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| Stars to wow Sanremo for U2's Bono |
| Affleck, Schiffer will make world hunger appeal in Italian |
(ANSA) - Rome, January 29 - A charity founded by the U2
vocalist Bono is set to inject a dose of Hollywood glamour
into the Sanremo Festival, organisers of Italy's biggest
musical event of the year said Thursday.
Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Claudia Schiffer, Antonio
Banderas and Penelope Cruz are among stars lined up to show
off their Italian language skills in short video appeals on
behalf of One, a campaign and advocacy organisation that
fights poverty worldwide.
Sanremo's musical director, Gianmarco Mazzi, said
organisers were ''very happy'' when Bono contacted them with
the idea, arguing that it rebuffed criticism that the
festival's glory days are now behind it.
''If an artist of world renown such as Bono asks for the
Sanremo stage to launch a social appeal, it means that
despite what all the critics say the festival is actually
still alive and kicking,'' he said.
''The stars will give a brief message in Italian to
bring attention to world poverty in a series of video appeals
that will be transmitted for the first time ever during the
festival,'' Mazzi continued.
He added that the appeal was particularly appropriate in
view of Italy's presidency of the Group of Eight this year
and the upcoming G8 summit in Sardinia in July.
Bob Geldof, soccer star Thierry Henry, Andrea Bocelli
and Bono himself are also expected to record messages for the
appeal.
Long a part of Italian popular culture, the weeklong
February showcase that 'made' songs and launched careers has
been hit in recent years by a steady decline in ratings.
This year organisers hope to boost the festival's appeal
and have secured reclusive Italian singing legend Mina to
open the show with a video tribute to Italian music.
Mina, 68, is reckoned by many the finest female pop
singer Italy has produced, and Louis Armstrong once called
her ''the greatest white singer in the world''.
Festival artistic producer and presenter Paolo Bonolis
said Monday at a press conference that the famously retiring
star had decided to ''help'' the festival.
She last appeared on TV in 1974 and in public in 1978.
International names due to tread the stage in person
include Jim Carrey, Annie Lennox and Hugh Hefner with his
playboy bunnies, according to Bonolis.
Italian stars Jovanotti, Giorgia and Eros Ramazzotti
will be among the home-grown talent.
This year's festival, which runs February 17-21, has
already come under fire from gay rights groups, who have
threatened to disrupt the event if a song about a gay man
'converting' to heterosexuality is not pulled. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.35.08 in News World
| Another traditionalist denies Shoah |
| Ultra- Conservative priest disputes use of gas chambers |
(ANSA) - Treviso, January 29 - Another leading member of
the traditionalist Catholic Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX)
has denied that gas chambers were used by the Nazis to
exterminate Jews during the Second World War.
''I know that gas chambers existed as a means to
disinfect, but I cannot say for sure if they killed anyone
because I really haven't looked into it,'' Father Floriano
Abrahamowicz, the head of SSPX in northeast Italy, told the
Tribuna di Treviso daily on Thursday.
The ultraconservative priest's statements came a day
after Israeli's highest religious authority, the Chief
Rabbinate, threatened to sever ties with the Vatican after
Pope Benedict XVI lifted an excommunication on four SSPX
bishops, including one who has repeatedly denied that the
Shoah took place.
The pope immediately responded by reiterating his strong
stand against denying the Holocaust, saying that it was
important to never forget the Shoah. This to appeared avert
an official break, although the Rabbinate has yet to make a
formal statement.
The Rabbinate, as well as Jewish leaders in Italy and
around the world, were particularly upset over the
reinstatement of Bishop Richard Williamson.
The British-born bishop recently told Swedish TV that he
did not believe in the existence of gas chambers. In his view
not six million but only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews died in Nazi
concentration camps ''and not one of them in a gas chamber''.
The current SSPX head, Bishop Bernard Fellay, stated
firmly that Williamson's views did not reflect those of the
order and he apologised to the pope for any problems his
views may have created.
He has also ordered Williamson not to voice his
political opinions in public.
However, according to Father Abrahamowicz, ''all this
fuss over Msgr Williamson's statements is being exploited
against the Vatican. Williamson simply expressed his doubts.
He did not deny the Holocaust, as the press has mistakenly
said he did; he only gave a technical opinion on the gas
chambers''.
''The question of denying the Holocaust is a false
problem because it focuses on numbers and methods and does
not address the real problem,'' he added.
''Had Msgr. Williamson denied on TV the (1915) genocide
of 1.2 million Armenians by the Turks I don't think the press
would have acted the same way ,'' Father Abrahamowicz said.
The Vatican has yet to reply to the ultra-conservative
priest, but when Milan Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi was
asked for his view he observed that ''the Holy Father has
been clear and explicit'' on the church's relations with both
the SSPX and Jews.
Lifting the excommunication on the four bishops, he
added, ''was an act of mercy which in no way represented a
compromise,'' he said.
In order to truly return to the fold, the archbishop
added, they must renew ''their loyalty to the Church and its
teachings,'' including the changes made by the Second Vatican
Council in the early 1960s.
The archbishop of Treviso, Msgr, Andrea Bruno
Mazzoccato, adopted a similar position and told the members
of his diocese that any stance on the Holocaust which
differed from the one expressed by the pope ''has no
foundation and is unconnected to Christian thought and an
elementary sense of humanity''.
He then repeated the pope's warning to be on guard
against ''the unexpected power which evil can exert on the
hearts of man''.
The SSPX was created in 1970 by late dissident French
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with Rome over the
changes made at the Vatican Council.
Among the changes the group opposed was the decision to
celebrate Mass in local languages rather than in Latin and to
adopt the view that Jews today should not be blamed for the
death of Christ.
Lefebvre, who died in 1991, was excommunicated in 1998
for ordaining four bishops, including Williamson, in defiance
of a direct order from John Paul II. The four bishops were
also excommunicated.
Abrahamowicz's views have come under heavy fire from the
governor of the Veneto region, where the headquarters of his
SSPX branch is located.
''I don't know if we're dealing with plain ignorance,
madness or some horrifying political choice, but if any
priest denies the Holocaust, denies the existence of gas
chambers, then he'd best change jobs,'' said Giancarlo Galan,
of the center-right People of Freedom party,
''And if any of these priests happen to live in the
Veneto region, as is the case with Father Abrahamowicz, then
they'd best move out and, who knows, even take refuge in one
of those concentration camps they know so much about,'' he
added. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.34.19 in News World
| Toned- down atheist bus ad OK'd |
| Original message canned after religious protests |
(ANSA) - Genoa, January 29 - Italian atheists have
succeeded in getting an OK for a toned-down No God advert to
be carried on Genoa buses next month.
The original message, canned after protests from
Catholics and Muslims, was The Bad News Is God Doesn't Exist,
The Good News Is You Don't Need Him.
The new message, OK'd by advertising licensing agency IGP
Decaux, is: The Good News Is There Are Millions of Atheists
In Italy; The Excellent News Is They Believe In Freedom Of
Expression.
IGP Decaux said the message would be carried by a single
bus in the northwestern Italian city, ''probably'' from the
middle of February to the end of the month.
The secretary of the Italian Union of Atheists, Agnostics
and Rationalists (UAAR), Raffale Carcano, said the UAAR was
working to get the original message approved in cities where
IGP doesn't control advertising.
''We aren't offended if someone writes that God exists,''
Carcano said.
''But the (Genoa) Curia demanded a halt to our bus and
hailed its banning''.
''It would be nice to be able to run the campaign all
over Italy,'' he said, adding that a Facebook group in favour
of the UAAR's drive had drawn 4,000 members.
The Italian campaign follows similar ads in London,
Barcelona and Washington where the slogan was: There's
probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life''. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.33.42 in News World
| Galileo Vatican statue 'shelved' |
| But 'time is ripe' for 'fresh reconsideration' |
(ANSA) - Vatican City, January 29 - The Vatican has
shelved plans to put up a statue to Galileo Galilei, the
Italian astronomer famously forced to recant his discovery
that the earth moves around the sun.
''The project has been shelved for the moment,'' the
Vatican's culture chief Msgr Gianfranco Ravasi told reporters
as he outlined events for World Astronomy Year.
Confirming press reports, Ravasi said a preparatory
sketch for the statue had been made before it was decided not
to make the statue.
He did not elaborate on the decision apart from saying
that there was a sponsor who was then told to spend the money
on a scientific project in Africa.
The statue to Galileo was to have stood outside the
Pontifical Academy of Science, according to reports.
Ravasi went on to say that the Church was ready to
''further reconsider the Galileo case'', 17 years after Pope
John Paul II admitted it had erred in condemning him.
''The time is now ripe for a fresh reconsideration of
the figure of Galileo and the whole Galileo case,'' he said,
presenting a conference that will take place in Florence
later this year.
''Galileo deserves all our appreciation and gratitude,''
Ravasi said.
The conference, entitled The Galileo Case, An
Historical, Philosophical and Theological Re-reading, will
take place at Florence's Stensen Institue on May 26-30.
Galileo (1564-1642), is regarded as the father of modern
astronomy.
He created his first telescope in 1608 and discovered
three of Jupiter's moons and the various phases of Venus.
The two sets of observations played a crucial role in
his conclusion that the sun was at the centre of the
universe, rather than the Earth, as was commonly believed at
the time.
Church opposition to Galileo's sun-centred model flared
up immediately in 1612 and would dog Galileo for the rest of
his life.
In 1633 he was tried and convicted of heresy and a ban
was imposed on the publication or reprinting of any of his
works.
He was then placed under house arrest, where he spent
the remaining nine years of his life as the world returned to
the comfortable idea of an immovable earth.
Galileo is said to have muttered the famous phrase
'Eppure si muove' (''But it does move'') as he left his
trial.
In 1992, after a 13-year reconsideration of the case,
Pope John Paul II admitted that the Church had made a
''tragic mistake'' in rejecting Galileo's heliocentric views.
But he also exculpated the astronomer's chief accuser,
who was later canonised, as only doing his duty.
Pope Benedict XVI, who succeeded John Paul in 2005, last
year had to cancel a visit to Rome University after a protest
by academics against his defence, while still a cardinal, of
Galileo's trial.
Speaking in Parma in 1990, Benedict said the trial was
''reasonable and just''. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.33.08 in News World
| Home town to fete Raphael |
| Renaissance master's relationship with Urbino focus of show |
(ANSA) - Urbino, January 29 - An exhibition opening here
this spring explores the lifelong relationship between this
Marche town and the art of its most famous son, Renaissance
master Raphael Sanzio.
Born in Urbino in 1483, Raphael finished his training by
the age of 17, and quickly created a series of important art
works for his hometown.
Although he left at the age of 21, Urbino and its
artistic milieu left a lasting mark on Raphael's work.
The exhibition sets out to explore the two-way exchange
between Raphael and Urbino, looking at how each influenced
the other.
''This show will explain Raphael in the context of
Urbino, not just as his birthplace but as a town that played
a vital role in his training,'' said Marche culture chief
Lorenza Mochi Onori.
''Urbino remained an essential point of reference for
the artist throughout his life, which can be seen in the fact
he always signed his works 'Raphael Urbinas'''.
The main attraction will be 20 paintings and 19 drawings
by a young Raphael.
These include 'The Resurrection of Christ', on loan from
the Sao Paulo Museum in Brazil, 'The Holy Family with a Lamb'
from the Prado in Madrid, and a section of an altarpiece
showing the bust of an angel, from Brescia.
In addition, the exhibit will also feature 32 paintings
and 10 drawings by artists close to Raphael.
The work on display includes pieces by Raphael's father
Giovanni Santi, who was court painter to the duke of Urbino
and owned a busy workshop.
The third section features a collection of locally
produced Renaissance ceramics bearing images by Raphael. Of
particular interest here is a rare ceramic created using an
original design by Raphael rather than an engraving.
Raphael's vocation for art was apparent at an early age,
and he is thought to have played an important role in his
father's workshop.
His duties probably increased after his father's death
in 1494, although he later trained under Umbria master Pietro
Perugino.
Raphael was considered fully trained by 1501 and his
first documented commission was an altarpiece for a church in
Citta' di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and
Urbino.
Over the next few years, he painted a series of works
for churches in Urbino, many of which still survive.
In 1504, he moved to Florence for four years before
spending the final 12 years of his life in Rome, where Pope
Julius II commissioned him to decorate four rooms in the
papal apartment, now known as the Raphael Rooms.
The exhibition, entitled 'Raffaello e Urbino', will run
at the Galleria delle Marche in Urbino from April 5 until
July 12. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.32.05 in News World
| Quick- witted teacher saves kids |
| Children rushed out of school before ceiling caves in |
(ANSA) - Castellamare di Stabia, January 28 - A
quick-witted primary school teacher saved 14 children on
Wednesday after spotting that the ceiling in her classroom
was about to collapse.
The teacher at the school near Naples hustled the
children out of the classroom seconds before a
square-metre-sized chunk of plaster crashed to the floor next
to the door, bringing with it electrical wiring and a
lighting system.
The collapse sent an enormous cloud of dust down the
corridors and short-circuited the school's electric system
and, but nobody was hurt.
Headmaster Giancarlo Guarino praised the teacher for
saving the day.
''The intuition and professionalism of the teacher, who
spotted the swelling in the plaster, meant that the worst was
avoided,'' he said.
Investigators were unable to establish an immediate
cause for the collapse in the building, which was around 50
years old.
The town council said it was closing the school for the
next few days as a precautionary measure while further tests
were carried out. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.31.32 in News World
| Israeli Jews welcome pope's words |
| Risk of break in ties subsiding |
(see previous article) (ANSA) - Jerusalem, January 28 -
Pope Benedict XVI's strong stand against denying the
Holocaust was welcomed Wednesday by the highest Jewish
authority in Israeli, which had threatened to sever ties
indefinitely with the Vatican.
The Chief Rabbinate's action was in protest to the
pope's decision to lift the excommunication for a
traditionalist bishop who denied the existence of the
Holocaust.
Speaking at his Wednesday audience, Benedict reiterated
his full support for his ''Jewish brothers'' and said the
Holocaust must not be denied because ''the memory of the
Shoah regenerates our humanity and helps us reflect on the
unexpected power which evil can exert on the hearts of man''.
The importance of the Shoah, the German-born pope added,
''cannot be denied nor diminished because violence committed
against even one man is violence against all men''.
The director general of the Chief Rabbinate, Oded
Wiener, later told ANSA that the pope's words were ''a great
step forwards in resolving this question''.
''His statements were very important for us and for the
whole world,'' he added.
Wiener said that no decision had yet been made on
whether the Rabbinate would send a representative to a March
2-4 meeting in Rome with the Catholic Church's Commission for
Religious Relations with Jews.
Initially it had been decided to cancel the meeting, but
this was before the pope's words on the Shoah, he added.
The work of the commission, created eight years ago by
the late Pope John Paul II, ''is extremely important for the
dialogue and exceptional personal relationships it has
created,'' Wiener said.
At the center of the dispute is British-born Bishop
Richard Williamson, one of four traditionalist bishops whose
excommunications were lifted Saturday.
Williamson, a member of the ultra-conservative Society
of Saint Pius X, only recently reiterated his belief that
there were no gas chambers and only 300,000 Jews died in the
Holocaust, not six million.
In regard to the decision to lift the excommunications,
Wiener told ANSA that the Rabbinate ''has no desire, cannot
and has no interest'' in interfering in church affairs.
However, he added, the case of Bishop Williamson had
taken on additional meaning in the wake of a new surge in
anti-Semitism and a growing number of deniers ''especially in
Germany.
Lifting Williamson's excommunication within a week of
his reiterating his views on the Shoah and the marking of
International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Wiener explained,
''demonstrated a lack of sensitivity which had repercussions
throughout the Jewish world''.
The Society of St Pius X was created in 1970 by late
dissident French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with
Rome over the changes made at the Second Vatican Council, the
ground-breaking meeting of all the world's Catholic bishops
in the early 1960s.
Among the changes the group opposed was the decision to
celebrate Mass in local languages rather than Latin and state
that Jews today should not be blamed for the death of Christ.
Lefebvre was excommunicated for ordaining four bishops,
including Williamson, in defiance of a direct order from John
Paul II. The four bishops were also excommunicated.
Efforts by the Church to avert a schism and keep
Lefebvre and his followers in the fold were orchestrated by
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, who went on to become Benedict
XVI.
During his Wednesday audience, the pope said the four
bishops who were let back into the Church's graces would have
to respond to his gesture by renewing their loyalty to the
Church and its teachings, including the changes made by the
Vatican Council.
These were among the conditions that he had originally
set down in 1988 but which Lefebvre had rejected.
On Tuesday the current head of the Society of St Pius
X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, denied that Williamson's views
reflected those of the order and apologised to the pope for
any problems his statements may have created.
The Society of St Pius X is the largest group of
traditionalist Catholics in the world. It has close to 500
priests and is active in 63 countries.
DENIER ROW 'WON'T AFFECT POPE VISIT'
The row Bishop Williamson will not affect the pope's
planned trip to the Holy Land this spring, Israel's
Ambassador to the Holy See told ANSA Wednesday.
Mordechay Lewy said the pope's reiteration during his
Wednesday general audience that the Holocaust cannot be
denied was ''very clear...and useful for clearing up the
misunderstanding that arose in the last few days''.
''Anyone who heard the pope's words now knows perfectly
well what side the Church is on,'' Lewy said.
He said it would be ''mistaken'' to give the
anti-modernist Williamson the power to affect relations
between Israel and the Holy See.
As for the pope's visit, which is rumoured to have been
set up for May, the ambassador said: ''We are working all the
time and what happened in the last few days has not affected
preparations''.
''The pope is welcome in Israel at any time''. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.30.10 in News World
| 'Red Nose' drivers for drinkers |
| Service to curb 'Saturday Night Massacres' |
(ANSA) - Rome, January 28 - The Italian government on
Wednesday launched a 'Red Nose' drive-home service to curb an
epidemic of drink-driving deaths among young people.
Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni said the free service would
be modelled on Canada's Red Nose scheme which has drastically
cut drink-drive deaths over the last 25 years.
Italy has one of the worst records in Europe for
drunk-driving among the under-30s and successive governments
have tried to stop what the media have dubbed Saturday Night
Massacres.
Meloni appealed to bars and night clubs to alert the
planned service when clients left premises clearly the worse
for drink.
''Barmen and bouncers will have to become social
workers,'' she said, stressing that they should have no fear
of taking on drivers who were in no state to get behind the
wheel.
The minister also launched plans to make alcohol
counselling available in nightspots and install blood-alcohol
testing machines.
''Owners must show they really want to end the Saturday
Night Massacres,'' she said.
The minister rejected a proposal to cut blood-alcohol
limit to zero, saying Italy's limit of 0.5% was in line with
the European average.
''There's no point punishing someone who's had half a
pint along with someone who's knocked back seven mojitos,''
she said, stressing that ''the important thing is to come
down hard on people who are over 0.5%''.
Meloni's plan was hailed by the Italian Association of
Relatives of Road Accident Victims who called her
''courageous'' and the Italian Parents' Movement who praised
her ''concrete approach''.
The Italian association of insurers (ANIA) pledged to
''work alongside the minister by providing know-how and
financial support''.
As well as the Red Nose service, ANIA said it would help
the minister spread the use of designated drivers.
LATEST EFFORT IN STRING OF CAMPAIGNS.
Meloni's scheme comes in the wake of several efforts to
cut driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Italian police have been issued with new equipment for
roadside tests and there have been proposals to put
compulsory alcoholometers and even black boxes in cars.
DJs have been encouraged to join campaigns and have come
up with messages to play between songs.
The phrases include 'Nobody likes a drunk woman', 'Can
you walk straight? Then take me home', 'Even real men ask for
help', and 'Know your limit'.
Last week Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi proposed
banning under 21s and other 'high risk' categories from
drinking and driving.
According to official statistics, alcohol is a factor in
30-40% of all road accidents in Italy.
More than 44% of all night-time road accidents occur on
a Friday or a Saturday night, while drivers aged between 16
and 29 account for nearly a third of all road fatalities.
Traffic fatalities in Italy last year totalled 5,669,
far more than the 5,091 in Germany, 4,709 in France and 3,297
in Britain, according to socio-economic think-tank Censis.
The Italian Association for the Relatives of Road
Accident Victims say that one of the main problems in Italy
is a lack of police checks, with drivers having a chance of
being stopped for an alcohol test once every 74 years.
Italian police currently carry out around one million
alcohol tests annually compared to ten million in France, the
association claims. |
News of 29 Jan 2009 18.28.57 in News World
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