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Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta dismissed signs of growing tension in his government on Tuesday, ahead of a confidence vote next week to confirm his new majority after Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party quit the ruling coalition.
At least seven people died and three were injured when a Chinese-owned clothing factory in the Italian town of Prato burned down on Sunday, killing workers trapped in an improvised dormitory built onsite. Local media said 11 workers had been accommodated in a warren of small cardboard sleeping compartments above a warehouse in the Macrolotto industrial district of the town, known for its large number of garment factories.
Umberto Eco, 81, the Italian semiotician and globally successful novelist, is an insatiable bibliophile. He has collected more than 50,000 books, and has a particular passion for volumes on imaginary, occult or even bogus subjects.
Italy plans to buy back an island off the coast of Sardinia just weeks after it was sold to a senior employee of the Commonwealth Bank.
The tiny island of Budelli, which is famous for its pink sandy beaches, was bought last month for €2.94 million ($4.34 million) by Michael Harte, who is the CBA's chief information officer.
ROME — Having spent months manufacturing procedural delays or conjuring political melodrama in hopes of saving himself, Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday could no longer stave off the inevitable: Italy’s Senate resoundingly stripped him of his parliamentary seat, a dramatic and humiliating expulsion, even as other potential troubles await him.
A Miss Italia beauty queen was busted as part of an alleged international cocaine trafficking ring, police said. Samantha Scarlino, 32, was detained in a Milan hotel this week after being accused of delivering cash from Italy to drug cartel bosses in Peru.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the ringmaster of "bunga bunga" sex parties at his luxurious villa, giving the go-ahead for young women to perform pole dances and stripteases, according to a court document.
The jagged peaks of the Apennines? Vertiginous. The shimmering Adriatic? Azure to turquoise. The hearty cuisine of Emilia-Romagna? As delicious as ever.
Italian writer Marcello D'Orta has died at the age of 60 after a long illness. D'Orta was the author of Io Speriamo che me la Cavo or "Me, Let's Hope I Make It", a best-seller which was turned into a successful Paolo Villaggio "fish out of water" comedy film about an elementary school teacher from northern Italy who is sent by mistake to an impoverished town in the Naples region.
Al Qaeda members may be among thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat from Africa to Europe, posing a potential security risk for the European Union, Italy's Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said on Monday.