Without the Arno, Florence would be like Romolo - The Florentine

6
Thursday 8 February 2007 News
National NEWS
News in BRIEF
■
New hope for Lou Gehrig
victims
Italian researchers have increased
chances for treating Lou Gehrig’s
disease, a fatal and incurable
nerve-wasting disease. A team
led by Sebastiano Cavallaro at a
National Research Council lab in
Catania says it has found the 57
genes responsible for the disease.
Cavallaro cautioned that a number
of genetic and environmental factors
are implicated in the disease,
which affects over 350,000 of
the world’s population and kills
over 100,000 every year. But, he
said, the gene research, published
in the international journal BMC
Genomics, ‘could pave the way
for early diagnosis and possible
treatment’.
■
Fini in fi rst place
Silvio Berlusconi caused a stir
in his centre-right alliance last
week, apparently anointing rightist
leader Gianfranco Fini as
his likely successor. Speaking
to journalists, the 70-year-old
former premier spoke about his
hope of uniting the four key centre-right
parties into a federation
and possibly even a single party.
‘If we form a single party I think
that Fini’s candidacy is the most
prestigious and authoritative to
lead it’, he said. Fini is currently
leader of the rightist National
Alliance party, the second largest
in the opposition. He has
stood by Berlusconi since the
former media tycoon entered
Italian politics in 1994. Berlusconi,
defeated by centre-left
chief Romano Prodi in last April’s
general election, has hinted several
times that he is unlikely to
run for premier next time if the
current legislature lasts the full
fi ve years.
■
Expecting in Egypt
Visitors to Milan can marvel at
the arts of ancient Egypt’s superwomen
in a show which opened
there last week. The exhibition,
which features 50 previously
unseen artifacts from Turin’s
famed Egyptology Museum,
shows why ancient Egypt’s
women were far ahead of their
contemporaries. On show for
the fi rst time are papyri showing
advanced gynecological knowledge
and advice on all aspects
of childbearing—including some
of the world’s fi rst pregnancy
tests. Nefer-Woman in Ancient
Egypt, organised by the DNArt
Foundation in collaboration with
Palazzo Reale, runs until April 9.
Media empire thwarted
Anti-monopoly bill angers Berlusconi
Opposition chief Silvio Berlusconi
has accused the government
of deliberately targeting
his media empire with a ‘criminal plan
of attack’ on his three-channel private
TV network Mediaset. ‘Mediaset
will be forced to defend itself’, said the
billionaire media mogul, who threatened
to ‘lead fi ve million people on to
the streets’ in protest and use his TV
channels to mobilise public opinion
against the reforms. Premier Romano
Prodi, responded that ‘demonstrations
are a sign of active democracy
and should always be respected but
protests in aid of personal interests
are less than praiseworthy’.
The media bill was drawn up by
Communications Minister Paolo
No show
show-down
Judge is defendant in
anti-crucifi x case
An Italian judge who refuses to
have crosses in his court room
refused to appear at his hearing on
whether he had broken the law. Prosecutors
are seeking to convict Judge
Luigi Tosti on six counts of walking
out of court rooms when he saw crucifi
xes hanging there. Tosti, who was
suspended from his duties a year ago,
did not show up in court. His lawyers
said he intended ‘to keep up his
protest against the presence of monoreligious
symbols’.
The Italian judiciary’s self-governing
body, the Supreme Council of
Magistrates, removed Tosti from his
Gentiloni and has just begun its passage
through parliament. Gentiloni’s
bill would force both Mediaset
and Rai to move one of their three
terrestial channels to digital within
15 months of its approval, with the
freed-up airwaves being sold to
competitors. It would introduce a
45 percent cap on any given broadcaster’s
share of the TV advertising
market and reduce the amount of
advertising permitted per hour of
programming from 18 percent to 16
percent, with in-show advertising
included in the calculation.
The Italian TV system is currently
dominated by the three-channel
state broadcaster Rai and Mediaset.
Together they account for some
90 percent of audience share and
almost 96 percent of money spent
on TV advertising, with 66.4 percent
going to Mediaset and 28.8
percent to Rai. This situation has
been criticised by the Constitutional
Court, the Antitrust Authority, the
Communications Authority and the
European Commission.
post last February and cut off his pay
because of his ‘unjustifi able behaviour’.
The decision, which reignited
debate on crucifi xes in public buildings,
came after Tosti was convicted
by a criminal court a month before.
The court gave Tosti a seven-month
suspended sentence for refusing to
perform his duties in the Marche
town of Camerino.
Crucifi xes are customary rather
than mandatory in Italy’s public
buildings. Offi cially, Catholicism
is not Italy’s state religion and the
separation of Church and State is set
down by the postwar Constitution
and mandated by a 1984 Concordat
that ended most of the Catholic
Church’s privileges. In practice, with
Catholicism being such a part of
Italy’s cultural identity, local bodies
decide whether they want crosses in
the courthouse. Similar arrangements
are in place in other public buildings—most
notably schools, where
there have been a raft of polemics.
MILLIONS FOR MIDDLE EAST
Italy champions Lebanese peace-keeping operations
Italy reconfi rmed a promise of 120 million euro in aid last week as donor
countries met in Paris to help Lebanon recover from last year’s war
between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo
D’Alema, defi ning the donors’ conference a political and economic ‘boost’
for Beirut, said Italy would also offer to renegotiate commercial debt repayments.
French President Jacques Chirac, presiding over the work of the
Paris conference, publicly thanked Italy for its fresh display of ‘generosity’,
noting that Rome had already sustained heavy expenses for Lebanon.
Italy is currently the biggest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping
operations in Lebanon, supplying 2,500 of the 11,500 soldiers in the UNI-
FIL force. The force will come under Italian command on February 17.
www.thefl orentine.net
PROMISES IN
PROGRESS
Liberal reforms brought
to parliament
fresh government drive to liber-
A alise the Italian economy was
hailed by consumer groups last
week but also sparked protests,
including one by fuel station operators,
who called for a 14 days of
ongoing strikes.
The reforms approved by Premier
Prodi’s cabinet will have immediate
effect and include streamlining
business start-up rules, liberalising
the opening hours of small businesses,
abolishing certain mobile
phone and bank charges and allowing
supermarket chains to sell petrol
and newspapers. The measures
follow a fi rst deregulation package,
approved in July, aimed at ending
anti-competitive practices in several
protected fi elds. These measures
affected lawyers, notaries, pharmacists,
taxi drivers, banks and car
insurers. Prodi said the new decree
would further the government’s
goal of boosting competition and
bringing down prices to the benefi t
of the consumer.
Other measures in the decree
include the abolition of extra bank
charges on overdrafts; more advantageous
terms for mortgage holders;
the elimination of some of the
red tape for people opening up
small businesses, particularly hairdressers,
barbers, beauticians and
driving instructors; greater transparency
in airfare advertising; a
requirement for public services to
accept payment using credit and
banking cards; and clearer expiration
dates on food products. The
decree will make it easier for motorists
to obtain car insurance or sell
their vehicles and allows them to
use personalised number plates. It
also provides tax-break incentives
for individuals, businesses and
non-profi t organisations who give
money to job-training institutes, and
it forces the post offi ce to compensate
customers if post is delivered
late or goes missing.
Although the decree has already
come into effect, it must now be
approved by parliament to prevent
it lapsing. Consumer groups said
they hoped it would not be watered
down during the parliamentary
process as protests gather pace.
‘Bersani must hold out against the
lobby groups and corporations and
parliament must approve the decree
as it is, without too many revisions’,
representatives said.