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Sicilian prosecutors are investigating Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini over his refusal to allow migrants off a coastguard vessel. The Dicott docked in the Sicilian port of Catania on Monday. The Italian government is refusing to most of the migrants disembark until a solution is reached regarding their relocation with other European states. Prosecutors have now opened an inquiry into possible illegal confinement illegal arrest, and abuse of power. Mr. Salvini responded to the news by shrugging off the threat, saying those still on board would be allowed off "in the coming hours"....

'An unknown metal said to have been used in the sunken city of Atlantis has been found on 2,600-year-old shipwreck near the coast of Sicily. The 39 ingots of ‘orichalcum’ - described by Plato in his writings about Atlantis - are utterly unique. 'Nothing similar has ever been found,' an expert said. Plato described Atlantis as glittering ‘with the red light of orichalcum’, and he claimed that it was mined there, and used to build huge, glinting temples to the sea god Poseidon.'

Sundaland The cradle of human civilization may well have been the prehistoric lowlands of the Southeast Asian peninsula, rather than the Middle East. Since those lowlands ‘sank’ beneath the seas thousands of years ago (actually drowned by rising sea levels), humanity has remained unaware of their possible significance up through the early 21st century. Unaware except, that is, for a so-called myth perpetuated by a respected Greek philosopher named Plato, before 347 BC. Plato spoke of an advanced civilization named Atlantis, which sank below the seas perhaps around 9,000 BC. It may well be he wasn’t so far off after...

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has made clear his strong stance on unlimited mass migration after he refused to take part in an EU-wide effort to distribute the migrants of a fishing boat that landed on an Italian island Monday. Calling on the nations of Europe to work harder to prevent illegal migration to the continent, Kurz also pointed to the fact that migrant ships could be sent to countries outside of the European Union to disembark their human cargo. The comments came after 450 migrants were picked up from a wooden fishing boat on Saturday, and brought to Sicily to...

PRIOLO GARGALLO, Sicily, June 26, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — Sicilian LGBT organizations came out swinging when a priest told two female parishioners they could no longer receive Holy Communion. Paola Desi, 27, and Maria Grimaldi, 25, contracted a civil union on April 3. They are parishioners at Don Sebastiano Gulinello of the Church of the Immaculate. The priest welcomed the women to Holy Communion until the couple published photos of their ceremony on Facebook. As Paola Desi is disabled and has difficulty walking, Gulinello had delegated an extraordinary minister to bring her the sacrament at home. But now neither woman will...

Monte Kronio rises 1,300 feet above the geothermally active landscape of southwestern Sicily. Hidden in its bowels is a labyrinthine system of caves, filled with hot sulfuric vapors. At lower levels, these caves average 99 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 percent humidity. Human sweat cannot evaporate and heat stroke can result in less than 20 minutes of exposure to these underground conditions. Nonetheless, people have been visiting the caves of Monte Kronio since as far back as 8,000 years ago. They’ve left behind vessels from the Copper Age (early sixth to early third millennium B.C.) as well as various sizes of...

An egg-shaped ceramic jar covered with ceramic "rope" once held a prize delicacy: the oldest olive oil on record in Italy... Researchers made the discovery after analyzing residue of the so-called liquid gold on the beautiful jar and two other vessels uncovered at Castelluccio, an archaeological site in Sicily. "It had the signature of Sicilian tableware dated to the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium B.C., [during the] Early Bronze Age," Davide Tanasi, an assistant professor of history at the University of South Florida, said in a statement. "We wanted to learn how it was used,...

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has invited Italian populist leader Matteo Salvini to Berlin in order to discuss Europe’s border crisis. The pair has already spoken on the phone and are in “full harmony” on migration and security policies, according to a statement from the Italian Interior Ministry. Mr Seehofer is the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party of Bavaria, which has pushed for a cap on asylum seeker numbers and disagrees with ruling coalition partner Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on the issue. Mr Salvini serves as Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister...

An Italian coastguard ship carrying more than 900 migrants was allowed to dock in Sicily Wednesday, after Italy controversially turned away a separate foreign vessel with rescued migrants on board. ... The migrants aboard the Aquarius, run by French NGO SOS Mediterranee, were stuck on the overloaded ship as Italy and Malta bickered over who should take them.

'Get ready to pack your bags,' Italy's interior minister tells migrants Latest update : 2018-06-03 Italy's new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini will be in Sicily Sunday to push the anti-immigration platform that propelled him to power at one of the country's main landing points for refugees. The head of the far-right League is on the road seeking to rally support for his party's candidates in municipal elections later this month, as part of a broader effort to boost the traditionally secessionist party's profile in the country's poorer south. But immigration is Salvini's primary bugbear and the newly minted deputy...

The Sicilian mafia is a powerful organized crime syndicate known across the globe, but its origins are murky. A surge in demand for citrus fruits in the 1800s could provide clues as to how it first emerged. Economic lecturers Alessia Isopi and Arcangelo explain. The Sicilian mafia is arguably one of the most famous – or infamous – institutions in the Western world. After its first appearance in Sicily in the 1870s it soon infiltrated the economic and political spheres of Italy and the US and has, at times, been considered a serious threat to the rule of law in...

Patrick N. Hunt discusses his new book on Hannibal and how much of his success was based on solid financing. Audio Player Few military leaders hold as much allure for historians as Hannibal Barca of Carthage (today’s Tunisia). Born in 247 B.C., he is still studied today because of his unparalleled ability to strategize and get inside the mind of his opponent in battle. Archaeologist Patrick N. Hunt, who had been the director of Stanford’s Alpine Archaeology Project, has written a new book about the legendary figure that is simply titled Hannibal. He joined the Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel...

Italian authorities have accused a leftist politician of paying €25 per vote to win his seat in regional elections held in Sicily last weekend, the daily La Stampa reported Saturday. Edmondo Tamajo, 41, has been charged with criminal conspiracy in relation to electoral corruption, said the newspaper. On his Facebook account, Tamajo stated, “I have never bought a single vote, and have built my political career on daily acts to support people.” He added he was willing to cooperate with the investigation to clear up the situation. …

Monsignor Ignazio Zambito, the former Bishop of Patti, Sicily, said to La Fede Quatidiana that "Islam is not a religion of peace". About illegal immigrants he added, "They are not human resources and much less an opportunity, at least not in the present way. They could become this if they really wanted to integrate. But the majority of them refuses to integrate. How often do they arrogantly throw away the food they receive from volunteers? Or they say that Italy is disgusting?" Bishop Zambito does not rule out that inside the Church there are professionals for whom welcoming illegal immigrants...

ROME (AP) — Italian news reports say a young Sudanese bus passenger grabbed the steering wheel and tried to pull the vehicle off the road in Sicily before off-duty soldiers on board intervened. The ANSA news agency says there were moments of fear among the other passengers aboard the bus, which was heading from Trapani to Palermo on Tuesday. A motive hasn't been ascertained, but Palermo prosecutors are investigating.

Sicilian Bishops' AL Guidelines Authorize Communion for Adulterous Couples On June 4, the Sicilian Bishop Conference, encompassing the 17 dioceses of the island of Sicily, followed their neighboring bishops in Malta by promulgating pastoral guidelines on Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia that authorize Holy Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried without annulment (ie. in a state of public and permanent adultery). The Sicilian guidelines also bear resemblance in their drafting to those of the diocese of Catania. The guidelines significantly admit that Familiaris Consortio required (using the past tense) such couples to practice chastity, but that this requirement has been "expanded"...

Crammed on to a ship with a normal capacity of 600, almost 1,500 migrants arrive in Italy after being rescued from rickety vessels in the Mediterranean. Their nightmare ended as they landed in Naples yesterday after being forced to endure an extra two days on board because of the G7 summit in Sicily. The nearest port to where they were picked up was on the island, but the vessel was not allowed to dock there because of the tight security in place for the meeting of world leaders. ** Last week a leaked intelligence report said 6.6million are waiting to...

Get to know this ricotta-filled Easter tradition“Of course I know it — cassata Siciliana, my mom used to make it,” says Cecelia Maiogan, a Chicago-area resident who grew up in a small town outside of Palermo on the Northern shore of Sicily. “From the time I was seven or eight, around Easter, she would send me on foot to town to go buy the candied fruit that we used to decorate it with,” Maiogan says, “and as a treat for my errand I got to have a small piece of the fruit. I remember really liking that, the sliver of...

A bishop in Sicily has banned known mafia criminals from acting as godfathers at baptisms in churches in his diocese. Michele Pennisi, bishop of Monreale, near Palermo, said Friday he had issued a decree to that effect in a bid to challenge any notion that the bosses of organized crime have a paternalistic side to them. “The mafia has always taken the term ‘Godfather’ from the Church to give its bosses an air of religious respectability, whereas in fact the two worlds are completely incompatible,” the bishop told AFP. Pennisi’s diocese includes Corleone, a vendetta-haunted village inland from Palermo which...

More ingots of orichalcum, the ancient metal that was purported to be mined at the mythical island of Atlantis, have emerged from the seas of Sicily.