Focus::Daily News
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AP. Oreste Lionello, an entertainer and film dubber who was Italy's "voice" of Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis and other comic stars, died in a Rome hospital Thursday. (Read the article)
BBC. Immigrants being held at a detention centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa have set fire to the facility after trying to escape, police say. (Read tha article)
AP. The U.S. House speaker, a Catholic, was the first top Democrat to meet with Benedict since the election of Barack Obama, who won a majority of the U.S. Catholic vote despite differences with the Vatican on abortion. (Read the article)
USATODAY. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- the nation's highest ranking Italian-American in elective office -- is spending her congressional recess in Italy. Sounds nice, but . . . (Read the article)
AP. Author Gay Talese, who influenced a generation of writers with books such as "Thy Neighbor's Wife" and "Honor Thy Father," was named the winner of a George Polk Award for career achievement. (Read the article by Karen Mattews)
NBCNewYork.com. Former New York Times scribe Gay Talese is putting pen to paper to help the city's homeless get their share of President Obama's stimulus plan. (Read the article by Scott Ross)
AFP. Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday admonished visiting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who advocates abortion rights, that "all Catholics" should uphold the Church's teachings on life. ( Read the article)
THE NEW YORK TIMES. The Italian designer and billionaire Giorgio Armani celebrated Fashion week on Tuesday with the announcement of a $1 million donation to promote arts programs in New York City public schools. The money will be used to create the Armani Arts Institute, an umbrella program that will fund arts initiatives in schools serving some of the city’s most disadvantaged populations.
(Read the article by Javier C. Hernandez)
AFTERELLEN. Roberto Benigni, the multi award winning Italian director/actor/writer, took to the stage tasked with providing a comic interlude in his usual inimitable style - passionate, eloquent, intelligent. Italy lags far behind its European neighbours on this subject, but it seems that homosexuality and bisexuality are not the taboo subjects they once were. (Read the article)
ANSA. painting of Leonardo Da Vinci that experts are dating to the 16th century has come to light in a hill town in Basilicata, southern Italy. (Read the article)