Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday that ”drastic measures” may be needed to stem the rise of violence at Italian soccer stadiums. Tuesday’s Champions League second-leg quarterfinal between Inter Milan and AC Milan was cut short late in the second half after Inter fans threw flares on to the field.
Juventus and Liverpool fans hurled objects at one another during a pre-game ceremony on Wednesday recalling the Heysel Stadium tragedy. Liverpool visited Juventus for the first time since 39 people were crushed to death in riots blamed largely on Liverpool supporters at the 1985 European Cup final in Brussels, Belgium.
The second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal between AC Milan and Inter Milan was abandoned when Inter fans behind the goal threw scores of flares on to the pitch, one of them striking AC Milan goalkeeper Nelson Dida. German referee Markus Merk stopped the game with Milan leading 1-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate.
”How do we get to the end of that queue over there?” asked Patrizia Laudenzi, shielding her eyes with one hand as she peered down the Tiber. ”You’re at the end of the queue, Signora,” the police officer replied. Laudenzi gave him one of those you’re-winding-me-up-aren’t-you kind of smiles. Until she realised he wasn’t.
A man who withheld conjugal relations with his wife for seven years has been forced to pay alimony. The man refused to have sex with his wife after she opposed him in a family argument. The highest Italian appeals court found that the man’s inaction regarding his wife amounted to an "offence to her dignity".
Michael Schumacher tested his new Ferrari for the first time on Wednesday in a hurried effort to get the car into action and improve on his poor start to the season. ”My feelings are good,” Schumacher said after driving 50 laps in the new car. ”I realised immediately that the F-2005 is fast.”
Dr Donatella Lippi calls it a ”terrible problem”. She and other researchers who have spent the past 10 months prising open the tombs of one of Europe’s most illustrious families, the Medicis of Florence, have got more than they bargained for. They have found the remains of eight children they cannot place on the family tree.
AC Milan rejoined Juventus at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win over Roma in Rome on Sunday for the reigning champions’ eighth consecutive league victory and their 10th in all competitions. After a goalless first half, Hernan Crespo put Milan ahead with a superb header before winning a penalty that Andrea Pirlo converted.
Brazilian striker Adriano scored a stunning hat-trick as Inter Milan beat holders Porto 3-1 in Milan on Tuesday in their Champions League first knockout round second-leg match to dump them out of the competition and become the third Italian team to reach the quarterfinals.
Pope John Paul II made a surprise appearance at a hospital window on Wednesday, giving the Roman Catholic faithful their third glimpse of him since he was rushed back to the clinic for throat surgery nearly two weeks ago. The 84-year-old pontiff’s brief appearance came on a day when he traditionally holds his weekly public audience at the Vatican.
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.
No image available
/ 25 February 2005
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has warned their rivals not to underestimate the reigning champions. ”No one has fallen asleep over these past months,” Montezemolo said on Friday when the world champions launched what they said is their best car to date, but which will not be raced for the first four grands prix of 2005.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
Art experts and conservative clerics are holding an unusual ”trial” in the hometown of Leonardo da Vinci. Concerned about the legions of fans of The Da Vinci Code who take claims in the book as gospel truth, the mock tribunal aims to sort out fact from fiction. The event in Vinci, just outside Florence, was to begin late on Friday.
No image available
/ 14 February 2005
An Italian shopkeeper with an incurable tumour confessed to committing 13 bank robberies in 18 months but said he did it to care for his family after his death, a police official said on Monday. The 53-year-old man raked in a haul of €115 000 before being spotted by chance by plainclothes police, police said.
No image available
/ 14 February 2005
Investors reacted positively on Monday to the news that General Motors will pay Fiat â,¬1,55-billion (-billion) to divorce its loss-making Italian partner. Shares in Fiat were up more than 4% during morning trading in Milan on the back of what was being described as a victorious outcome for the Italian carmaker.
No image available
/ 5 February 2005
It’s going to be all right. The pope is on the mend. He has had a few sips of water, has begun eating, and is breathing normally again. While the ailing 84-year-old was lying in hospital this week, Vatican business continued pretty much as normal, and the cogs of the Vatican’s vast internal bureaucracy will continue to turn in his absence.
No image available
/ 2 February 2005
”It’s like this every time the pope is hospitalised,” said the doctor clad in his white coat at the entrance to Rome’s Gemelli hospital, surrounded by a crush of reporters from around the world pushing to get information about Pope John Paul II’s health. The journalists ”took all the parking spaces”, said a patient’s father.
No image available
/ 26 January 2005
Who will rise 86 storeys in about 45 minutes on February 1 and then plan on doing it again next year? The answer, if experience is a guide, is Chico Scimone, a 94-year-old Italian musician. Scimone will be among the more than 150 athletes taking part in the annual Fleet Empire State Building Run-Up.
No image available
/ 24 January 2005
A mystery bug has paralysed remote-control devices for opening car doors, garages and gates in a district of the town of Aosta in northern Italy, an environmental protection agency said on Friday. The agency, Arpa, admitted it has as yet no idea what the problem is.
No image available
/ 24 January 2005
The Roman Catholic Church in Italy has described as "blasphemy" an advertising campaign in Saturday’s daily newspapers using the image of the Virgin Mary holding the steering wheel of a car. The advertisement shows a minature statue of the Virgin Mary on the dashboard of a car holding a miniature wheel.
No image available
/ 15 January 2005
A Polish woman who pretended to be a ghost and ”haunted” an Alpine castle was sentenced to four months in prison by an Italian court on Friday. Police were called in to investigate mysterious creaking doors and other unexplained nocturnal noises heard in 15th-century Castel Coldrano, near the Swiss and Austrian borders.
A 28-year-old bricklayer has gained cult status among ordinary Italians after he threw a camera tripod at the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, on New Year’s Eve, leaving him with a bruise at the back of his head. Roberto dal Bosco told journalists he had not planned to attack the prime minister but could not stop himself when he saw Berlusconi.
Michelangelo’s David had centuries of gunk picked out of every nook and cranny of his perfect marble body last year in honour of his 500th birthday. But it seems the statue will be dirty again soon if it is not protected from the millions of visitors who traipse past it every year. Experts are considering blasting air from behind the 5m-high statue at the crowds of admirers.
No image available
/ 18 December 2004
One of the bloodiest gang wars in Naples’s modern history is being played out in tower blocks strung with fairy lights and along high streets dotted with chuckling, mechanical Santas. Since the start of November, 28 people have died in killings linked to the Camorra, the Naples equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia.
No image available
/ 16 December 2004
Going to the dentist can be a stressful enough experience. But patients in Italy now have to contend with a new concern: wondering if the dentist knows enough to tell a molar from a macaroon. The police have uncovered a ring selling dental qualifications. A degree cost 200Â 000 euros (about R1,5-million).
No image available
/ 11 December 2004
Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was on Friday night cleared of the most serious corruption charge hanging over him when a Milan court ruled that a key accusation — that of bribing a judge with almost 000 — was ”out of time”. He was found not guilty of all other charges.
No image available
/ 9 December 2004
It is the oddest offer ever made available in shoe shops: ”Buy two, get a third for free.” Yet, this is precisely what two Milan-based entrepreneurs have come up with as they seek to break the monopoly of pairs and revolutionise a fashion principle that has resisted bravely for several thousand years.
No image available
/ 17 November 2004
Fed up with living with his mother, a 26-year-old Italian got himself arrested on Wednesday by hurling a rock at a police car and smashing one of its windows, the Ansa news agency reported. The incident took place in Florence after police were asked to intervene in a family squabble between a woman and her son.
No image available
/ 29 October 2004
European Union leaders on Friday signed a first-ever Constitution for the expanding bloc, in a landmark ceremony on the spot in Rome where its forerunner was founded nearly half a century ago. The Constitution, agreed in June after two years of haggling, aims to streamline EU institutions and prevent decision-making gridlock.
No image available
/ 26 October 2004
Diners in a small town in central Italy went a step beyond the vision of bulls in china shops when they witnessed a furious bull storming into their restaurant. According to media reports on Tuesday, the bull horned open the front door of the La Divina restaurant, in the town of San Vittore del Lazio, and then charged its tables, causing panic.
No image available
/ 18 October 2004
A driverless diesel locomotive thundered nearly 200km through southern Italy at 80kph on Friday before line staff managed to derail it at a disused station. The driver had set the engine in motion, leaned out to see if the line ahead was clear, then slipped and fell from his cabin.
No image available
/ 27 September 2004
Pope John Paul II on Sunday denounced the ”imbalance” between the world’s rich and poor and applauded efforts to eliminate hunger, like the recent United Nations initiative to increase funds for development. On Monday, the presidents of Brazil and France encouraged 110 countries to back a new declaration to fight hunger and poverty and to increase funds for development.