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MILAN (AP) — Without making overt statements, Milan designers expressed their concern over the global turbulence through their collections. Miuccia Prada said she wanted to project optimism. "Because even if the times are bad, I feel that it was the right thing to do," she said backstage at the Prada show. She is not promoting escapism. "Eventually, I propose something positive, but escapism, I don't like." Not using the platform to comment on the state of the world would be "irresponsible,'' said the designers behind the Simon Cracker b...
VENICE. Italy (AP) — Jeffrey Gibson's takeover of the U.S. pavilion for this year's Venice Biennale contemporary art show is a celebration of color, pattern and craft, which is immediately evident on approaching the bright red facade decorated by a colorful clash of geometry and a foreground dominated by a riot of gigantic red podiums. Gibson, a Mississippi Choctaw with Cherokee descent, is the first Native American to represent the United States solo at the Venice Biennale, the world's oldest contemporary art show. For context, the last t...
MILAN (AP) — Silvio Berlusconi's legacy — positive or negative — was being hotly debated among Italians as the nation prepared for a national day of mourning and a state funeral in Milan's Gothic-era Duomo cathedral on Wednesday. Most Italians identify Berlusconi, a media mogul, soccer entrepreneur and three-time former premier, as the most influential figure in Italy over recent decades. But they remain sharply divided on whether his influence was for the better or worse, extending to whether the three-time former premier merits all the fuss...
Power shortages are turning out streetlights and shutting down factories in China. The poor in Brazil are choosing between paying for food or electricity. German corn and wheat farmers can't find fertilizer, made using natural gas. And fears are rising that Europe will have to ration electricity if it's a cold winter. The world is gripped by an energy crunch — a fierce squeeze on some of the key markets for natural gas, oil and other fuels that keep the global economy running and the lights and heat on in homes. Heading into winter, that has m...
MILAN (AP) — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Saturday he thinks "enormous progress" can be made at the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Scotland but more governments must come up with concrete commitments in the next 30 days. Kerry attended a preparatory meeting in Milan where delegates from around the world sought to identify where progress can be made before the U.N. climate change starts in Glasgow on Oct. 31. The 12-day summit aims to secure more ambitious commitments to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius with a goal o...
MILAN (AP) — Officials at the Pompeii archaeological site in Italy announced Saturday the discovery of an intact ceremonial chariot, one of several important discoveries made in the same area outside the park near Naples following an investigation into an illegal dig. The chariot, with its iron elements, bronze decorations and mineralized wooden remains, was found in the ruins of a settlement north of Pompeii, beyond the walls of the ancient city, parked in the portico of a stable where the remains of three horses previously were discovered. T...
MILAN (AP) — While running Nissan's North American operations from 2009 to 2011, Carlos Tavares had a reputation for closely watching costs with little tolerance for vehicles or ventures that didn't make money. Experts say that means Tavares, currently the head of PSA Group, is likely to follow that blueprint when he becomes leader of a merged PSA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The low-performing Chrysler brand might get the axe as could slow-selling cars, SUVs or trucks that lack potential. Already the companies are talking about c...
MILAN (AP) — Prada headlined Day 1 of Milan's first Digital Fashion Week on Tuesday with a series of out-sourced videos and the apt subtitle ''the show that never happened.'' Luxury fashion is adapting to the coronavirus pandemic by moving runway shows onto digital platforms. It was that, or cancel the season, a tough choice for an industry that in Italy alone is expected to suffer a 20%-30% drop in revenues this year, from 67 billion euros ($76 billion) last year. So the job now is to stanch losses and maintain ties with consumers, and a s...
ROME (AP) — Italy mulled imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions in financial relief Wednesday to cushion economic shocks from the coronavirus, its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving health crisis that also silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St. Peter's Square. Premier Giuseppe Conte said he will consider requests to toughen Italy's already extraordinary anti-virus lockdown that was extended nationwide Tuesday. Lombardy, Italy's hardest-hit region, is pushing for a shutdown of n...
SOAVE, Italy (AP) — The battle to halt the coronavirus brought sweeping new restrictions Monday, with Italy expanding a travel ban to the entire country, Israel ordering all visitors quarantined just weeks before Passover and Easter, and Spain closing all schools in and around its capital. Even as workers in Beijing returned to their jobs and new infections in China continued to subside, Italians struggled to navigate the rapidly changing parameters of the nation's self-imposed lockdown. The fears fanned by the virus sent Wall Street stocks t...
MILAN (AP) — Amanda Knox, a former American exchange student who became the focus of a sensational murder case, arrived in Italy Thursday for the first time since an appeals court acquitted her in 2011 in the slaying of her British roommate. Knox arrived at Milan's Linate airport en route to the northern city of Modena, where she is scheduled to participate Saturday in a panel discussion on wrongful convictions. She was accompanied by her mother and fiancee, and escorted by plainclothes officers. She kept her eyes down as she exited the a...
PARIS (AP) — Fiat Chrysler proposed on Monday to merge with France's Renault to create the world's third-biggest automaker, worth $40 billion, and combine forces in the race to make electric and autonomous vehicles. The merged company would reshape the global industry: it would produce some 8.7 million vehicles a year, leapfrogging General Motors and trailing only Volkswagen and Toyota. Shares of both companies jumped on the news of the offer, which would see each side's shareholders split ownership in the new manufacturer. Renault welcomed w...
MILAN (AP) — A bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 children and their school chaperones Wednesday, threatening the hostages' lives for 40 minutes and setting the bus on fire at a Carabinieri blockade. Officers from the national police force broke windows at the back of the bus to reach the passengers and got all of them out without serious injuries before flames destroyed the vehicle, authorities said. The driver was apprehended and treated for burns. Prosecutors described him as a 47-year-old Italian citizen of Senegalese origin and said...
MILAN (AP) — Europe's human rights court on Thursday ordered Italy to pay Amanda Knox financial damages for police failure to provide legal assistance and an independent interpreter during a long night of questioning following the Nov. 1, 2007 murder of her British roommate. But the court said there was insufficient evidence to support claims of psychological and physical mistreatment. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, said in its ruling that Italy hadn't succeeded in proving that "the restriction of Ms. Knox's access t...
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday defrocked two more Chilean bishops accused of sexually abusing minors, and to show greater transparency about how he's responding to the church's global sex abuse crisis, he publicly explained why they were removed. The Vatican's unusually detailed statement announcing the laicization of retired Archbishop Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus and retired Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez signaled a new degree of transparency following past missteps by Francis that showed he had grossly underestimated t...
MARANELLO, Italy (AP) — Ferrari is paving its way to future growth with a look to its roots. The company's new CEO, Louis Camilleri, unveiled a new business plan Tuesday that includes reviving iconic models and embedding them with Formula One technology. Significantly expanding Ferrari's electric-gasoline hybrid powertrain offering and affirming plans to introduce a utility vehicle that hews to the brand's performance levels, Camilleri laid out his ambitions for a company he took over only in July following the death of long-time CEO and c...
MILAN (AP) — A 51-year-old highway bridge in the Italian port city of Genoa collapsed in a driving rain Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 15 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte called it "an immense tragedy ... inconceivable in a modern system like ours, a modern country." The disaster, on a major interchange connecting Genoa and other northern cities with beaches in eastern Liguria into France, focused attention on Italy's aging i...
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Real-world debates permeate this year's Venice Biennale on architecture, from commemorating spaces once part of the U.S. slave trade to maintaining the delicate status quo at religious sites in the Holy Land. The sprawling exhibition, which opens Saturday for a six-month run, reflects not only on the political implications of what gets built but also on the empty spaces in between. "We have to be aware of the political issues in order to make buildings which protect, in so far as we can, the status of the human being in t...
MILAN (AP) — Four helicopters were evacuating some 100 tourists and hotel workers from a four-star mountainside hotel and a nearby guesthouse in northern Italy after an avalanche overnight, civil protection authorities said Tuesday as heavy snow caused disruption across the Alps. The Langtauferer Hotel, located near the Austrian border at 1,870 meters (6,135 feet) above sea level and some 100 kilometers (about 60 kilometers) northwest of Bolzano, was not directly hit, but was in an area of extremely high risk for further avalanches, said K...
MILAN (AP) — Milan has long been the world's ready-to-wear fashion leader. Now, dogs are getting in on the Italian city's sartorial scene with a new line of haute couture for canines. Dog a Porter, by the Milan brand Temellini, offers clothing custom-fit for different breeds, ranging from the tiny Chihuahua to the stately greyhound. The line includes cashmere knits, nylon bomber jackets with tiny arms, Sherlock Holmes-style capes and lined raincoats. The capes cost 170 euros ($208) and synthetically filled hooded parkas go for 210 euros (...
MILAN (AP) — Shell and Eni as well as former and current executives will face trial over a $1.1 billion bribery scandal to take control of one of Africa's most lucrative oil blocks in Nigeria, a judge in Milan ruled Wednesday. Anti-corruption campaigners say the trial, which is set to open March 5, will be the biggest corporate bribery trial in history, citing the heft of the two major oil companies involved. In all, 15 individuals face charges, including Eni's current and former CEOs. According to Milan prosecutors, $520 million of the $1.1 b...
ROME (AP) — Cosa Nostra's "boss of bosses," who was serving 26 life sentences as the convicted mastermind of dozens of murders of rivals for power on his Sicilian turf as well as prominent anti-Mafia heroes, died Friday in an Italian hospital prison ward. Salvatore "Toto" Riina's passing, a day after his 87th birthday, is likely to trigger a scramble for power among Mafia clans in Palermo, the traditional hub of the crime syndicate's leadership. Nicknamed "the beast" for his ferocity, Riina leaves behind a significantly weakened Cosa Nostra aft...
MILAN (AP) — Italian mountain rescue crews have recovered the remains of two — or possibly three — hikers on a glacier on Mont Blanc's southern face likely dating from the 1980s or 1990s, officials said Friday. The remains were discovered this week by a hiker who was searching for artifacts from decades-old crashes of two Air India flights, one in 1966 that killed more than 100 people and another in 1950 with nearly 50 fatalities, Alpine rescue commander Delfino Viglione said Friday. "We have many missing people in that area," Viglione said,...
LONDON (AP) — The man accused of kidnapping a British model in Italy painted a picture of big money, international intrigue and spine-chilling dealings as a member of Black Death, an organization selling drugs, guns and murder on the dark web. The reality of Lukasz Pawel Herba's life appears to be more prosaic, riddled with exaggerations and contradictions. Investigators are picking through his story to sift truth from myth — and uncover whether the shadowy Black Death group really exists. ___ WHAT HAPPENED? Italian police have arrested 30-...
MILAN (AP) — A model who claimed she was kidnapped in Italy and held captive in a remote farmhouse was spotted shopping with her alleged captor during the time she said she was being held, according to court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Chloe Ayling initially told Milan police she was held for six days, at times with her hands and feet cuffed to a dresser, until one of her kidnappers released her at the British consulate in Milan on July 17. But on the second day of questioning, detectives presented the 20-year-old with a...
