Ah, Tyrol. That highland of long white socks, short pants, curled mustaches, broad hats with feathers in them, big Alp-horns, Jodler songs, and beer... Lots of beer!
After surviving a number of sex scandals involving under-age prostitutes, charges of corruption, shady business deals, disastrous diplomatic gaffes, and accusations of abuse of power, it looked like Berlusconi had started believing he was truly untouchable. But now reality has proven him wrong.
Berlusconi has practically ceased ruling in Italy for some time. Now he's merely an actor, a poseur. It's what he does best. But now - surprise, surprise! - he's come up with a giant "reform plan". Do bear with me, though. The devil is in the details. For instance, while under that plan the police in a number of regions will remain without money
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Italy is desperately looking for solutions to its debt crisis. And it may have found them in... China. Italian representatives have reportedly negotiated with the largest sovereign investment fund in the world, China Investment Corp. Italy is hoping that the Chinese will invest in Italian debt and various Italian companies (source: FT).
A small Italian town of just under 600 has declaired independence from Italy. They even had issued their own money.
After all, the mayor says, Italy was once made up of dozens of principalities and dukedoms. As he says, the landlocked republic of San Marino still manages to survive, so why not
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I'm a bit late, but I bring you this in honor of the release of Duke Nukem Forever. Which I won't actually play but was too good a reference not to make.
Italy is poised to vote on chucking their whole nuclear program the same way Germany did. With people freaked about nuclear power and the idea of
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"Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), will face trial on charges of manslaughter with six other scientists and technicians for failing to alert the residents of L'Aquila ahead of the devastating earthquake that struck the central Italian town on 6 April 2009, killing 308 people. "Read more... )