Photo: An oil removal ship is seen next to the Costa Concordia cruise ship as it ran aground off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island, January 16, 2012.… Read the rest of the article: Titanic Tales: The Costa Concordia

"I haven't been so inspired since 1994," an Italian friend of mine posted on her Facebook page. Well, I too can remember the year 1994, when I was in Milan,… Read the rest of the article: Bye-bye, Bunga-bunga: "Addio Berlusconi"

Is this really the final end of the Berlusconi era, or just another pause for the Cavaliere to catch his breath? Will he return on a fresh horse as the… Read the rest of the article: Berlusconi Bye Bye?

Photo: La Repubblica, Italy That is the graffiti in one of the destroyed streets in this Saturday's "indignati" demonstration. It ended in violence against the police, city security, and last… Read the rest of the article: Rome Burns

[Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) talks with members of the parliament during a debate in the upper house of Parliament in Rome September 14, 2011. REUTERS/Max Ross] The foreign… Read the rest of the article: Belen, Berlusconi, and bunga-bunga

Helpful tents with water, food and clothing are installed by the highway, in parking lots and prefabricated buildings. People just pour in with stuff to give, and we did that… Read the rest of the article: Texas: Bastrop Fires

It's Labor Day. We woke this morning with the smell of fire in North Austin. During the night 300 houses were consumed by wildfire, west of the town of Bastrop.… Read the rest of the article: Texas in Flames

(Lady Gaga performs during a gay pride concert in downtown Rome. Stefano Rellandini / Reuters) The gay icon Lady Gaga was there wearing her green wig, together with up to… Read the rest of the article: Europride and Gaga in Rome

PHOTO: Bosnian Muslim woman Alic Mina cries near the grave of her son Mihrudin before a mass funeral in the village of Memici, about 30 kilometres from Zvornik, June 1,… Read the rest of the article: Mladic in The Hague

(PHOTOS / REUTERS. At left, in 1993: Bosnian Serb army Commander General Ratko Mladic (L) salutes.) The self-proclaimed "God of genocide" in Srebrenica, the Serbian ethnic general Ratko Mladic was… Read the rest of the article: Ratko Mladic, "God of Genocide," arrested

[video link] Silvio Berlusconi will be the first head of a G-7 state to be arraigned in court on charges of paid sex with a minor. A few days ago,… Read the rest of the article: Sultan Berlusconi on Trial

Photo (click for large) by Francesca Ottobelli: anti-Berlusconi protesters in Italy today. "If Not Now, When?" was a national demonstration of Italian women, against Berlusconi and, to put it bluntly,… Read the rest of the article: Italy: Bad Day for Sultan Berlusconi as Millions of Women Demand He Resign

(image: a shot from the movie "Private Vices, Public Virtues") Many years ago, I took part in a movie directed by Miclos Jancso, called "Private Vices, Public Virtues." It was… Read the rest of the article: Berlusconi's "Rubygate" in Italy: Private Vices, Public Virtues

Don't trifle with spirits, said my American friend as we enter this weird syncretic Brazilian sanctuary in the outskirts of Brasilia, called the Temple of Dawn. I am wearing my… Read the rest of the article: Temple of Dawn: visit inside a Brazilian UFO cult

Since April 10th of this year, Torino, Italy has been crowded by a strange mob of tourists: endless streams of international and local people, old and young, pious and less… Read the rest of the article: The Shroud Crowd: a dispatch from Torino, Italy