Free Republic

Berlusconi's Bunga-Bunga Strippers Dressed Up as Barack Obama, Says Bellydancer Ruby Silvio Berlusconi's infamous "bunga-bunga" parties featured strippers dressed as US President Obama as well as the more conventional fare of nuns and nurses, according to court testimony by the Moroccan woman at the centre of the scandal. Karima el-Mahroug, 20, was giving evidence at the trial of three former aides to Berlusconi who are accused of procuring her and other women for prostitution. El-Mahroug, a former bellydancer, said she attended about half a dozen parties, using her nickname Ruby. One each occasion, Berlusconi had handed her an envelope containing...

Milan (AsiaNews) - Some 1,700 years have passed since Emperor Constantine granted Christians the right to believe in God, yet "the persecution of Christians has not ceased;" thus, "the Church of Christ will never cease to generate martyrs" until God "enlightens everyone, so that they understand that peace, reconciliation, tolerance, meekness, and mercy can only have a positive effect on human society in general, especially in terms of deeds and words." Religious freedom and the journey of a divided Church " towards unity according to the Lord's command" are central to the thoughts Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I expressed this morning...

MILAN, Italy, May 11 (UPI) -- An illegal immigrant from Ghana went on a rampage with a pickaxe in Milan, Italy, Saturday, killing one person and wound four others, authorities said. The suspect, Mada Kabobo, 31, was taken into custody, Agenzia Giornalistica Italia reported

ROME (Reuters) - A Ghanaian immigrant in the northern Italian city of Milan killed one man and injured four others in a frenzied and apparently random attack with a pickaxe on Saturday, police said. Italian news agency AGI said the man's first words to police were "I am hungry" in English.

Osama bin Laden´s son-in-law has been captured and is in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, two administration officials said on Thursday. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, was captured within the last week in Jordan, according to a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York. The lawmaker had been told of the capture by law enforcement officials. Congress was notified when Ghaith was taken into U.S. custody, the officials said.

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - 52% of Rapes in Rome Committed by Immigrants, 59% in Milan, 40% in ItalyPosted By Daniel Greenfield On December 26, 2012 @ 10:13 pm In The Point | 6 Comments Muslims in Milan doing their part to keep Milan violent and rapey   “He was horrible, he had no teeth, his face disfigured by scars�. This is how one of the latest victims of rape in Milan, a businesswoman of 42, described her attacker, Mohamed K., 32, an Iraqi illegal immigrant already convicted for theft, assault and wounding. Last week, when she was going...

JP Morgan Chase, one of America’s leading banks, has closed down an account held by the Vatican bank at its Italian branch office in Milan. Neither the American bank nor the Vatican bank (formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR) offered any public comment on the move. But officials at JP Morgan Chase acknowledged that the IOR account was closed because of concerns about the possible use of the Vatican bank for money-laundering.

<p>DETROIT — Ford is recalling more than 128,000 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans from the 2010 and 2011 model years because the wheels can fall off the cars.</p> <p>The recall affects only cars with 17-inch steel wheels built from April 1, 2009 through April 30, 2009, and from Dec. 1, 2009 through Nov. 13, 2010.</p>

While hardly the explanation for why the EURUSD has surged nearly 100 pips in the past 45 minutes on absolutely no news (or, in this bizarro market, explaining it perfectly), and as the market focuses its attention on where the line of angry young protesters is longer: by the New York Stock Exchange or in front of the Apple store, Italians, once again betrayed by their politicians who were bribed by Berlusconi to vote for him in the latest vote of "confidence" (at a price of €250k per vote), have decided to make their feelings for financial innovation, and its...

I saw in the Bolletino today that at Castel Gandolfo Pope Benedict XVI imposed the pallium today on Angelo Card. Scola, the new Archbishop of Milan.In the normal course of events, the Pope gives the pallium to newly appointed archbishops on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s in Rome.The Pope can give the pallium to whom it pleaseth His Holiness of Our Lord to do so. The Pope can choose when and where to do this.This unusual move, however, underscores the importance of the Archdiocese of Milan. The imposition also could have been accelerated by the...

"Milan cannot turn into an Islamic city, a zingaropoli [Gypsytown] full of Roma camps, besieged by foreigners to whom the left wants to give the right to vote," Mr Berlusconi said on his People of Freedom party website. "Milan is... one of the most important capitals in Europe in terms of intelligence, creativity and entrepreneurialism," he said. "A city like this will surely not want to hand itself over to the far left with the risk of becoming a disorderly, chaotic and unsafe city." Mr Berlusconi is understood to have taken first-round defeat in Milan - his home town and...

Italy [Kreuz.net] Recently Father Jean-Pierre Herman - the Secretary of Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Brussels -- wanted to celebrate the Immemorial Mass in Milan's Cathedral. This is according to the website 'BLOG messalatino.it'. Father Herman was there for a meeting about Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman and the Liturgy in Milan. For starters he was forbidden to celebrate the Old Mass in the Cathedral. Then he contacted the Papal Commission 'Ecclesia Dei'. They intervened and concluded mthat the priest could celebrate the Mass behind closed doors within Cathedral with only one altar boy. Editor: This is +Tettamanzi's watch.

Some trends come and go in fashion. One season they're in, the next they're out. But one thing stays tried and true—the blazer. Rachel Bilson and Megan Fox were both spotted wearing blazers in Milan during Fashion Week. Rachel paired hers with a red-and-black printed dress at Roberto Cavalli, while Megan topped of a business-like outfit with a black piece at Emporio Armani.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/harrison.ind.htm JULY 9, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLACK MARKET TRAVEL AGENTS 38 DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD LOCAL INVESTIGATION EXPOSES NATIONWIDE NETWORK THAT USED STOLEN IDENTITIES, CREDIT CARDS TO PURCHASE AIRLINE TICKETS KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 38 defendants from across the United States have been charged in a series of indictments that allege an extensive network of black market travel agents who used the stolen identities of thousands of victims as part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme...

Police are investigating the death of a top male model found dead just hours ahead of the start of Milan Men's Fashion Week. Catwalk star Tom Nicon, 22, died instantly after falling four floors from an apartment window in the centre of the Italian fashion capital. Police in Milan said today they were treating the death as suicide and investigating suggestions he had suffered from a ''complicated affair of love.'' A police source in Milan said: 'We have spoken to the friends he was staying with and they have told us that he had recently broken up with his girlfriend...

IPT News June 9, 2010 SNIPPET: "The Turkish-based charity that helped drive last week's deadly confrontation with Israeli commandos has deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. The Hamas ties are not in question. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and IHH officials simply do not acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist group." SNIPPET: "U.S. officials have expressed concern over the fact that "IHH representatives have met with senior Hamas officials in Turkey, Syria, and Gaza over the past three years," but IHH is not a designated terrorist organization in the United States. It's fair to ask, why not?"...

New York City-Based 'charity' Eyed in Terror Money Probe Feb. 26, 2004 By Tom Hays / Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) - When Sheik Abdullah Satar visited mosques in Brooklyn and Manhattan in the waning days of 1999, the FBI was watching. An outspoken cleric and political figure in Yemen, Satar was put under 24-hour surveillance amid fears about possible terrorist attacks on New Year's Eve. The sheik was never arrested or charged with a crime. But five years later, his name has resurfaced in an investigation of the Brooklyn branch of an obscure charity - its address a...

prominent Yemeni sheik came to Brooklyn in 1999, raised money at mosques that was ostensibly for charity and then went to Italy, where he met with a top operative of Al Qaeda, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.The sheik, Abdullah Satar, then made a speech in Italy calling upon people to join the jihad and denounced the United States for pursuing a terrorism suspect "to curry favor with the Jewish population and to project hatred upon Muslims,'' according to testimony of an F.B.I. agent at a trial of a New Jersey man in Federal District Court in Brooklyn that...

Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday defended a remark he made that Milan ''seemed like an African city'' because of the number of foreigners in the streets. ''I took a photograph of reality by referring to a walk through a central street in Milan where I saw 60% of people were foreigners and 40% were Italian,'' Berlusconi said. ''I asked myself if this is the Italy of the future that Italians want: the answer is no''.

SNIPPET: "(ANSA) - Genoa, June 11 - Six Italians were arrested Thursday on suspicion of plotting to attack Group of Eight summit facilities. The Rome-based group was trying to revive the Red Brigades terrorist organisation that plagued Italy in the 1970s and '80s, officials said." SNIPPET: "The six, including two men from Genoa, one from Milan, a Sardinian pro-independence militant and an old-guard Red Brigades terrorist, have been taken into custody on terrorism charges. Five have been taken to prison and one, reportedly found with a bomb, was placed under house arrest because of his age. The arrests were the...

Milan, 13 Feb. (AKI) - Magistrates in Milan on Tuesday started questioning 15 alleged members of the leftist Red Brigades terror group a day after police arrested them on charges of planning attacks against the Milan home of conservative opposition leader and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, his Mediaset group, the Sky group, right-wing daily Libero, Italy's main oil company ENI and jurist Pietro Ichino, a government consultant on labour reform. Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning Italy's largest circulation daily Corriere della Sera received threats in a phone call placed by alleged members of the terror group in response to the arrests....

ROME (AP) — Italian police arrested six people Thursday in raids on a group of suspected radical leftists who were allegedly planning a terror attack, authorities said.

From Il Corriere della Sera: Call for directive to prevent episodes like Duomo demonstration in Milan from happening again ROME – Places of worship, supermarkets and shopping malls will join public institutions, political party headquarters and diplomatic premises as being off-limits for demonstrators. Organisers will also have to pay a deposit as a guarantee against damage.NEW RULES – Interior minister Roberto Maroni has proposed new rules for public demonstrations, revealing that he is working on a directive to be sent to prefects and chiefs of police. A week ago, the minister explained to a hearing of the Senate’s constitutional affairs...

Remember this last week, when the Muslim hordes took over the Gothic church grounds in Milan and performed takbir (expansion) and some akbar? They allegedly apologized --- but they keep on doing it. Islamic imperialism. (photo hat tip Gaia)

"HAMAS AND THEIR SYSTEMATIC VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAWS (NOT TO MENTION BASIC HUMAN DECENCY)" "Video follows"

Leaders of Milan's Muslims are to meet the city's Roman Catholic archbishop to apologise for an impromptu prayer service they held in front of the cathedral, a statement from the archbishopric said.Images of hundreds of Muslims bowing to Mecca in front of one of the pre-eminent symbols of Christianity in Italy prompted outrage among some, particularly rightwing, Italians. Defence minister Ignazio La Russa proposed that prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition should "reply" with a mass on Sunday on the same spot.The status of other religions is a particularly sensitive issue in Italy where, until recently, almost the entire population was...

Two Moroccans arrested in Italy yesterday wanted to blow up the Milan Cathedral on Christmas. They hoped an attack during the busy holiday would cost dozens of lives. This according to tapped phone calls, reports La Repubblica. The two belonged to an Islamic terror cell which had been followed by the Italian police already for months... Rachid Ilhami (31) and Abdelkader Ghafir (43) were arrested in Giussano, a city 25km away from Milan. The detectives gathered from tapped phone calls and confiscated computer files that the two also prepared attacks on a supermarket and a police bureau. They are arrested...

(ANSA) - Milan, December 2 - Two Moroccans arrested on Tuesday were planning terrorist attacks on targets in northern Italy after failing to make the ``necessary contacts`` to be sent abroad as jihad fighters, police said. Rachid Ilhami, 31, and Gafir Abdelkader, 42, are alleged to have been planning attacks on an immigration office and a police barracks in Milan as well as police stations, a supermarket and a night club carpark in smaller towns in the Lombardy region. Milan anti-terrorist unit chief Bruno Megale stressed that the pair were not ``an organic part of any organisation`` despite wiretapped conversations...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police have arrested a man suspected of having links to arms trafficking and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for travelling on a false passport, according to a police spokesman. Police acting on a tip-off, arrested Sanjivan Ruprah, 36, in the northern town of Cremona, outside Milan, on Friday. He was travelling on a false Belgian passport, the spokesman said on Saturday. "Sanjivan Ruprah is an internationally known figure," he said. "He is known as an international trafficker of arms and diamonds and has already been arrested in Belgium, from where he was released on bail."...

The President of the northern Italian city of Milan, Filippo Penati, has triggered widespread debate with a controversial proposal to fine Muslims who pray on the streets outside the city's mosque. According to authorities, the number of people praying on the sidewalk creates traffic and obstacles for pedestrians in the area surrounding the Viale Jenner mosque, a converted garage. "Article 190 of the law regarding the obstruction of streets should be applied immediately," said Penati. "I do not know or understand why the law has not been applied before," he said. "The municipality of Milan should apply the law and...

According to the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia, the Spanish football club Barcelona is altering its famous badge in some Arab countries in order to avoid offending Muslims. The badge is especially altered in Saudi Arabia or Algeria, where the Barcelona shirts are being sold without the red cross of Saint George, the patron saint of the Catalan region which Barca claims to represent, the La Vanguardia newspaper found in a private investigation. The badge, which was created in 1906, features a single vertical red line in Saudi Arabia and Algeria, due to the fact that there, the red cross represents...

It is being reported that scientists have made a breakthrough in the fight against Muscular Dystrophy thanks to stem cell research. The scientists from Italy, claim that using mice, they have been able to promote muscle growth using adult stem cells.  GIULIO COSSU is the director of the Stem Cell Research Institute in Italy, and states:" The major finding is the identification of a subset of parasite able to repair dystrophic muscle in an immunodeficient dystrophic mouse."  "Given the fact the these cells has so far have appeared to have a better myogenic potential than the corresponding dog or mouse...

Muslim lawyer sues over Inter Milan 'Crusaders' kit Richard Owen in Rome A Turkish lawyer is taking legal action against Inter Milan, the Italian football team, for wearing a strip with “Crusader-style” red crosses that he alleges is ”offensive to Muslim sensibilities”. Baris Kaska, a lawyer in Izmir who specialises in European law, said that he had lodged a complaint in a local court against Inter Milan, which last month played the Istanbul team Fenerbahce in a Champions League match at the San Siro stadium in Milan. The Inter players wore a new strip - a white shirt with a...

A guest piece by resident Ambrosian rite expert Nicola de Grandi, who lives within the archdiocese of Milan Comments to a recent NLM piece about Ambrosian Chant mentioned the "Vecchioni" as a proper feature of the Ambrosian Rite. Here follows some more information about them, and a couple of pictures as well. The "Vecchioni" (singular "Vecchione" lit. "elderly man") and the "Vecchione" (singular "Vecchiona" lit. "elderly woman") - officially the "school of St. Ambrose" - were a feature peculiar to the Solemn High Masses in the Metropolitan Cathedral [of Milan]. In fact, they were two distinct corporations of ten...

A British Airways flight was delayed for several hours after women members of the Qatari royal family objected to sitting next to men they did not know. The three wives of Sheikh Badr Bin Khalifa al-Thani refused take up their seats on board Flight 563 from Milan's Linate airport to London Heathrow. Police and Qatari diplomats became involved before the captain told Sheikh Badr's entourage to leave the aircraft. The Qatari royals eventually ended up getting an Alitalia flight to London. They had been on a shopping day-trip to the Italian city. 'Safety instructions' In addition to his three wives,...

Officials have been forced to suspend flights into an airport in the Italian city of Milan due to a plague of hares. The animals invaded the runways at Milan's Linate Airport - and affected the operation of vital equipment.

Italian police have arrested at least 10 suspected Islamist militants who are believed to be linked to the bombings that rocked Algiers in April. The suspects, held in Milan, allegedly provided logistical and financial support for the militants in Algeria. Two blasts killed at least 30 people and injured 160 in Algiers. A group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat said it carried out the attacks. It later changed its name to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. Police said the suspects were also believed to be linked to Islamist activities in Tunisia in January. The Milan suspects are...

CureDuchenne will sponsor a one-year research program that will validate Dr. Giulio Cossu’s stem cell research under GMP (Good Manufacturing Procedures) conditions. Dr. Cossu’s long-term objective is to conduct phase I/II clinical trials in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (“DMD”) pediatric patients with this novel cell therapy protocol based on intra-arterial delivery of donor mesoangioblasts. The immediate objective of Dr. Cossu is to develop a clinical grade protocol that will allow transplantation of patients with mesoangioblasts in a successive clinical trial. During this study, Dr. Cossu will prepare an IMPD, the European equivalent of a US IND (Investigational New Drug Application),...

Milan police in Chinatown clash By David Willey BBC News, Rome The riot broke out after a Chinese woman was given a traffic fine Italian riot police have broken up a violent protest in Milan's Chinatown by scores of Chinese immigrants. About 10 police officers were injured and a similar number of Chinese people received hospital treatment. The trouble began when a Chinese woman was fined for illegally transporting goods in a private vehicle. More than 100 Chinese shopkeepers and members of their families, many waving the national flag, massed in the street claiming racial discrimination. Baton charge During the...

One of my personal bug-bears is the sort of wordy, politically correct prayers of the faithful (bidding prayers) that are frequently inflicted upon the congregation at Mass. The worst seem to come from booklets prepared by liturgists, though the "creativity" of liturgy groups and rogue parish sisters (to say nothing of priests who are trying too hard to be trendy) is not to be underestimated. However, I'm inclined to think that the Italians have it slightly worse in this regard. Whilst not normally as 'politically correct' as equivalent prayers in English, they're normally even more verbose and are written in...

Milan - Now I know there are many out there who will think I have lost it when I write that a key, new must-have for men this coming fall will be a pair of leggings to be worn outside, not just in, the house, but that was the big message at the debut Marni men's runway show this morning in Milan. ADVERTISEMENT Leggings made of microfiber cotton and wool, shown in violet, forest green and Milan fog gray, all of them with stirrup straps, except of course for a couple of them cut above the knee, accompanied half the...

IBRA: "HAPPY FOR INTER AND ADRI" Saturday, 13 January 2007 22:59:16 TURIN - Zlatan Ibrahimovic spoke on Sky Italia after Inter's record twelfth consecutive Serie A victory against Torino at the Stadio Olimpico. "Each time we have come on the pitch, we have never thought about the record of victories, we always try to win," he said. "We're just very pleased to have started the new year well, and we have to continue like this. But no one is perfect and there are always things you can improve. " Adriano has started scoring again? He is very important for us....

Moscow, Oct. 03 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi (bio - news) of Milan has agreed to make a church in that city available for use by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Interfax news service reports. Cardinal Tettamanzi, who is in Moscow this week for visits with Orthodox leaders, made the announcement during a meeting with Patriarch Alexei II. The Italian cardinal said that the parish church of St. Anthony, in downtown Milan, will be offered for occasional use by the Russian Orthodox community there, until a parish church is turned over permanently to the Orthodox.

Italian police say they have uncovered an Islamist group believed to be providing support for suspected militants in Algeria. A police spokesman said six people had been arrested or were being served with arrest warrants. Most of the arrests were executed around Milan, in northern Italy. One suspect was found in Switzerland. Police say they believe the group was giving financial and logistical support to Islamic terrorist groups. Italian police spokesman Lt Col Domenico Grimaldi told a news conference that the group was part of a wider network operating across much of Europe, and was connected to al Qaeda. The...

Milan Fashion week kicked off with another band of glamorous models sashaying down the runway, yet there was one notable difference: they had flesh on their bones.With the row over too-thin models rumbling on, it was ironic that the opening show in the famously chic Italian fashion capital featured clothes for the fuller-figured. Size 14 and 16 models strutted their stuff at the Elena Miro fashion show, displaying busts, hips and bottoms with abandon. Curves were confidently on show and body mass indices, the measure of body fat based on height and weight and the rating that has caused so...

NEW YORK - (KRT) - A prominent Yemeni cleric is suspected of raising money for terrorists at a Muslim charity and several mosques in Brooklyn, it was disclosed yesterday. An FBI agent pulled back the veil on a secret investigation of Sheikh Abdullah Satar at the trial of an associate who is charged with lying about the cleric's activities. The agent, Brian Murphy, said in Brooklyn Federal Court that Satar was under surveillance during a fund-raising swing through Brooklyn in early 2000. At the time, the feds were conducting an investigation into the financing of terrorist groups. After Satar -...

Here we go yet again. This time we were off for a week in Italy - Rome, Venice, and Milan with our Rick Steve's Travel Guides in hand. Of all the places we've been so far, the books paid off handsomely in Italy. And next to the Swedes up in Kiruna, the Italians are some of the nicest Europeans we've met to date. No wonder so many Americans were there at the same time as we were. We land in Rome in the evening and catch a cab to the hotel. What can you say about Italian cab drivers? After...

Here’s How the Church of the Future is Experimenting in the Cathedral of MilanWith video installations, electronic music, and abstract art. With Lenten readings from Oscar Wilde and Jack Kerouac. With the pulpit given over to nonbelievers. All this in the great diocese whose patrons are Saint Ambrose and Saint Charles BorromeoROMA, June 13, 2006 – One of the key phrases of the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is “new evangelization.” But in the Duomo of Milan, the cathedral of one of the most important and populous dioceses in the world, governed by cardinal Carlo Maria Martini...

Fr. Tucker over at Dappled Things points to two interesting little liturgical tidbits: Photos and Descriptions of the Ambrosian Liturgy -- The Ambrosian Rite is the proper liturgical usage of the Archdiocese of Milan. Our friends at the Cattolici Romani web forum have an excellent, excellent discussion of the particulars of that rite, as well as copious photos sure to please many of our readers. The text is in Italian. Announcing: Anglican Use Conference on 5 June in Scranton -- If you're interested in the interesting pastoral provision that has opened the door for Episcopal clergy and laity to...