Florentine beauties get face-lift - The Florentine

6Thursday 25 January 2007 Newswww.theflorentine.netNational NEWSNews in BRIEF■Base approved despiteobjectionsItaly’s ruling centre-left coalitionwas deeply divided last weekover the planned enlargement ofa United States military base inthe northeastern city of Vicenza.Encouraged by centrists, PremierRomano Prodi caused shock andanger on the left of his nine-partycoalition by saying the governmentwill voice no objections tothe enlargement project. ‘Thegovernment has taken a defi nitiveposition and on this there isnothing else to say’, he said. Thepremier also downplayed suggestionsthat the issue couldcause a ‘political crisis.’■Donatella findsholy museIn search of a more cerebralmodel of male elegance for 2007,Donatella Versace has come upwith a sleek but austere styleinspired by the private secretaryof Pope Benedict XVI, MonsignorGeorg Gaenswein. She said shewas looking for a man with ‘fewermuscles, more soul’ and so hadtried to create a look which was‘ethical and spiritual, free of alluseless details’. Father Georg,from southern Germany, like thepope, is known to be a keen tennisplayer and pilot in his privatelife. His elegance and looks arefrequently referred to in the Italianmedia.■To grandmother’shouse we goThe myth of the Italian mamma islosing its grip, with women prioritisingstudies and work overstarting a family, says recentdemographics study. The averageage for women to have theirfi rst child has risen from 25 to29, said Istat, which surveyed50,000 women who gave birth in2003. And although Italy has thelowest female employment rate inEurope, with only 45.3 percent ofwomen between 15 and 64 holdingjobs, a growing number ofmammas are realizing that havingkids doesn’t necessarily meanquitting work. Around a fi fth ofpopulation is now either a nonna(granny) or nonno (grandpa), and57 percent of these regularly lookafter their grandchildren, accordingto Istat.Problems with pardonsItalians unhappy with prisoners’ releaseClemente MastellaAmass prisoner pardon recentlyapproved by parliament re -mains deeply unpopular withItalians, a new poll confirmed lastweek. The survey by independentsocioeconomic think-tank Eurispessaid two-thirds of respondents werefirmly against the measure, whichresulted in the release of some 18,000prisoners.Eurispes said only 14 percent supportedthe pardon while almost 60percent thought it had underminedcitizens’ safety. The pardon, approvedby parliament in July with cross-partyconsensus, knocked three years offsentences, with the aim of easingchronic overcrowding in Italy’s jails.It did not apply to serious crimes suchas Mafia offences, terrorism, rape,pedophilia and human trafficking.According to official prison data,17,455 inmates were freed, alongwith another 5,000 who were beingdetained under house arrest. TheSeveral charges against SilvioBerlusconi in a high-profi le corruptiontrial were dropped last weekunder reforms to the statute of limitationslaw introduced when the formerpremier was in power. Milanjudge Edoardo D’Avossa threw outembezzlement charges against Berlusconiand British corporate lawyerDavid Mills—the estranged husbandof Britain’s Culture Secretary TessaJowell—dating from before July 1999.He also rejected charges of fraud andfalse accounting before 1998 for Berlusconiand charges against Mills ofreceiving stolen goods up to 1993.Centre-right opposition chief Berlusconistill faces charges of tax fraudand false accounting relating to 1999and embezzlement after July 1999.The trial, which began in November,centres on alleged fraud at Berlusconi’sprivate TV network companyMediaset. A total of 14 defendantsare on trial, including Berlusconi,Mills, Mediaset Chairman FedeleConfalonieri, and several top formeroffi cials at Berlusconi’s Fininvest familyholding company. The defendantsface charges ranging from tax fraud,false accounting and embezzlementto money laundering. They all denywrongdoing. The case stems fromMediaset’s purchase of TV rights forUS fi lms up until 1999 through twopardon controversially covered allcrimes committed before May 2,2006, making it applicable to past,present and future sentences. Giventhe slow pace of the Italian trial system,which allows two appeals beforea sentence is considered definitive,the pardon will have an effect foryears to come.The Supreme Council of Magistrates,the body in charge of Italy’sjudiciary, recently protested that 80percent of pending trials were nowfutile. But ordinary Italians have beenconcerned about the possibility ofreleased inmates re-offending. Morethan 1,700 beneficiaries of the pardonhave been sent back to jail.Justice Minister Clemente Mastellaand other supporters of the measureargue that it was an essential act ofclemency to improve allegedly inhumaneprison conditions. Before thepardon, Italy’s 205 prisons were holding61,400 inmates when their officialcapacity was just 41,730. But anothercontroversial aspect of the pardon wasits application to financial, accountingand corruption crimes. Criticshave pointed out that the number ofprisoners serving time for such crimeswas extremely low, so that this couldnot be defended in terms of easingprison overcrowding.NON-STICK SURFACE FOR SILVIOBerlusconi crimes nullifi ed by Milan judgeoffshore fi rms. Prosecutors believethe purchase costs of US fi lms wereartifi cially infl ated for tax evasion purposes.The offshore fi rms were allegedlyset up in the early 1990s by Millsfor Berlusconi.In November 2005, the then Berlusconigovernment passed a lawreducing the statute of limitations ona host of crimes including corruption,false accounting, theft and fraud.The controversial law was heatedlyopposed by the centre left, whichaccused Berlusconi of serving hisown interests. But the centre rightargued the law would speed up thecountry’s notoriously slow trial system,under which defendants are entitledto two appeals before a sentencecan be considered defi nitive, by forcingmagistrates to deal more quicklywith cases.Prosecutors in the Mediaset casehave long warned that some of thecharges against Berlusconi would beaffected and that by the time the casecame to trial, the alleged offenceswould have happened too long agofor charges to be pressed. Berlusconiand Mills are also soon to stand trialin a separate case, on charges of pervertingthe course of justice. That trialopens in Milan on March 13 and thedefendants face sentences of three toeight years if convicted.MIXED MATCHESMore Italians are tying theknot with foreignersMarriages between Italians andforeigners have increasedtenfold in fi fteen years, accordingto the recent survey. Mixed marriagesare up from 60,000 in 1991to 600,000 last year, said Catholiccharity organisation Caritas/Migrantes, citing data from statisticsagency Istat. The pace is risingas more immigrants enter thecountry, with a surge of 22 percentin the last two years, Istat said.The survey highlighted theapparent preferences of Italiansby gender. Italian men appearedto prefer Filipino, Romanian, Peruvianand Albanian women, Caritassaid—perhaps refl ecting anincrease in the number of wealthyItalians who either have mail-orderbrides or end up marrying their foreigncare-givers. More than threequarters of the Filipinas in Italy havemarried Italians, compared to 67percent of Romanian immigrantswho’ve tied the knot with Italians.The proportion of the Peruvian andAlbanian female population withItalian husbands hovers aroundthe 60 percent mark.Italian women, by contrast,appear to favour North Africans.Of the Senegalese who have takenover from Italians in stoking northernsmoke stacks, 75 percent haveItalian wives. Tunisians come insecond with 72 percent, followedby Moroccans with 53 percent.As it has done elsewhere, the Chinesecommunity is marked by itsinsularity, at least in this respect:more than 84 percent marry otherChinese. Geographically, affl u-ent northern Italy leads the way inmixed marriages while the poorersouth lags behind.