Italian police seize 121 sticks of TNT from WWII shipwreck

Explosives were being tapped by 'Ndrangheta mafia

(ANSA) - Reggio Calabria, May 21 - Italian police on Wednesday seized 121 sticks of TNT recovered by navy divers from the hold of a freighter that was sunken in World War II. Anti-mafia police in the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria believe the stash of TNT sticks of 200 grams each was tapped and used in the past by members of the Reggine clans of the Calabrian Ndrangheta mafia.

Divers from the Comsubin unit of the Italian navy, which is based in the Tuscan city of La Spezia, removed the dynamite from the freighter Laura C, wrecked in July 1943 off the coast of the toe of Italy's boot in the Ionian sea.

The operation, coordinated by Reggio Calabria's DDA anti-mafia police, took several days. At the centre of the stash was a hole for installing an eventual trigger. Investigators said mafia clan members used the hole to collect the dynamite. 

Almost 7,000 complaints of prison overcrowding in Italy

European Court of Human Rights deadline approaches

(ANSA) - Strasbourg, May 21 - The European Court of Human Rights has received 6,829 complaints against inhumane conditions caused by prison overcrowding in Italy, the court told ANSA on Wednesday. The complaints are similar to those cited in a January 2013 sentence in which the Strasbourg court ordered Italy to address the "degrading and inhumane conditions" in its prisons.

The Strasbourg court gave Italy until May 27, 2014 to correct overcrowding, which is a contributing factor in the high incidence of self-injury and suicide among the country's inmates. Justice Minister Andrea Orlando on March 25 said Italy's prison population still exceeded legal capacity by around 10,000 inmates. At the time of the sentence, Italy's jail population stood at just over 65,700 compared to around 47,500 available places.

The figure had fallen to around 60,800 in March, and Orlando said he hoped to see the gap narrow further. In December the government of ex-premier Enrico Letta passed a controversial decree aimed at reducing overcrowding by releasing some inmates early. Since then the succeeding government of Matteo Renzi has softened sentences for light-drug offenders. 

Italian 'Madoff' arrested over '600-mn-euro fraud'

JP Morgan, SNAM among victims, say prosecutors

(ANSA) - Milan, May 21 - Alberto Micalizzi, an academic who has been dubbed the 'Madoff' of Milan's Bocconi University, was arrested on Thursday over allegations he orchestrated a series of fraudulent financial operations damaging big companies.

The fraud's total value is estimated at over 600 million euros, judicial sources said. The companies affected include JP Morgan, Pirelli, natural-gas infrastucture company SNAM, banks UBS and UBI Banca and financial-services firm Simgest.

On Wednesday police put a total of eight people under arrest and issued restrictive measures against seven others, while around 50 people are being probed, the sources said. Micalizzi is accused of being the ringleader of two criminal organisations, including one featuring Turkish and Russian accomplices, that pulled off a series of frauds via false bank guarantees.

Micalizzi suspended himself from his position of researcher at Milan's Bocconi University after being at the centre of another investigation in 2011 over an alleged fraud of around $500 million by a company he founded called Dynamic Decisions. He also spent a number of months under house arrest last year following a separate probe in Turin after allegedly conning investors with promises on interest of their capital of up to 6% a day. 

American Academy in Rome fetes centenary with exhibit

Illustrious residents include Aaron Copeland, Elliott Carter

(ANSA) - Rome, May 21 - The American Academy in Rome celebrated the 100th anniversary of its famous headquarters on Wednesday with the unveiling of an exhibition devoted to its building's designers. Building an Idea: McKim, Mead & White and the American Academy in Rome, 1914-2014 looks at the residential palazzo's design, construction and early critical reception, as well as the legendary architectural firm behind it, through drawings, plans, photographs and other archival material. Founded in 1894, the American Academy rented space for years in other villas before moving into its current space on the Gianicolo, Rome's highest hill overlooking the city center and the Vatican. In its illustrious history, the Academy has hosted resident US scholars and artists who have won the Rome Prize, including composers Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter. 

Probe into Biagi's death opened

Documents seized from Scajola contribute to move - sources

(ANSA) - Bologna, May 21 - Bologna prosecutors have opened a probe into suspicions officials may have failed to take action to prevent the murder of labour ministry aide Marco Biagi by Red Brigades terrorists in March 2002, ANSA sources said Wednesday. The prosecutors are trying to establish whether anyone is guilty of the crime of homicide by culpable omission. The investigation has been opened with the help of interior ministry documents seized from former minister Claudio Scajola in an operation related to a separate probe into allegations he helped a Mafia-linked fugitive former MP, the sources said.

That probe led to the arrest this month of Scajola, a member of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party who remains in a Rome jail. Scajola was interior minister at the time of Biagi's murder. Biagi was killed after his security escort had been removed.

There have been reports Scajola may have received a letter from an MP warning that the aide was in danger. Scajola was forced to resign as interior minister in July 2002 after sparking controversy by saying Biagi had been a "pain in the a**e" and that if he had been given an escort "three people would have been killed instead of one". Scajola also served as government-program minister from 2003 to 2005 and industry minister from 2008 to 2010 under two separate Berlusconi governments.

Scajola was forced to resign as industry minister in 2010 as a result of a scandal about a shady real-estate deal involving an expensive home with a view on Rome's iconic Colosseum. In January a judge acquitted Scajola in that case, saying his assertion that businessman Diego Anemone had paid for most of the flat for him without his knowledge was credible. Prosecutors are appealing against the acquittal. 

Defence minister says marines can't be judged in India

Roberta Pinotti warns recourse to arbitration if govt talks fail

(ANSA) - Brindisi, May 21 - The Italian defence minister on Wednesday said two Italian marines held in India in the deaths of two fishermen two years ago should not be judged in that country. “This government says emphatically that our two marines can not be judged in India, because they are soldiers who were on a mission on behalf of our country," Roberta Pinotti said near the southern Italian coastal city of Brindisi, where she is visiting the San Marco navy brigade headquarters.

"We will continue to look for mediation with the new Indian government, and we will not even wait for one day to pass to go to arbitration," added Pinotti. "We forcefully call for the internationalization of the affair which means the involvement of our allies, because anti-pirate missions also regard other countries," Pinotti said. "I never forget on any day that there are two San Marco riflemen who in this moment are not with their companions in arms, but in India, imprisoned for two years without charges," she said.

Pinotti’s statements come the day after she said Italy was in talks with India’s new centre-right government led by Narendra Modi which emerged victorious from India’s marathon elections that ended in mid-May. Pinotti said Tuesday that if the Indian government does not take a favorable stance toward Italy’s position, Italy will proceed immediately to arbitration.

Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone have been held in India under mobility restrictions for over two years pending trial after allegedly shooting dead fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki aboard their trawler during an anti-piracy mission in February 2012. Last month, the Italian government announced it was opening a "new phase" in the saga, replacing its special envoy on the case and sending its ambassador back to New Delhi to help steer the case towards arbitration by an international organisation such as the UN. 

Jeep has potential to be marquee brand says Marchionne

'Incredibly proud' of Fiat-Chrysler merger says CEO

(ANSA) - New York, May 21 - With production volume predicted to triple by 2018, Jeep has the potential to be the most global brand in the arsenal of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), CEO Sergio Marchionne said Wednesday. The Canadian-Italian was speaking to TV financial news broadcaster CNBC, weeks after his newly merged FCA announced in its five-year plan that Chrysler's Jeep division was aiming to hit a target of selling one million vehicles in 2014, and nearly double that by 2018. Last year the SUV-maker sold 732,000 units. Manufacturing of Jeeps is to expand to 10 plants in six countries, far beyond its production plants now in the United States, according to the plan.

That will include new plants in China and Brazil, which officials said are expected to represent more than 30% of the global SUV market. Marchionne hatched the audacious idea to take over Chrysler after Fiat rescued the bankrupt Detroit automaker amid the US economic crisis in 2009.

Five years later, Fiat finally gained full control in a $4.35-billion US deal with a United Auto Workers union healthcare trust approved in January. It has also become more global, with FCA's new headquarters in the Netherlands, its tax base in the UK, and will be listed on the New York and Milan stock markets. "I'm incredibly proud of what we've done," Marchionne told CNBC.

The CNBC interview at following link:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101693496