magazine released tapes of the purported conversations at the conservative premier's Rome residence. "I'm no saint, by now you've figured that out," a smiling Mr Berlusconi told an audience of...

Tributes are left for those killed in the hotel attacks Indonesian officials say there are "strong indications" a key wanted fugitive was behind Friday's deadly attacks on two hotels in Jakarta. Noordin Mohamed Top is wanted for plotting the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005 and other Indonesian attacks. Nine people, including two suicide bombers, died in the attacks on the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott. At least four of Friday's victims are said to be foreigners but have not all been formally identified. See map of area Police in the Indonesian capital are studying DNA and other evidence to...

`Italian Police Confiscated NK Leader`s 2 Yachts` JULY 20, 2009 03:16 Italian police have reportedly seized two luxury yachts that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered from an Italian shipbuilder. The Italian daily Libero said Friday that European financial authorities also confiscated in early April millions of dollars in deposits for the yachts as a possible violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, which was passed in 2006 to ban exports of luxury goods to North Korea. Libero said police confiscated the yachts in Viareggio, a city near northern Tuscany, Italy, for breaching the luxury goods provisions of the...

Rome, Italy, Jul 17, 2009 / 01:27 pm (CNA).- The Italian parliament approved a motion Thursday obliging that country’s government to sponsor a resolution before the United Nations that would condemn the use of abortion as a method of population control. The resolution also reiterates the right of every woman not to be forced to undergo an abortion. The measure is being backed by lawmakers from various parties, including some members of Italy’s left-wing Democratic Party. The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino, said he was “excited” about the news. “I hope now that...

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1946360420090619 Fri Jun 19, 2009 By David Lawder WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - A purported $134 billion in U.S. government bearer bond certificates seized by police near the Italian-Swiss border are fake, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday. "Based on the photograph we've seen online, they are clearly fake. And not even good fakes," said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the Treasury's Bureau of the Public Debt. He added that there is only $105 million in Treasury bearer bond securities outstanding, so the $134 billion amount seized far exceeds the universe of outstanding securites. The Treasury's determination confirmed the suspicions...

The traditional throwing of a bride's bouquet for luck ended in disaster at an Italian wedding when the flowers caused a plane to crash. The bride and groom had hired a microlight plane to fly past and throw the bouquet to a line of women guests, Corriere della Sera reported. However, the flowers were sucked into the plane's engine causing it to catch fire and explode. The aircraft plunged into a hostel. One passenger on the plane was badly hurt. But about 50 people who had been in the hostel escaped unscathed, as did the pilot.

PALERMO, Italy -- It's a balmy morning in the Sicilian capital, and a dozen African men are lounging in the shade at the Missione di Speranza e Carita, a Church-run shelter that's home to more than 500 immigrants. Though they are all recent arrivals to Italy, only some of the men have proper documents. They are waiting to speak with Brother Dario, a Catholic Friar and mission administrator, for help in finding employment. In addition to meals and a bed, the shelter provides vocational training to as many of its residents as it can handle. These days, however, accommodating new...

President Barack Obama sat down with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday for frank but constructive talks between two men who agree on helping the poor but disagree on abortion and stem cell research. "It's a great honor," Obama said, greeting the pope and thanking him for this first meeting, which lasted 30 minutes. They sat down at the pontiff's desk in the Papal Library and exchanged pleasantries before the media were ushered out of the ornate room. The pope was heard asking about the Group of Eight summit, the meeting of developed nations that concluded before Obama...

Image misleadingly seems to show the president admiring a woman's backside. However, it seems Sarkozy is checking out the young girl.

G8 summit: Sarah Brown and Michelle Obama visit L'Aquila... but no sign of Carla Bruni The visit of the leaders' wives was supposed to be the highlight of the G8 summit for the people of L'Aquila. Nick Squires 09 Jul 2009. Sarah Brown and Michelle Obama see the earthquake damage caused to the town of L'Aquila during the G8 Summit in Italy Photo: PA But as Sarah Brown and Michelle Obama arrived to tour round historic buildings damaged in this year's earthquake, the question on everyone's lips was about the wife that wasn't there. As the British and US first...

Following up on my previous post on POTUS copping a look at a woman's derriere, here is a closeup of the woman's face - from the Junior G8 group picture: Click here for the full pic.

US First Lady Michelle Obama walks past a statue during her visit to the Capitoline museum on July 8, 2009 in Rome. The visit, attended by several First Ladies was organized on the sidelines of a G8 summit in L'Aquila.

L'AQUILA, Italy — The Secret Service is confident it can get President Barack Obama out of harm's way if there is any earthquake aftershock large enough to threaten safety at a summit meeting in Italy, a top aide said Wednesday. “They wouldn't let us do anything that put anybody in danger,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said as Air Force One flew to Italy from Russia. “And obviously there's plenty of planning, plenty of planning on what to do if by chance something were to happen.” After a stop in Rome, Obama was heading about 50 miles East to...

Obama praises Italy's 'great' leader as a man of integrity — but it's not Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi escorts the President ... Image :1 of 3 Richard Owen, L'Aquila Many Italians will no doubt be pleased that when President Obama arrived in Italy today for his first G8 summit, he immediately launched into lavish praise of the nation’s “great leader”. This eminent figure had “the admiration of the Italian people”, Mr Obama said, not only because of his long public service but also for his “integrity and his graciousness". “I just want to confirm that everything I have heard about him...

CHINA'S President Hu Jintao has abandoned plans to attend a G8 summit in Italy, returning home early to deal with ethnic violence in the north-western region of Xinjiang that has left at least 156 dead in China's . The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website that Mr Hu had left for China "due to the situation" in energy-rich Xinjiang, which borders central Asia, where 156 people have been killed, 1080 injured and 1434 arrested in unrest between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs since Sunday. Late yesterday, mobs of Han Chinese wielding clubs, metal bars, cleavers and axes had melted...

Faced with the thorny problem of having no "First Lady" to look after the G8 leaders' spouses on their three day trip to Italy, Silvio Berlusconi has come up with a solution in keeping with his reputation. The Italian prime minister has asked a former topless model turned government minister to stand in for his estranged wife. The 72-year-old premier has chosen Mara Carfagna – now Italy's equal opportunities minister – to take care of the likes of Michelle Obama Formr model Mara Carfagna will take care of the likes of Michelle Obama and Sarah Brown Miss Carfagna, 33, is...

The current population of Tuscany is not descended from the Etruscans, the people that lived in the region during the Bronze Age, a new Italian study has shown. Researchers at the universities of Florence, Ferrara, Pisa, Venice and Parma discovered the genealogical discontinuity by testing samples of mitochondrial DNA from remains of Etruscans and people who lived in the Middle Ages (between the 10th and 15th centuries) as well as from people living in the region today. While there was a clear genetic link between Medieval Tuscans and the current population, the relationship between modern Tuscans and their Bronze Age...

Ex-Topless Model To Host Leaders’ Partners At Berlusconi’s Summit By NICK PISA 04th July 2009 Not topless now: Mara Carfagna, Italy's Equal Opportunities Minister [Pic in URL] Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has solved the problem of not having a First Lady by his side for this week’s G8 Summit – a former topless model turned minister will look after the spouses of world leaders. Dark-haired former calendar girl Mara Carfagna, – now Italy’s Equal Opportunities Minister – will guide the partners of the prime ministers and presidents at the conference. The idea might put a smile on the face of...

Captive soldier Gilad Shalit was made an honorary citizen of Rome on Wednesday. Gilad's father, Noam Shalit, accepted the honor in his stead at a ceremony at city hall as part of a campaign led by the mayors of both Rome and Paris. Earlier in the day Shalit held a series of meetings with Italian officials, including Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and the presidents of the parliament and senate. The main event was held at Julius Caesar Hall on Rome's Capitoline Hill. Mayor Gianni Alemanno told those assembled of his ties to the Shalit family and to Israel. He met...

VICENZA, Italy, July 1, 2009 – Even as Army Staff Sgt. Conrad Begaye relived the firefight that took the lives of his fellow soldiers, and even as he was awarded the military’s third-highest honor for valor yesterday, his thoughts were on his comrades. Army Staff Sgt. Conrad Begaye stands before fellow soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, during a ceremony in Vicenza, Italy, June 30, 2009. Begaye was awarded the Silver Star for his valorous actions during an enemy ambush Nov. 9, 2007, in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Joseph Sanfilippo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

Milan (AsiaNews) – Four weeks have passed since American bonds were confiscated from two Japanese who were travelling on a direct train to Chiasso, Switzerland, and while there has been clarification of some points, very few, Italian authorities have remained silent on the rest of the episode. In addition, a strange coincidence in the timing of the arrest of a director of an internet radio who had made revelations regarding the incident increases the already strong oddities surrounding the case. This added to the revaluation of the fact that among the evidence seized there were "Kennedy Bond" all points toward...

Several people were killed and others injured when a train carrying gas canisters exploded in northern Italy, local media has reported. The incident happened in the coastal town of Viareggio. State television said the train derailed before the explosion. At least 40 people were injured, Ansa news agency reported.

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., June 29, 2009 – It was enough to make even the calmest airline passengers nervous: an irate man pacing the aisles of a commercial flight shouting, “I want to slit the captain’s throat!” Col. Thomas Kauth, Logistics Assessment Branch chief, presents Senior Airman Nicholas Barker, 436th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, a certificate of appreciation for his excellence during Dover Air Force Base’s Logistics Standardization and Evaluation Program inspection. Two months later, Barker showed his excellence again by subduing an irate man on an international commercial flight. U.S. Air Force photo by Tom Randle  (Click photo...

Ever since two middle-aged men with Japanese passports were caught in Italy this month trying to smuggle a purported $134.5 billion in United States government bearer bonds into Switzerland, the Internet has been abuzz with theories. Was the Japanese government, or some other creditor nation, secretly trying to dump Treasury bonds to drive down the value of the dollar? Had the Italian mafia stolen the equivalent of 1 percent of the American gross domestic product, using the paper, which supposedly was instantly convertible into cash, to run a giant scam? Adding spice was the whole Bond — James Bond —...

...Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied on Saturday an Israeli newspaper report that he had described US President Barack Obama as being "weak" on Iran during a meeting with Israel's prime minister (Netanyahu) in Rome.

The White House announced a new wave of nominees Thursday afternoon, including the appointment of David Thorne, a longtime ... ... associate and former brother-in-law of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), to serve as ambassador to San Marino. The list of selections: - William Eacho, Ambassador, Republic of Austria - Judith G. Garber, Ambassador, Republic of Latvia - David Killion, rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) - James Knight, Ambassador, Republic of Benin - Karen Kornbluh, Permanent Representative of the U.S. to OECD -...

Italian female academics banded together on Thursday to urge first ladies of the world's richest countries to boycott next month's G8 meeting in protest at what they called Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sexist behaviour. The appeal, written by four professors in social psychology, has attracted 6,500 signatures, according to one website, and is the latest fallout from media reports saying Berlusconi slept with a female escort who was paid to attend his parties. "We are not referring just to the personal facts affecting the prime minister ... but also to the system for hiring public officials, sexist behaviour and sexist...

Embattled Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday he has never paid a woman for sex, the subject of an embarrassing investigation under way in southern Italy. "I have never paid a woman," Berlusconi said in an interview to appear Wednesday. "I have never seen the satisfaction that there could be in it without the pleasure of conquest," he told the celebrity weekly Chi. The 72-year-old billionaire is embroiled in a host of scandals from his links to an aspiring teen model to a messy divorce. A call girl, Patrizia D'Addario, told the leading daily Corriere della Sera last...

Silvio Berlusconi enjoyed a resounding victory in provincial elections after Italians overlooked the allegations of sleaze swirling around the Italian prime minister. The prime minister also faced down accusations that he slept with a prostitute at his mansion in Rome, one of the many embarrassing claims about his private life to have emerged. PM Berlusconi and wife The scandal took a further twist on Tuesday when a transsexual television presenter claimed to have acted as a "talent scout" for young women who were subsequently invited to Mr Berlusconi's parties. But Mr Berlusconi hit back. "I've never paid for a woman,"...

SNIPPET: "My own take on why this site is a problem: information does not magically keep itself online, particularly not promotional, inspirational, and ideological material related to the global jihad. Rather, small groups of individuals work very hard to maintain both online and offline archives of such materials, and to make sure that their community knows where to go to get it. Degrade this network's capacity to tend to their (self) appointed task, and the rest will follow."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI will welcome U.S. President Barack Obama to the Vatican July 10 for an audience scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Obama will visit Italy July 8-10 to participate in the Group of Eight summit, a meeting of leaders of the world's wealthiest nations. The meeting will be held in L'Aquila, site of a devastating earthquake in April. After the G-8 summit, the president and his wife, Michelle, are scheduled to fly to Ghana, arriving late July 10. Although Pope Benedict usually meets heads of state and government in the morning, the Vatican agreed...

Rough translation by a softwareIn suitcase 134 billion fake bond: mystery on two Asian stopped at Chiasso ROME (22 June) - Remains fixed the mystery on two Asian pecked past June 4 to Chiasso from the revenue Officer while wanted to enter in Switzerland with in suitcase fake U.S. bonds of the value of 134 miiardi of dollars (about 100 billion euro), more or except for the gross domestic product of the New Zealand. The U.S. Treasury had not doubtful: the titles of U.S. credit for a nominal value of 134 billion dollars - 249 bond of the Federal Reserve...

One summer afternoon, two “Japanese” men in their 50s on a slow train from Italy to Switzerland said they had nothing to declare at the frontier point of Chiasso. But in a false bottom of one of their suitcases, Italian customs officers and ministry of finance police discovered a staggering $134bn (€97bn, £82bn) in US Treasury bills.

ROME — Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities. According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that...

A showgirl who claims that she and other women were paid to attend Silvio Berlusconi’s private parties said yesterday that she had pictures showing her with the Italian Prime Minister in his bedroom. Patrizia D’Addario, a former model and escort girl, said that she had given prosecutors audio tapes but also had secretly recorded video footage of her encounters in the Prime Minister’s Rome residence. Ms D’Addario, 42, who was yesterday described by a senior government figure as a high-class prostitute, said that the footage showed her standing in front of a mirror. A bedroom with a framed photograph of...

Today’s Notes reads more like a John le Carre novel than an investment newsletter. But bear with us. It tracks one of the most fascinating news stories you’ve never heard of. The news reports are maddeningly sketchy. And the mainstream media is doing a damn good job of not reporting the story. But it’s clear the arrests by Italian authorities of two “Japanese-looking” men allegedly attempting to smuggle $134.5 billion worth of US bearer bonds across the Swiss border is the biggest financial crime in history. And one with major implications for America’s economic security. For those of you who...

Check out the article on Drudge. There's a bloomberg story (can't post it due to rules) saying two men had a suitcase filled with 134 billion in US government bonds they were taking out of Italy. That would make them the fourth largest creditors of the US govt, and it's a big problem if they are real . . . or if they are fake.

According to Japan Today, two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities. According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false...

It just gets more and more odd after my original report, with the latest coming from a German newspaper (translation courtesy of Google): Hit for the Zöllner: The contraband securities valued at 134 billion U.S. dollars are apparently real. Die italienische Finanzpolizei hatte zwei Japaner ertappt, die im doppelten Boden eines Koffers milliardenschwere Anleihen in die Schweiz schaffen wollten. The Italian financial police had two Japanese caught in the false bottom suitcase billion-dollar bonds in Switzerland wanted to create. Von dem Fund profitiert das hochverschuldete Italien. Note that this has received very little coverage in the so-called "mainstream US media"...

So far as I can tell the only Bloomberg among all US MSM have published any news reports on the $135 billion of US bearer bonds being smuggled by two Japanese businessmen from Italy into Switzerland. This story has raised many interesting and important questions, to which there have been no answers yet. But there is another interesting and important question I haven't seen discussed. Why, when major European and Japanese media have reported it, have none of the US MSM done so? I can think of only two reasons: 1) the story is now known to be only an...

Bloomberg can't be excerpted. The link is below. Good roundup of what is known about this very interesting and very murky situation.