Italian researchers will dig up bones in a Florence convent to try to identify the remains of a Renaissance woman long believed to be the Mona Lisa.
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/ 12 November 2007
A police officer who supposedly killed a soccer fan was placed under investigation on Monday for manslaughter, news reports said, a day after the shooting led to riots across Italy and forced the suspension or postponement of three matches. Authorities detained four people on Monday for taking part in the violence in Rome.
Italian researchers have found the skeleton of a 10m-long prehistoric whale in the Tuscan countryside, a discovery that could help shed light on the ancient environment of the sea, officials said on Tuesday. The skeleton dates to four million years ago, to the Pliocene epoch, and was found in almost perfect order.
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/ 17 October 2006
Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo, who directed the black-and-white classic The Battle of Algiers, died in Rome on October 12, hospital officials said. He was 86. Pontecorvo died at the Polyclinic Gemelli hospital, said hospital spokesperson Nicola Cerbino. The cause of the death was not given, but reports said he had suffered a heart attack months ago.
Italy’s Premier Silvio Berlusconi resigned on Tuesday, paving the way for a centre-left government led by Romano Prodi after weeks of refusing to acknowledge the outcome of last month’s elections. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi asked Berlusconi to remain temporarily as caretaker prime minister.
Italy’s foreign affairs minister said on Tuesday that United States troops killed an Italian intelligence officer by accident, but disputed Washington’s version of events and demanded US authorities thoroughly investigate the incident. The minister said the car carrying the officer and an ex-hostage to freedom was not speeding and US troops did not order it to stop.