Rome- More than 600 illegal immigrants arrived on Southern Italy's Lampedusa overnight, overwhelming the tiny islet's refugee centre, reports said Saturday.
The most recent arrivals swelled numbers in the island's reception centre, which has beds for just 700 people, to over 1,400.
Some 620 illegal immigrants in two boats landed on the island Friday night in stormy seas.
Some 250 of them were due to be flown to other refugee centres later Saturday.
Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday sent condolences to the victims of the attacks in Mumbai, India, saying such terrorist acts "gravely offend the human family."
Benedict's message was contained in a telegram sent by the Vatican to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mumbai, Cardinal Oswald Gracias.
Rome - Italy's government condemned Thursday the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in which an Italian man was among those killed.
"The attacks in India, that were almost certainly carried out by groups linked to al-Qaeda, confirm that terrorism remains the number one threat to the entire community of nations," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
Frattini, in a television interview, also expressed condolences to the family of the Italian victim, Antonio De Lorenzo.
Rome - Colourful tartans well-known in Scotland currently are all the rage in Italy. Anyone with a sense of style from Milan to Messina and from Pordenone to Palermo is wearing plaids.
Rome - Italy's conservative government presented Wednesday a state-sponsored credit card which will be provided to needy people to help them cope with the country's current economic recession.
The "carta per gli acquisti" or "social card" as local media have dubbed it, is worth 40 euros (51 dollars) per month and allows bearers to buy goods at chain stores and supermarkets that have adhered to the initiative, Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said.
The government estimates that some 1.3 million people will benefit from the card. It is set to cost the state 450 million euros per year.
Rome - Rome's Cafe de Paris, a symbol of the Dolce Vita as immortalized by filmmaker Federico Fellini, has been bought by a Calabrian mafia crime family, a newspaper reported Wednesday, citing a police report.
The Alvaro-Palamra clan of the 'Ndrangheta gained control of the celebrated watering hole after paying six million euros in cash (7.7 million dollars) Rome-based daily, La Repubblica, reported.
The establishment's purchase is part of the 'Ndrangheta's expansion from its southern Italian heartland into the real estate market of Rome, but also Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil, Repubblica said, quoting the anti-fraud police report.
Rome- More than 600 illegal immigrants arrived on Southern Italy's Lampedusa overnight, overwhelming the tiny islet's refugee centre, reports said Saturday.
Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday sent condolences to the victims of the attacks in Mumbai, India, saying such terrorist acts "gravely offend the human family."
Rome - Italy's government condemned Thursday the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in which an Italian man was among those killed.
Rome - Rome's Cafe de Paris, a symbol of the Dolce Vita as immortalized by filmmaker Federico Fellini, has been bought by a Calabrian mafia crime family, a newspaper reported Wednesday, citing a police report.
