Worldcrunch
ROME – Refuse from the shacks float by in the river’s brown, putrid water. There is mud everywhere and the acrid smell of burning plastic lingers in the air. Chickens crow and dogs bark, rusty chain-links act as fencing and a gate. It looks like Manila, but this is Rome. Welcome to the “City of […]
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti was called on to lead a caretaker government. His expertise was welcome, but then the economics professor was bitten by the bug of political ambition…
CORRIERE DELLA SERA, LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VERCELLI – This northern Italian city is more than 2,000 kilometers away from Chernobyl, so it’s almost impossible to imagine how the very same radioactive particles ended up here — or in the innards of 27 wild boars. Caesium-137 is a radioactive isotope, formed by nuclear fission on […]
IMF AGREES ON LOAN TO UKRAINE The International Monetary Fund announced this morning that it will loan between $14 billion and $18 billion to Ukraine over the next two years. With loans from other partners, the program is expected to free up a total $27 billion for the embattled country. This comes after yesterday’s announcement […]
You can ride Rome’s public bus and subway system by validating your biglietto of His Holiness from his balcony pose.
ADKRONOS, AGI, CORRIERE DELLA SERA, LA REPUBBLICA, LA STAMPA (Italy), AP Worldcrunch ROME – Italy’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of American exchange student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of Knox’s roommate Meredith Kercher. La Repubblica reports that the judges in Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled Tuesday […]
This is the good kind of cheesy…
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– Workers restoring Rome’s historic Palazzo Venezia have discovered what they are calling Benito Mussolini’s 12th and most secret bunker, reports La Stampa. There are no records or mentions of this bunker, which was abandoned and left incomplete. City superintendent Anna Imponente and architect Carlo Serafini made the discovery after they […]
LA STAMPA, LIBERO QUOTIDIANO (Italy) Worldcrunch MILAN – Fido has an appointment with the vet but your boss just scheduled a last-minute meeting? No worries, let Pet Taxi take care of it for you, says La Stampa. Pet Taxi is an initiative started by Farmina Pet Food in collaboration with SCIVAC (Society of Italian Vets) […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VENICE– You no speeka the English? Well then, signori, you will not be welcome at Italy’s prestigious Ca’ Foscari and Bocconi universities. La Stampa reports that Ca” Foscari, a 145-year-old public university in Venice, and Bocconi, the private Milan business and economics university, are requiring that all students enrolling for the […]
TURIN – Have you ever wanted to take a stroll in Yosemite National Park? Or discover the South Omo Valley in Ethiopia? How about Cappadocia in Turkey? Now you can explore all of these sites from the comfort of your living room thanks to Trail Me Up, a sort of Google Street View, where you […]
Pope Francis will preach humility and fraternity in the spirit of his namesake St. Francis of Assisi. Can he make it relevant in the 21st century?
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– Pope Francis is his name, and Church watchers all seem to agree that this is a signal that a central them of the new papacy will be caring for the needy – needy humans, that is. But history also tells us that the inspiration for the Pope’s name, St. […]
Worldcrunch ROME– What do get when you mix a rugby match and a marathon with the patron saint of Ireland and an Argentine Pope? Endless eternal city traffic jams, for sure. Holy chaos? Well, we’ll see. Here is the once-in-a-lifetime agenda for Rome this Sunday. MARATHON milky.way There are an estimated 100,000 people — including […]
Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY – White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St Peter’s Basilica pealed, on Wednesday, heralding the election of a new pope. Watch live feed from St Peter’s Square: Click here for Worldcrunch’s special papal coverage.
Benedict XVI himself said Africa deserves to be considered for the papacy.
Worldcrunch In elections, there are winners and there are losers. But what happens when the winner cannot actually claim victory? How can the loser manage to hold all the cards? Both Italy and Israel are famous for getting stuck in just these sorts of Byzantine deadlocks, and coincidentally both Mediterranean democracies are swimming in it […]
Worldcrunch With the conclave set to begin Tuesday afternoon, the lists of papabili are being narrowed down and scrutinized by the Cardinals gathered at the Vatican. Back in the home countries and dioceses of the top contenders, the secret vote to choose the successor of Benedict XVI can be viewed with a mix of pride […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– Ever mail something that just flat disappears? Wondering where it wound up? For thousands of Italians whose mail was lost, the only consolation is that they now know where it went. For some, the answer may be exactly what they’d feared: in a pile in some lazy postman’s house. Simone […]
Is Italy ready to take back the papacy after being shut out by the Polish John Paul II and Germany’s Benedict XVI? This truck driver’s son is the Italians’ best hope.
TURIN – Marco* was dragged here by his parents. He is 17 and spends 16 hours a day glued to the computer. Two years of school down the drain and no friends. But he still doesn’t get it. “I’m fine,” he says. He wakes up at two in the afternoon and goes to bed at […]
Vac-packed pesto risotto never tasted so good!
VATICAN CITY – Nevermind the “courage, humility, respect and lucidity,” and the other praise we’ve heard associated with Pope Benedict XVI’s historic decision to step down, he leaves behind a papacy stained with failure and a deep feeling of something left incomplete. On some matters, the Pope’s decision is indeed a form of renunciation. “Purification” […]
(Hint: it won’t ever come true)
A Belgium perspective on the urgent risks that Italy’s economic implosion will spread. France could be next.
Beppe Grillo’s protest movement was the winner in Italy’s election that signals a failure of an entire political class.
The most alive of the dead languages is also getting a boost in some surprising corners outside the Vatican walls.
-Essay- We’re all critical of the leaders of our time: Obama let us down, Merkel isn’t Adenauer, and Hollande and Cameron are just pale copies of Monsieur Mitterrand and Lady Thatcher. Meanwhile, in Italy, in front of the disappointing batch of candidates for national elections, nostalgia runs deep for figures of the past from Christian […]
Silvio Berlusconi bad-mouths Angela Merkel, while Mario Monti tries to woo her. But there are deeper reasons the German factor is at play as Italians go to the polls Sunday.
VATICAN CITY – A long queue of men dressed in black is winding silently around St. Peter’s Square: They are Roman priests here to say their last goodbyes to Benedict XVI at a recent Vatican audience. When he decided to resign, did it cross the Pope’s mind that the cross he’d bear would also affect […]
ADNKRONOS, LA STAMPA (Italy), THE TELEGRAPH (UK) Worldcrunch ROME– With a surprising twist of flexibility, a key Italian bishop and doctrinal expert has given his green light to integrating yoga and meditation into Roman Catholic spiritual practices. Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli, the bishop of the city of Frascati, near Rome, said that he is “open” to […]
Signs of decline began to appear two years ago, leading the Pope’s doctor to insist on limited air travel. Portrait of an old and weak man, who may have had little choice but resignation.
ECOBLOG, LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– More than 40 dead dolphins have been found washed ashore along the western coast of Italy since January 5. La Stampa reports that the locations where the dolphins have been found span more than half the western coastline, from Tuscany to Calabria, as well as the island of Sicily, […]
The resignation of Benedict XVI is historic for the Catholic Church, but it also shows the difficulty of growing old in a society of constant demands and real-time technology.
From Latin America, an early eye toward the coming Conclave, and the future of the Catholic Church after decades of fiercely conservative leadership.
-OpEd- TURIN – Perhaps we deserve Berlusconi and his lies. Not the Italians, maybe, given as a single citizen is largely powerless in the face of a political system. But the media, especially the television, definitely does deserve him. A brief explanation is required: For the last three weeks, every time I turn on the […]
Worldcrunch ROME – Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday made his first public appearance since stunning the world and his Catholic flock with the announcement of his decision to become the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to resign. Telling a crowd in the Vatican auditorium that the historic resignation was “for the good of the […]
Turns out Benedict XVI had been reflecting on resignation since falling last March. After finally telling the world, the Pope returned to his private quarters where he was overcome by emotion.
Worldcrunch PARIS – After yesterday’s announcement that Pope Benedict XVI would resign from the papacy on Feb. 28, the world’s newspapers reacted today: ITALY UNITED KINGDOM AUSTRALIA ARGENTINA BELGIUM CANADA BRAZIL CHILE COLOMBIA FRANCE GERMANY INDIA USA SPAIN POLAND SWITZERLAND HONDURAS MEXICO PARAGUAY SOUTH AFRICA SWEDEN PORTUGAL THE PHILIPPINES IRELAND AUSTRIA