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ANSA. American pop sensation Lady Gaga flaunted her Italian roots and her bigger ''ass and curves'' after some weight gain in the first of three Italian concerts on her Monsters Ball world tour in Turin Tuesday. (Read the article)
ANSA. - Dino De Laurentiis, a mogul who moved from Italian postwar masterpieces to Oscar-winning Fellini films, cult flicks Barbarella and Conan the Barbarian and Hollywood smashes like Death Wish, King Kong and the Hannibal franchise, has died in his Los Angeles home at the age of 91. (Read the article)
On November 10, it will officially be announced at the Consulate General of Italy in New York the re-instatement of the Advanced Placement (AP) Program in Italian Language and Culture beginning in the 2011-12 academic year. The program, known as AP Italian, became in 2005 the first new foreign language and culture program that the College Board had instituted in over 50 years. It was suspended following the 2008-2009 school year because of a lack of funding and will be re-instated also thanks to the generous contributions of Italian companies and major Italian-American organization. The announcement will be followed by a signing ceremony between the Italian Government and the College Board. The Honorable Vincenzo Scotti, Italy’s Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, Ambassador of Italy to the United States, will be in attendance.
Piaggio on Tuesday presented its new four-wheel Vespa designed to replace its popular three-wheeled 'Ape' light commercial urban transporter on the Asian and European markets. (Read the article)
OBSERVER. Martin Scorsese revealed a restored version of La Dolce Vita this past weekend, newly preserved by his Film Foundation. (Read the article)
ANSA. The impact of Italy, its culture and history on Britain's influential 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite movement is explored in a new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in the English city of Oxford. (Read the article)
ANSA. alloween is pagan and against the spirit of Christianity, an influential Catholic Church group said Friday. (Read the article)
A hard-earned victory awaited Joseph Sciame in Washington on Saturday. The Vice President for Community Relations at St. John's University was elected Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations. He defeated his primary opponent Andre DiMino, recent Past President of UNICO, by a landslide.
Mr Sciame has been a National Past President of the Order Sons of Italy in America, and is President/Chairperson of New York's Italian Heritage and Culture Committee of New York, Inc., the organization that for more than thirty years has organized special events, concerts, exhibits, lectures, to celebrate Italian culture in New York, the largest Italian city outside Italy.
His Vice-Chair will be Aileen Riotto-Sirey, President of the National Organization of Italian American Women.
TIME. In southern Italy, the Mafia wars are heating up. On Monday, Italy will deploy an expected 80 soldiers into the city of Reggio Calabria, on the toe of Italy's boot, to provide security for anti-Mafia prosecutors who have been repeatedly threatened by the powerful 'Ndrangheta criminal organization.
The ramped-up precautions come after a campaign of escalating intimidation of public officials, which has included death threats, envelopes with bullets in them, a homemade bomb that blew up in the entrance to the courthouse in January and a package of dynamite that exploded outside a prosecutor's house in August. (Read the Article by Stephan Faris)
ANSA. A five-year restoration of a crucifix from the Florence church of Ognissanti (All Saints) is over and the newly acclaimed artefact will take its rightful place there as the work of Giotto, restorers said Thursday. (Read the article)