No More Concerts At The Colosseum

Cultural Undersecretary, Francesco Giro, has announced there are to be no more music concerts at the Colosseum. He explained that muscical events would not be permitted at the Roman ampitheatre even if organisers paid for the privilege. “To my knowledge” said Giro “Nobody has ever paid anything to use that location.”

Vatican Bank In Money Laundering Probe

The Instituto per le Opere Religiose (IOR) has said it is “amazed” that they, the Vatican's own bank, have had two transactions frozen due to concerns about the transparency of the identity of the account holders.

The Court of Re-Examination has approved an investigation into two transfers. One, worth 20 million euros, was sent to the Frankfurt branch of J.P. Morgan. The other, worth 3 million euros, was destined for the Italian bank, Banca del Fucino.

Two high level directors from the Instituto per le Opere Religiose have also been placed under investigation following a probe by the Bank of Italy' financial intelligence unit. IOR President Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and IOR Director General Paolo Cipriani were questioned for several hours by investigators suspecting them of failing to observe money laundering rules. Gotti Tedeschi told reporters “There has been a misunderstanding.”

Instutito per le Opere Religiose lawyer, Vincenzo Scordamaglia, has stated he is confident the money will be returned to the IOR. He argued that a transfer to Deutsche Bank was allowed to go through on the same day as the allegedly suspicious transfers thus proving all three transfers were legitimate.

The Vatican's bank operates as a non European Union bank. It is the first time it has had assets frozen which will come as a blow to the Holy See's desire to be included on the international money laundering “White List”.

Vatican Claims Homer Simpson Is a Catholic

An article entitled “Homer and Bart are Catholics” has appeared in the Vatican's daily L'Osservatore Romano.

Proof that the Simpsons are members of the Catholic church apparently comes from a 2005 episode of the cartoon in which Bart attends a Catholic school prompting Homer to convert to the faith.

In addition, the cartoon family “say a prayer before meals” and “believe in the afterlife.” The article praises the cartoon for avoiding facile distinctions between good and evil found in other cartoons and challenging assumptions about the quality and meaning of life in the modern Western world.

The article also points out the the hugely popular cartoon is one of the few TV programmes watched by children that regularly includes the themes of Christianity, religion and God.

Robert De Niro Wraps Love Manual 3

Hollywood icon Robert De Niro has finished filming his part in Giovanni Veronesi's Manual d'Amore 3. The film is still being shot in Rome but De Niro has wrapped his character's scenes and is optimistic about his performance and his foreign language skills.

He told reporters “I hope I did a good job and that my part doesn't have to be dubbed over, because there's lots of humour in the fact that it's me speaking Italian.”

The actor, working on only his second foreign language film in over thirty years, seems to have enjoyed his time in Rome. He said “The other actors and I were on the same wavelength immediately. It's lovely to get back on the set and act with actors you have a good understanding with.”

Love Manual 3 is due to be released in February.


Berlusconi's Popularity Plummeting

A survey carried out by the IPR Marketing company has revealed that Premier Silvio Berlusconi's approval rating has fallen to its lowest ever at just 37%.

At the same time his People of Freedom Party has lost out to its coalition partner the Northern League in terms of voter preference. The Northern League now has the highest approval rating amongst the Italian electorate.

Silvio Berlusconi has an approval rating of 53% when he took office in May 2008 but his rule has been beset by financial and personal scandals.