Unemployment nudges back up

Consumer group describes figures as 'disastrous'

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - Consumer rights group Codacons on Tuesday described as "disastrous" new figures for unemployment in Italy, which saw the national jobless rate nudge back up to 12.6% in May from 12.5% in April and 12.1% in May 2013 as the country struggled to emerge from its longest and deepest recession since the second world war. The figures "testify to the total failure of Italy's political class," said Codacons of the preliminary estimates published by the national statistics institute Istat, which nonetheless put joblessness among 15-24 year olds down slightly at 43% from 43.3% the previous month but up 4.2% compared to May 2013.

In absolute terms an estimated 3.2 million people of employment age were out of work in May, 127,000 more than in the same month in 2013, Istat said. However, on a percentage basis this represented a "slight improvement" over the all-time high of 12.7% in January and February, the agency added.

Meanwhile female unemployment reached 13.8%, the highest level since monthly records began in 2004. Susanna Camusso, leader of Italy's biggest labour union confederation CGIL, urged the government of Premier Matteo Renzi to invest in job creation as the only effective tool for kickstarting the economy and bringing the jobless rate down. "There can be no chance of a real recovery without investment in creating jobs and a reduction of the unemployment rate, which is now extremely high both among those who have been made redundant and among youth," Camusso said in a radio interview with state broadcaster RAI.

Marchionne says Fiat rejoining Confindustria unlikely

Chrysler merger 'should be approved in August'

(ANSA) - Grugliasco, June 30 - Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said Monday it was unlikely Fiat would rejoin the powerful industrialists' confederation Confindustria. "I won't exclude it, but I won't include it either," said Marchionne. The Italian automaker left Confindustria in October 2011 to avoid national labor contracts struck with unions by Confindustria. Marchionne was speaking at a Confindustria assembly held in a Maserati factory outside Turin, where Maserati's parent company Fiat is based. He went on to discuss Fiat's merger with Chrysler, which he said should be approved at a shareholders' assembly at the beginning of August. Marchionne reiterated that the new company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), will make its Wall Street debut in the first two weeks of October. By listing on the New York Stock Exchange, FCA will be more widely traded and better able to raise capital.

Fiat gained full control of Chrysler in a $4.35-billion deal with a United Auto Workers union healthcare trust earlier this year. The world's seventh-biggest automaker will have its headquarters in the Netherlands, maintain a UK tax base, and will be listed on the New York and Milan stock markets. 

More than 65,000 illegal immigrants to Italy already in 2014

Total illegal immigration already exceeds 2011 previous record

(ANSA) - Rome, June 30 - As many as 65,000 illegal immigrants already have arrived in Italy by sea this year, more than in the entire previous record year of 2011, the Interior ministry said Monday. In 2011 some 63,000 illegal immigrants were recorded but ministry statisticians predict that as many as 100,000 could land on the peninsula and its islands in 2014 unless action is taken in countries such as Libya to prevent departures of Africans and others trying to reach Europe illegally, the ministry said.

In all 61,585 foreigners have landed in Italy this year while nearly 5000 others will be dropped off in Italian ports over the next two days after they were rescued in the Mediterranean over the past 24 hours by Italian Navy ships deployed to help clandestine immigrants as part of Operation Mare Nostrum and by Italian merchant ships, the ministry said. 

Anti-mafia spending 'investment' for Italy, crimefighter say

True development contingent on curbing mob - national prosecutor

(ANSA) Naples, June 30 - Southern Italy's economy will never develop truly as long as powerful organised crime gangs scare off foreign investors, the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor, Franco Roberti, said Monday. "Up to now security and justice have been seen as debits against the state budget, now the philosophy of public expenditure needs to be inverted so that they are considered as investments," Roberti told reporters on the fringes of a ceremony awarding the Amato Lamberti prize in Naples.

Roberti called on politicians "to make a choice that has never been done so far and consider the struggle against organised crime a priority for government action." "This means putting all the means necessary into the field, without looking too much at the spending review, but going beyond it in the name of the priority that the fight against organised crime ought to be". "There will never be true development in Italy's south as long as there is the organised crime risk for investors, especially foreign investors," he added. "That is why I say that security and justice are necessary for economic development and should be considered investments," Roberti said. 

Porn star ex-companion charged with 'lady in lake' murder

Franco Mossoni 'killed Federica Giacomini aka Ginevra Hollander'

(ANSA) - Vicenza, June 30 - The former companion of an Italian porn star was charged with her murder Monday, 13 days after her body was found in a crate at the bottom of Lake Garda. Franco Mossoni, 55, currently in a psychiatric hospital after breaking into a ward dressed as Rambo in March, was arrested on suspicion of killing Federica Giacomini aka Ginevra Hollander and throwing her body into the lake.

Giacomini went missing from Vicenza February 9. Mossoni recently completed a jail term for killing a man in Lombardy in the late 1970s. He had been living with the well-known performer, 43, in her home town Brescia.

Mossoni has been sectioned in a psychiatric ward since the March 20 incident, when he threatened staff with a toy gun. Police later found crossbows, knives, women's clothing and documents belonging to Giacomini in the room Mossoni had in her flat. 

Suarez says sorry to Chiellini, 'won't bite again

'There will never be this kind of incident again' tweets striker

(ANSA) - Rome, June 30 - Luis Suarez on Monday apologised to Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini for biting him during Uruguay's 1-0 knockout win over the Azzurri last week. "I'm deeply sorry for what happened, I apologise to Chiellini and the whole football family, and I promise the public there will never be an incident of this kind again," Suarzez tweeted.

It was the fist public admission of guilty by the talented Uruguay striker who as recently as Saturday said he hadn't meant to bite the Juve defender but had fallen over and accidentally hit him with his teeth. The striker got a 9-match, 4-month ban which Chiellini described as "harsh".

Uruguay fans waved face masks of Suarez in his honour during their 2-0 round of 16 exit to Colombia Saturday. Uruguay President José Mujica said Sunday Suarez was the victim of an "old band of sons of bitches" at Fifa. 

Trevi fountain restoration starts

Fendi funds renovation of icon immortalised by La Dolce Vita

(ANSA) - Rome, June 30 - Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino and the management of the Fendi fashion house on Monday opened restoration work on the world-famous Trevi Fountain, one of the most iconic spots in Rome.

"We hope to restore this treasured landmark to the city in the autumn of 2015, Marino said. "Doing a traditional lucky coin toss into the legendary fountain," Marino said "it's fundamental to get private sponsors for this kind of large-scale work where public funds simply aren't enough to cover the costs". Workers on Monday were giving the final touches to a walkway above the central portion of the fountain which will enable tourists to get a better glimpse of ongoing work on the 18th-century Baroque masterpiece by Nicola Salvi immortalized by many movie stars, including Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. A small white fountain was also installed on Monday morning so visitors will still be able to cast their coins for luck.

Water has been drained for the renovation process which is expected to last one year and a half. Fendi is funding the restoration of the Trevi Fountain in an initiative similar to work on the Colosseum and the Spanish steps, funded respectively by Tod's entrepreneur Diego Della Valle and jeweler Bulgari. Fendi, one of the biggest names in Italian fashion, has donated 2.12 million euros to restore the Trevi Fountain in the first of a series of projects aimed to protect Rome's historic fountains.

In January, then Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno and the chairman and chief executive of Fendi, Pietro Beccari, announced Fendi's ambitious plan to save one of the city's most romantic landmarks at a joint media conference with Silvia Venturini Fendi and designer Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of Fendi who is also backing the project. Entitled 'Fendi for Fountains', the initiative includes sponsorship for a two-year restoration of the Trevi Fountain as well as plans to restore the Four Fountains sculpture on the busy Via XX September in the heart of the Eternal City.

After several months of negotiations Fendi handed over the funds for the restoration of the Trevi in December last year and made a significant contribution towards the preservation of the other fountain, which is covered in the sooty emissions of the thousands of cars that pass by it every day. "The restoration of the Trevi Fountain, one of the best-known Roman monuments in the world, shows the importance of cooperation between public and private support," Mayor Alemanno said at the time. Italy's cash-strapped cultural authorities are increasingly looking to private sponsors for support despite widespread concern that they might commercially exploit their link with the country's beloved monuments.

Last year cultural officials approved a controversial plan to restore the Colosseum with 25 million euros in funding provided by luxury shoemaker Tod's. Opponents have raised questions about whether Tod's will exploit the move for publicity and its commencement was long delayed by a legal challenge. But officials stressed that Fendi was willing to cover the cost of covering the restoration of the Trevi without seeking any publicity in return. "This is an historic day for our city," said Dino Gasperini, the councillor for cultural affairs and the historic centre. "This doesn't happen every day".

The Trevi Fountain was built between 1732 and 1762 above an ancient Roman aqueduct. Every year millions of tourists from around the world stop by the fountain for a photo or to toss a coin over their shoulder which according to local legend will bring them back to Rome.

Last year the city of Rome was forced to carry out emergency work at a cost of 320,000 euros after a piece of the monument fell off and Alemanno appealed to large companies and wealthy individuals to intervene and help save the monument. At Monday's media conference, Umberto Broccoli, Rome's cultural superintendent, held up a fallen fragment of the fountain to underscore the urgency and importance of the Fendi proposal. Restoration of the Trevi is expected to take 20 months and be completed in 2015 while work on the Four Fountains monument is expected to be put to tender before the end of 2013.