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Mauritania government has increased security for tourists in the country following the abductions last week of two Italian tourists near the border with Mali. Sergio Cicala and his wife Philomene Kabouree were kidnapped in an area of Mauritania where armed groups with links to Al-Qaeda are known to operate, diplomats said. There are suspicions the couple may have been smuggled into neighbouring Mali. "After these new kidnappings, it has been decided to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the personal security of foreigners in our country," the government said, quoted on Monday by pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi. It was the...

The first blow has been struck against the encroaching tyranny of the European Union and it is a significant one. In fact, one member state has defiantly drawn a line in the sand and signalled that it will not tolerate erosion of its sovereignty. Although it attracted little attention when it was published last month, now that commentators have had an opportunity to analyse Sentenza N. 311 by the Italian Constitutional Court, its monumental significance in rolling back the Lisbon Treaty is now being appreciated. (Hat tip, as they say, to Dr Piero Tozzi.) The Constitutional Court ruled baldly that,...

While Silvio Berlusconi recovers in a Milan hospital, his ordeal has whipped up a storm of outrage across Italy. The prime minister has suffered months of attacks in the media over his private life. His supporters say his critics have now gone too far. “Our prime minister has been subjected to an act of physical violence which follows months of verbal, written and televised attacks on him, said politician Fabrizio Cicchitto, a Berlusconi supporter.”

December 14, 2009 Berlusconi Hit In The Face With A Model Of Milan's Cathedral [Pic in URL] Silvio Berlusconi is taken to hospital after being hit in the face with a model of Milan's cathedral IMAGE :1 of 5 Josephine McKenna and Richard Owen in Rome The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was struck in the face yesterday by a man holding a small replica of Milan's cathedral, leaving him with two broken teeth and forcing him to spend the night in hospital. Witnesses said Mr Berlusconi was attacked after a political rally in the centre of Milan, as he...

Berlusconi Bloodied By Hurled Statuette Italian PM suffers broken nose, 2 broken teeth after attack at rally in Milan STRINGER/ITALY / Reuters Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi leaves Milan's Duomo Square with blood on his face after being attacked at a political rally on Sunday. View related photos Video [Bloody Video] Berlusconi's face bloodied Dec. 13: An attacker hurls a statuette at Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, striking the leader in the face. Watch the raw video. Dec. 13: An attacker hurls a statuette at Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, striking the leader in the face. Watch the raw video. ROME -...

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was punched in the face at the end of a rally in Milan on Sunday, new reports said. The attack occurred as the 73-year-old Berlusconi was signing autographs near his car, state TV said. TV showed the stunned leader with blood under his nose and on his mouth as he was lifted to his feet by aides. Berlusconi was hustled into the back of a car by the aides, but he immediately got out, apparently in an effort to show he was not badly injured. After looking

Berlusconi 'Suffers Blow To Face' Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has reportedly been struck in the face after leaving a meeting in Milan. He was reportedly left bleeding from the mouth. It was not clear whether the injury was caused by a punch or an object thrown by a protester.

Raffaele Sollecito has insisted his former girlfriend Amanda Knox is 'sweet' and not a killer, in his first interview from prison since being convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher. Speaking through his lawyer Luca Maori, Sollecito told the newspaper Il Messaggero: "Amanda is a very dear person to me even if we were only together for a short while. "She is also living a nightmare - we both find ourselves in a tremendous situation. I am not in love with Amanda but I feel close to her as she is my companion in a misadventure. "Amanda is not capable of killing...

The American liberal mainstream media, ordinarily lauding European culture, has been in overdrive trying to discredit the guilty verdict of Amanda Knox, a Seattle college convicted, by an Italian court, of murdering her British roommate in Perugia, Italy. They present the defense case in detail with only a cursory rendering of the prosecution's case - and then only in a negative light. However, it is not only the liberal mainstream media defending the convicted killer. Conservative media icon Fox News Channel has entered the fray. The December 7 edition of the Bill O’Reilly show featured Peter Van Sant, a CBS...

A proposal in the Italian Senate would recognize the rights of the unborn, affirming that every human being has juridical capacity from the moment of conception. The bill was drafted by Carlo Casini, president of the Pro-Life Movement and Member of the European Parliament, and backed by leaders of the Italian Parliament: Maurizio Gasparri, Gaetano Quagliarello and Laura Bianconi. The measure was presented last Thursday. During the press conference to present the bill, Gasparri explained that it is not an attempt to rewrite Italy's current abortion law, but to keep it within its original intentions. He said the bill would...

With an international conference of philosophers, scientists, and artists, all aimed at putting God back at the center of a culture that denies him. And meanwhile, Benedict XVI teaches that God reveals himself not to the learned, but to the "little ones" ROME, December 7, 2009 – Halfway through the season of Advent, an international event is being held in Rome that has at its center that God "who has come, who is coming, and who is to come." The event is organized by the Italian bishops' conference, more precisely by the committee for the cultural project headed by Cardinal...

Once Praised, Liberals Turn Against European Justice Hillary Clinton says she will confer with Sen. Maria Cantwell,(D- Wash.) about the conviction of American student Amanda Knox, of Seattle, for the murder of her roommate in Perugia, Italy. Cantwell believes the Italian justice system to be substandard. Her ignorance of Italian criminal justice - and that of the American media, incapable of accurately reporting it - is most revealing....

When Amanda Knox returned to the female wing of prison at Capanne, outside Perugia, after her guilty verdict she was comforted by her three cellmates — a Roma woman, a Chinese woman and a woman from Kosovo — who gave her warm milk and biscuits. According to Luciano Ghirga, her lawyer, “they have facilities to cook together in the cell and watch TV”. She is allowed an hour of exercise outside the cell in mornings and afternoons. Her routine will not change now that she is a convicted murderer. Lawyers say that Knox has also been befriended by the warders,...

Hillary Clinton has said that she will meet a US senator to discuss claims that Amanda Knox was the victim of a flawed trial and anti-Americanism. The conviction of the 22-year-old Seattle student for murdering her British flatmate Meredith Kercher has opened the floodgates to a wave of antipathy in America towards the Italian justice system. As angry Americans promised to boycott Italian holidays, wine and food, a vociferous support group calling itself Friends of Amanda Knox urged people to email Barack Obama to ask him to support her appeal. Maria Cantwell, a US Democrat senator for Washington state has...

There were scenes of celebrations at the Italian police headquarters in Palermo following the arrest of Gianni Nicchi, the alleged “number two” of the Costa Nostra mafia organisation. Nicchi is only 28 years old but police say he has moved up rapidly through the mafia ranks as a result of the capture of several senior members.

While in the midst of researching another piece, I ran into some photos of a rather beautiful church near Nepi, Italy; the Basilica of Sant'Elia in Castel Sant'Elia. It is beautiful for reasons of its architecture, its cosmatesque floors, its vibrant wall paintings, its ambone, and its altar with ciborium. The basilica was constructed in either the 10th or 11th century, and the ciborium likewise dates from this period. By tradition, it is suggested that this basilica was erected over the spot of a former pagan Roman temple constructed by Nero for Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. In...

Amanda Knox has been found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of her British flat mate, Meredith Kercher, and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who had met her just a week before the killing, was sentenced to 25 years after being found guilty of the same charges. Amid dramatic scenes in a court in Perugia, Italy, Knox collapsed in tears as the judge read the verdict handed down by the jury. She left the court screaming. The jury ruled that Knox, 22, and Sollecito, 25, killed Miss Kercher, 21, of Coulsdon, Surrey, together...

Amanda Knox stood in a silent court room to hear the verdict, head bowed. But as the judge read out the jury's decision she turned and buried her face in her lawyers chest and started to sob uncontrollably. She was still crying as she was led from court, facing a sentence of 26 years in prison for the murder of the woman she described as her friend - the British exchange student Meredith Kercher. Knox's former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito - also found guilty and sentenced to 25 years - was more composed.

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Meredith Kercher Trial: How Angelic Student Orchestrated 'Satanic' Murder When two police officers went to the home of Meredith Kercher on November 2, 2007, they had expected a routine call to return two stolen mobile phones which had been found in a nearby garden. Instead, what they were confronted with was a scene of horror and chaos. By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter 04 Dec 2009 Meredith Kercher was was found dead in her bedroom on November 2007 in the cottage she shared with Amanda Knox and others on her year abroad in the Umbrian town Photo: PA Finding the front...

Amanda Knox Guilty of Murdering Meredith Kercher American student found guilty after 11-month trial in Perugia 4 December 2009 Amanda Knox is escorted by penitentiary police officers during a break in the trial at the court in Perugia. Photograph: Pier Paolo Cito/AP American student Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend have been found guilty of murdering her flatmate Meredith Kercher after an 11-month trial in the Italian city of Perugia. Knox, 22, and 25-year-old Raffaele Sollecito were in the dock to hear the jurors deliver their verdict. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito 25. The pair...

Athens, Greece, Dec 4, 2009 / 06:55 am (CNA).- The head of the Greek Orthodox Church has voiced his opposition to a court ban on crucifixes in classrooms in Italy and will hold an emergency synod to lay out a plan of action to combat the ban. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece said that the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) had ignored the role of Christianity in Europe’s history. According to the BBC, he added that majorities, not only minorities, have rights.The Orthodox Church fears the EHCR ruling could trigger similar rulings about the public display of...

(ANSA) - Rome, November 27 - A pregnant woman carries stem cells that could be used in critical medical treatments for her baby, either in the womb or later in life, a team of Italian scientists has announced. These cells, found in the womb during pregnancy, can be removed during a simple antenatal test and stored for future use, concluded the study, which appears in next week's edition of the Cloning and Stem Cells journal. They could then be used to generate tailor-made organs and tissues or even to treat the woman's baby while still in the womb, said Giuseppe...

Italy's influential Northern League Party has stood out over the past decade for its particular knack in finding new (and not-so-new) ways of offending people based on country of origin and color of skin. In 2003, Umberto Bossi, founder of the party, which once espoused separatism, told an interviewer that police should open fire on the boatloads of undocumented Africans arriving on Italian shores, calling the would-be immigrants "bingo-bongos." Other Northern League pols have proposed everything from separate trains for immigrants to banning the building of new mosques and even prohibiting the serving of kebabs and other non-Italian food in...

Italian police have been forced to scrap a $475,000 Lamborghini patrol car after it smashed into other vehicles. The Gallardo coupe, donated to the Italian State Police by the automaker, clipped a car coming out of a service station before ploughing into several parked cars near Cremona in northern Italy, The Sun newspaper reports The supercar — decked out with the latest high-tech equipment including a refrigerated cooler to transport donor organs — was returning from student job fair where it was showing off the police force's crime fighting arsenal. Read more: Man drives $2.5m Bugatti into lakeThe two officers...

A medieval book is to become the first item from a British national museum to be returned to its rightful owners under a new law governing looted artefacts. The Benevento Missal, which was stolen from a cathedral in southern Italy soon after the Allies bombed the city during the Second World War, has been in the collection of the British Library (formerly the British Museum Library) since 1947. After a change in the law, it could be back in Italy within months, according to The Art Newspaper. The missal’s return could also focus attention on other, more high-profile cases, such...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

SNIPPET: "Adel Ben Mabrouk, 39, and Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri, 43, are suspected of being members of a terror group with ties to al-Qaida. They were immediately taken into custody upon arrival in Milan and will be interrogated, a prosecutor told The Associated Press.

Italy's beleaguered prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, will face fresh embarrassment on Tuesday with the publication of a book written by the call girl who claims to have slept with him at his mansion in Rome. Patrizia D'Addario said the 73-year-old premier changed into white silk pyjamas and dressing gown after asking her to spend the night with him at the end of a lavish party at his palatial residence. She felt as though she had entered a "harem" when she attended the soirée, with 20 glamorous young models and starlets competing for the favours of the prime minister, who she...

Fungi are single or multi-celled organisms that break down organic materials, such as rotting wood, in order to absorb their nutrients. Neither plant nor animal, they range from mushrooms to single-celled yeast. Scientists were investigating organic chemicals trapped in an Italian sedimentary rock formation when they found evidence that an extinct fungus feasted on dead wood during a time when the world’s forests had been catastrophically eradicated.[1] What could have caused such a universal effect on forests, and why does organic material remain in rocks that are supposedly 251.4 million years old?...

SNIPPET: “In about less than a week, India will mark the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks. After the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Chicago breakthrough, now Italy has achieved some headway in the investigations relating to last year’s terror events(26/11). The Italian police have arrested, after almost a year long monitoring and surveillance, two Pakistani nationals (Father and Son duo) from Brescia city who are accused of sending funds from their money transfer agency and providing the logistical support to Pakistani terrorists. The suspects Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, owners of the Madina Trading telephone...

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

Italy: Northern mayor launches 'immigrant clean-up' initiative Brescia, 18 Nov. (AKI) - The mayor of the small town of Coccaglio, located in the northern Italian region of Lombardy has launched a campaign to "clean-up" the city of immigrants, ahead of the Christian holidays next month, Italian media said on Wednesday. The town council has dubbed the operation "White Christmas". "There is no crime here. We only want to start cleaning up," said the mayor of Coccaglio, Franco Claretti. The "White Christmas" campaign is being spearheaded by Claretti and six town councillors from Italy's ruling conservative People of Freedom party and...

ROME, November 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski and the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church have both hit out at a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) attempting to ban the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools. At the same time, a general revolt against the ruling in municipalities all over Italy has been started by public officials, who are now ordering the display of crucifixes in schools, and levelling fines for non-compliance. The November 3rd ECHR ruling, made in response to a complaint by an Italian secularist campaigner, said that the display...

Colonel Gaddafi has lived up to his reputation for eccentric behaviour by lecturing 200 attractive young glamour models on the benefits of Islam. The Libyan leader paid the women to attend the bizarre meeting on the fringes of a global food summit in Rome where he subjected them to a solemn discourse on the role of Muslim women. The models, who had been told they were attending a party, were recruited from an agency which hires out pretty young women to act as "hostesses" for conferences and conventions. An advertisement placed by the Hostessweb agency read: "Seeking attractive girls between...

Come visit Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome! I am warning you, if you go to this link you may be stuck on this website for hours, as I was yesterday: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_giovanni/vr_tour/Media/VR/Lateran_Apse/index.html A map of the project is here: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_giovanni/vr_tour/index-it.html An article about the project is here: http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/inside-scoop-on-vaticans-groundbreaking-virtual-tour/#comment-10076 And the real reason I am posting this is my question. When will the other Vatican related buildings pictorial projects be finished? I cant figure this out. How will we know? Where will they be posted? Is there a good site out there that we can use to find out the...

Randa Ghazy Rome, Italy, Nov 13, 2009 / 02:37 pm (CNA).- A young Muslim writer named Randa Ghazy has written an article entitled, “I, a Muslim, Defend the Crucifix,” in which she expresses her opposition to a ruling by the EU Human Rights Court that ordered all crucifixes be taken down in classrooms across Italy.  The article will appear in the December edition of the magazine Mondo e Missione, a publication of the Pontifical Institute Missioni Estere. “One of the most beautiful memories of my childhood and adolescence was of Father Bruno,” she writes.  “I would often go to the...

Monday, the Vatican unveiled a stunning website that offers a virtual tour of the Lateran Basilica.

The Greek Orthodox Church is urging Christians across Europe to unite in an appeal against a ban on crucifixes in classrooms in Italy. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled last week that the presence of crucifixes violated a child's right to freedom of religion. Greece's Orthodox Church fears the Italian case will set a precedent. It has called an emergency Holy Synod meeting for next week to devise an action plan. Although the Greek Orthodox Church has been at odds with Roman Catholicism for 1,000 years, the judicial threat to Christian symbols has acted as a unifying...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Italian mayors respond to Strasbourg ruling by hanging more crucifixes in schools Rome, Italy, Nov 12, 2009 / 01:49 pm (CNA).- A number of Italian officials have responded to the ruling by the European Human Rights Court that ordered schools in Italy to remove crucifixes from the classrooms by taking unprecedented measures to preserve the Christian symbol. According to the Italian daily “Avvenire,” the mayor of Sezzadio, Pier Luigi Arnera, has leveled a fine of 500 euros against anyone who removes a crucifix from a public place. Arnera explained that the displaying of the crucifix in “places other...

Rome, 9 Nov. (AKI) - One of Italy's largest Muslim organisations on Monday condemned the feminist and former rightwing MP Daniela Santanche for calling the Prophet Mohammed a paedophile and polygamist on television at the weekend. "If there is a basis to make a formal complaint, we will do so because we need to say enough is enough with this kind of vulgarity targeting Islam's prophet," said a spokesman for the Muslim group UCOII, Elzir Izidin.

ROME (Reuters) - Some 84 percent of Italians oppose a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that crucifixes should be removed from Italian classrooms, according to a poll on Sunday. The poll in the Corriere della Sera newspaper showed 84 percent of Italians want the crucifixes to stay, 14 percent said they should be taken down and two percent had no opinion. Those in favor included many who are not practicing Catholics. Some 68 percent of those who said they never attended Mass said they still wanted the crucifixes to stay in schools. Italy has said it...

ROME, November 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemning the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools could result in the removal of all public displays of a Christian origin in all public buildings of Europe under the newly passed Lisbon Treaty, a British legal expert has warned. Given the intimate connections between the ECHR, the Lisbon Treaty and the European Convention on Human Rights, UK barrister and anti-discrimination law expert Neil Addison told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN), "unless the European Court of Human Rights overrules itself on appeal, Italy, and indeed the...

VIENNA, Austria, NOV. 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Real religious freedom is not freedom from religion, says a historian writing in response to this week's European court decision discouraging crucifixes in Italian schools. Martin Kugler, an expert for the human rights network Christianophobia.eu in Vienna, offered 12 theses to unveil the mistaken thinking of the court, which decided in favor of an atheist mother who protested the crucifix in her children's school. Kugler explained: "The right to religious freedom can only mean its exercise -- not the freedom from confrontation. The meaning of 'freedom of religion' has nothing to do with creating...

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.” - Psalm 33: 12 On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights fined the Italian government for having crucifixes in its schools. It’s yet another example of oversize, secular bureaucracies pitted against the most natural forms of agreement, in this case the nation. The European Court of Human Rights ordered that the government pay 5,000 Euro ($7,390) to Soile Lautsi, a mother of two who claimed that public schools in her northern Italian town refused eight years ago to remove...

Deck Guns Gain Range Nov 4, 2009 Andy Nativi/Genoa The demand for naval guns is driven by two requirements, each at the extreme end of the performance spectrum. One is for artillery whose ranges go well beyond those of the big guns used in World War II. The average range of naval guns then was 35-40 km. (22-25 mi.), with the 18-in. (46-cm.) guns of Japan's Yamato-class battleships capable of firing 1,460-kg. (3,218-lb.) projectiles 26 mi. The other requirement is for small-caliber weapons to defend against airborne and asymmetric threats and for use in missions where navies confront pirates and...

ABC News' Rachel Martin reports: The US intelligence gathering program known as “extraordinary rendition” was essentially put on trial for the first time - in Italy - and this week the court rendered a guilty verdict. Italian Judge Oscar Magi convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric on a street in Milan, Italy. The cleric, known as Abu Omar, alleged that he was abducted by CIA operatives who then shuttled him between US bases in Europe and then moved him to Egypt where Omar says he was tortured. The Italian judge tried the Americans, all but...

Rome, Italy, Nov 4, 2009 / 10:21 am (CNA).- Italy’s Minister of Education, Mariastella Gelmini, has rejected the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in favor of removing crucifixes from public schools.  She stated, “Nobody, much less a European court that is steeped in ideology, will be allowed to strip our identity away.” The court ruled the presence of crucifixes in classrooms could be a “bother” to students who practice other faiths or who are atheists and that the State should abstain from imposing beliefs in public places. “Religious neutrality should be observed in the context of public...

A judge in Milan convicted 23 Americans today of the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in 2003, culminating a landmark trial that gave a look into the secret world of CIA renditions of terror suspects. Judge Oscar Magi acquitted three Americans, including the former CIA station chief in Italy, because they had diplomatic immunity when a secret team abducted militant cleric Abu Omar in Milan and flew him to Egypt, where he underwent months of torture and abuse. The Americans were tried in absentia, and given that the U.S. government has long declined to cooperate with the prosecution, it seemed...

MILAN - An Italian judge says he has convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric from a Milan street in a CIA extraordinary rendition. Citing diplomatic immunity, Judge Oscar Magi told the Milan courtroom Wednesday that he was acquitting three other Americans. Twenty-two of the convicted Americans were immediately sentenced to five years in jail at the end of the nearly three-year trial. The other convicted American, Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady, was given the stiffest sentence, eight years in prison. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here All of the Americans were...