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The Lakers needed a win. They lost three games in a row. And last night’s game against Toronto was a difficult place to start.

But the Lakers found an incredible assist for its win. And it was help from a person that wasn’t even on court. Kobe Bryant’s team defeated the Toronto Raptors of Andrea Bargnani with the decisive help of Lapo Elkann, says Corriere della Sera.

The Agnelli family and Fiat heir “helped” the Lakers during the final moments of the game by anticipating the Raptors playmaker Josè Calderon on a ball that was going out of bounds. With 1:48 mins left, Elkann, who was sitting in first row, prevented Calderon from keeping the ball in play, and ultimately received a standing ovation by Lakers fans. Obviously Calderon disagreed. At the end of the match the Italian Bargnani said: “It was a crucial moment, we were trailing by two points. What was he trying to do?”

Elkann, apologized to Calderon during the match saying: “I saw the ball going out and I hit it. I’m not an expert on basketball”. The game, won 109-107 by the Lakers, was decided by a Kobe Bryant shot at the buzzer. We’ll see if in the next Nba Draft the LA Lakers will pick Lapo Elkann to once again defeat the Toronto Raptors. The Staples Centre has found a new hero.

The murder of Meredith Kercher wasn’t premeditated.

This is the result of the detailed ruling written by judges of the sensational trial that sentenced Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox to 25 and 26 years, respectively, for the murder of Meredith Kercher.

According to judges, the picture of the crime is clear: Meredith suffered sexual violence before being killed. This was demonstrated by a physiological test which found traces of accomplice Rudy Guede’s Y chromosome in vaginal swabs taken during Kercher’s autopsy. Guede was sentences to 16 years after he plead guilty in a ‘fast-track trial.’

Judges talk about an “escalation of violence” unleashed by the refusal of the victim to the erotic demands of the trio. She was wounded in the throat (the cause of her death) because the killers wanted to intimidate and force her to undergo their sexual games. Meredith’s murder wasn’t premeditated, and immediately after, Amanda and Raffaele ‘repented’ and covered the body. The scene of the crime showed that it was a murder without programming, without any animosity or feeling resentment toward the victim.  A series of chance led to Meredith’s death- a murder that destroyed a young life, and that will destroy other three young lives in prison.

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• Kercher Killers ‘Covered Body In Repentance’ (news.sky.com)
• Italian judges release reasons for convicting Knox (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Amanda Knox Judge: She Killed Casually (abcnews.go.com)

Check, please.

The bill for the most expensive G8 in history has now arrived totaling a full €512 million . This is the expense that Italy spent for last year’s G8 Summit, which was moved from the island of La Maddalena to L’Aquila. And it was simply due to a PR stunt orchestrated during Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sex scandal crisis.

The most incredible thing is that the G8 venue at La Maddalena was already prepared and had been for months… at a huge cost.  New hotels, conference rooms, docks, and streets were built or renovated for a total cost of €327 million. Money wasted. Money which magistrates are now investigating due to an emerging conflict-of-interests scandal which would have seen lucrative construction contracts awarded to the usual “friends of friends”.

Following the polemics over bribes received by the Civil Protection agency, it should not be excluded that something fishy took place even for the G8 preparations.

So, €327million have been thrown away. But why? Because Silvio Berlusconi decided to move the G8 Summit from a renovated and rebuilt La Maddelena to L’Aquila, the city that had recently been devastated by an earthquake. Over a mere few months a new G8 was organized with the government spending further €200 million in L’Aquila.

When the internally displaced citizens of L’Aquila now feel the coming summer heat in their refugee tents, they will remember the millions of euros in frivolities spent for the ‘world’s great leaders’.  Yes, Italy’s G8 farce was an incredible waste of public money and suspicion now falls upon those who may be responsible for such reckless greed.

Read the article here.

When you have heard many promises, and these promises weren’t kept, you’re bound to explode. This is what is happening in L’Aquila, Italy.

According to Corriere della Sera, the city destroyed by the April 6^th earthquake is still waiting for the many promises made by the government to become reality. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had promised that all the L’Aquila inhabitants would be able to return to their homes before September. It is now February and the situation remains unchanged. Many citizens are still out of their homes and the city itself remains in bad conditions.

So, the residents of L’Aquila are now trying to react. In the last two weekends, thousands of citizens forced themselves into the “red zone” in L’Aquila city center, closed since the quake, to protest against the Italian government. Protesters, led by L’Aquila’s mayor, began a symbolic protest by hanging the keys of their abandoned homes in the town piazza. This protest has taken the name of “The protest of the keys.”

“The citizens express their rage. They’re frightened by the delays in construction and because almost nothing has been done,” said the mayor. “The removal of debris is the biggest problem. We’re alone, and we can’t remove debris without state help. It’s impossible to remove 4 tons of debris. And if the debris is still here, we can’t build a new city.”

During the peaceful protest there was also a protest against one RAI Italian TV crew. The L’Aquila inhabitants accused the journalists of only generating pro-government propaganda and ignoring the real problems of the city.

Dozens of Basiji militants, supporters of the Iranian government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have tried to assault the Italian embassy in Teheran shouting “Death to Italy, death to Silvio Berlusconi,” reports Corriere della Sera.

The militants, dressed as civilians tried to assault the embassy with stones and continued their aggressions against both the French and Dutch embassies.

The news was released by the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, during a Senate hearing. There were no reports about wounded staff, but the attack, he said, was ‘worrying’.  The cause of the Iran militants’ assault is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s criticisms of Ahmadinejad made during a visit to Israel. According to Iranian state television, Berlusconi and the Italian government were named as ’slaves of Israel.’

The Italian Foreign Minister Frattini then announced that he had given instructions to Italy’s ambassador in Tehran, Alberto Bradanini, to have no part in the ceremonies taking place on Thursday at the 31^st anniversary of the Iranian republic.

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• Italy PM: We cannot accept a nuclear Iran (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Silvio Berlusconi received new and heavy accusations about relationships between him and the Sicilian Mafia dating back to the early 90s, reports Italy’s Corriere della Sera.

The most recent claims from Massimo Ciancimino (son of the former Palermo mayor accused of collaborating with Cosa Nostra) state that the Italian PM’s political party, Forza Italia, was created in 1992 after a long negotiation between the Mafia and the state. The birth of the party would be a mechanism to help both Berlusconi and the Mafia enrich themselves and accumulate power.

The accusations were supported by a “pizzino” (Mafia slang for a little message written on a small piece of paper) sent by the former Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano to Silvio Berlusconi and his right-hand man Marcello Dell’Utri (already convicted for associating with the Mafia).

“My father said that the relationship between the Mafia and Forza Italia were significant, and that Berlusconi was representing Provenzano’s will.  On one hand, the Prime Minister solved many of his problems at the national level, and on the other hand Provenzano promised the Mafia’s help for his party. In the years since, the two entities grew their businesses and their relationship lasted for years.”

Massimo Ciancimino continues to accuse Berlusconi but now he even has evidence.  If all this were to be true, Italy would now be facing the biggest scandal in the history of the Italian republic.

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• Silvio Berlusconi linked with mafia bombing campaign (telegraph.co.uk)
• Witness links Berlusconi to Mafia bombing (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Silvio Berlusconi linked to mafia in court evidence (guardian.co.uk)

Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday praised the United States’ leadership of the relief effort in quake-hit Haiti in an attempt to soothe anger over riticism levelled by the Italian special envoy this weekend.

”In critical situations like the one in Haiti, organizational difficulties are inevitable,” Berlusconi warranted.

”But without the US’s intervention, managing the situation would have been much more difficult”.

”Everyone is doing their best in Haiti and right now, we need to stop being critical and focus our energies on the enormous task at hand,” he said.

Regarding remarks by Civil Protection Chief Guido Bertolaso who, during a Sunday telecast direct from Haiti, bemoaned a lack of central coordination, Berlusconi said that ”at times like these, it’s best to avoid making statements that could lead to misunderstandings”.

He added that Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had clarified the government’s position on Monday during talks in Washington with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Despite playing down criticism as ”armchair quarterbacking” during a joint press conference with Frattini, Clinton said Tuesday that she ”deeply resented” insinuations that the US had done less than it could.

”We have scrambled as quick as we could to do everything needed in the past two weeks,” she said.

While Clinton did not single out any detractors in particular, she did point out that the troops sent to Haiti were there to distribute food and medicine, a possible response to a remark by Bertolaso who accused the US of sending ”too many soldiers and not enough aid personnel”.

The Secretary of State added that she had nothing against ”constructive criticism”, but that the US had been judged unfairly by many voices abroad.

Read more here.

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• Italy Distances Self From Criticism Of US In Haiti (huffingtonpost.com)
• Italy distances self from criticism of US in Haiti (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Mehmet Alì Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II, is free, reports Corriere della Sera.

Agca was released from prison Monday morning and once again, after 29 years, Agca confirmed his problematic and mysterious character. In a letter released to journalists, Agca declared himself to be Jesus Christ and announced revelations about the end of the world. Agca was immediately sent to a Turkish army centre where the military authorities examined him and declared him unfit for military service. In Turkey, military service is required even at 52 years of age. Agca then retired to his hotel ignoring journalists’ questions.

In recent weeks, there has been talk about an exclusive interview with an American network for €2 million. In his letter to journalists, Agca wrote: ‘I proclaim the end of the world.’ He claimed the Bible ‘is full of errors’ and that he would soon write a new Bible.

The suspicion is that Agca has written all this so he would declared mentally unsound and avoid military service. Nonetheless, 29 years later, an important chapter of history has been reopened and is still enigmatic.

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• “I proclaim the end of the world. All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century,” signed “The Christ Eternal Mehmet Ali Agca.” (althouse.blogspot.com)
• Pope gunman released from prison (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Man who shot Pope John Paul II gets out of prison (guardian.co.uk)

Southern Italy has turned into a real far West with an escalation of violence punctuated by massive riots driven by frustration, reports Corriere della Sera. Exasperated by ill-treatment, poor pay, abuse, insults and targeted attacks, Rosarno’s immigrants finally fought back.

Rosarno, a little Calabrian town, hosts about 1,500 immigrant workers, that work as citrus fruit or vegetable pickers.  On January 7th, street riots broke out after yet another shooting, this time near two separate immigrant facilities. Disturbances continued throughout the night as two immigrants were wounded by shotguns fired by unidentified gunmen. Both men remain in stable condition.

Meanwhile, ANSA reports that Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini sets off Monday on a week-long tour of Africa that has taken on new meaning after Italy’s worst racial unrest in years.

In a newspaper interview Monday, he said he meant to “get to the root” of the problem highlighted by riots and clashes in the Calabrian town of Rosarno after some locals attacked migrant labourers.

The seven-nation trip is part of Italy’s efforts to “solve, at the roots, the problem of illegal immigration which has re-emerged in all its dramatic force in the tragic events in Rosarno”.

“Italy has always been a tolerant and hospitable country which does not have the baggage of the great colonial powers in its DNA, but we have a duty, through our friendship and partnership with African countries, to…regulate to our mutual interest the phenomenon of immigration (and) to safeguard the welfare and safety of our citizens and of African citizens, whom we respect”.

Some 53 people including 18 police were injured in the unrest at Rosarno, a part of southern Italy dominated by Italy’s most powerful mafia, ‘Ndrangheta.

At least one clan-linked man was among those arrested for the attacks, which broke out after immigrants torched cars and litter bins in response to an initial air-rifle shooting.

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• Police quell immigrant riots in Italy (telegraph.co.uk)
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• Race Riots Grip Italian Town, and Mafia Is Suspected (nytimes.com)

The Italian government is seeking to verify whether or not a group linked to Al Qaeda may be responsible for the kidnapping of two Italians in Mauritania earlier this month, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.

On Sunday, a man claiming to be the media representative of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said the group had carried out the kidnapping and that it was in response to ”crimes committed by the Italian government in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Speaking on Italian television, Frattini said his ministry was first of all trying to ascertain the authenticity of the claim and that, in any case, Italy has no intention of negotiating with terrorists, reports ANSA.

“Anyone who has anything to do with terrorists helps them. And even if we were to say ‘we’ll talk’ just this one time, we would be legitimising a terrorist organisation,” the foreign minister added. Frattini said his ministry would continue to maintain a news black out on developments concerning the fate of Palermo resident Sergio Cicala, 64, and his Burkina Faso-born wife Philomene Kabouree. The couple was reported missing after their bullet-ridden camper van was discovered in Mauritania on December 20.The foreign minister explained last week that a total news blackout on efforts to contact the kidnappers and obtain the release of the hostages was essential to ensure their safety because ‘’suppositions only make the matter worse.”

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• Al-Qaida claims Italian kidnappings in W. Africa (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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• Al Qaeda Claims Italian Kidnappings In Mauritania (huffingtonpost.com)