Italian police find suspected ‘secret bunker’ of captured mafia boss

‘Last godfather’ of Sicilian mafia Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested after 30 years on run

Italian military police have found a possible secret bunker suspected of being used by Matteo Messina Denaro, the “last godfather” of the Sicilian mafia who was arrested on Monday after 30 years on the run.

The entrance to the bunker was concealed in a closet full of clothes in a house in Campobello di Mazara, a small town in Sicily where the apartment Denaro, 60, had been living in was discovered on Tuesday.

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Captured mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was living in modest apartment

Italian investigators discover designer clothes and expensive shoes inside ‘normal’ two-storey building

The mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the world’s most-wanted criminals who had spent 30 years on the run, lived in a modest apartment in western Sicily in his final months as a free man, Italian investigators said.

Denaro, 60, who was apprehended as he came out of a well-known private clinic in Palermo, lived in a small apartment inside a two-storey yellow building in the centre of the town of Campobello di Mazara, in the province of Trapani, in the heart of his territory.

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Tipoff about medical care led to arrest of mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro

‘Last godfather’ was apprehended as he came out of the private health facility on outskirts of Palermo

An Italian mob boss regarded as the last godfather of the Sicilian mafia was arrested after investigators received a tipoff that one of the world’s most wanted criminals had been receiving medical treatment for a tumour at a well-known clinic in Palermo, police sources have said.

Matteo Messina Denaro, 60, who has been in hiding since 1993, was apprehended as he came out of the private La Maddalena health facility on the outskirts of the Sicilian city, where special forces had been on guard since authorities first learned of his whereabouts three days ago. He was wearing luxury clothes and a €38,000 (£33,700) watch.

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Giorgio Armani’s AW23 menswear proves chasing gen Z is not necessary

Despite not doing shock tactics and trends, the designer’s signature is something of a ‘mood’ this season

If the fashion industry sometimes seems obsessed with creating the next sell-out trend, then the men’s autumn collection by Giorgio Armani served a poignant reminder this season that you do not always need to chase the purse strings of generation Z.

Armani, the world’s most successful fashion designer and proprietor of one of its few independent fashion brands, does not do shock tactics and trends. While his contemporaries roll out logo-heavy bags and zeitgeisty moments, the 88-year-old has always been consistent in his polished offering of 1% chic for the best part of five decades. Ironic, then, that it is this very signature that makes him something of “a mood” this season.

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Italy’s most-wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrested

Alleged to be a boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia, Denaro had been on run for 30 years and was arrested in Palermo

Matteo Messina Denaro, the last “godfather” of the Sicilian mafia and one of the world’s most-wanted criminals, has been arrested in Palermo after 30 years on the run.

Denaro, 60, who has been in hiding since 1993, was apprehended in a private clinic in the Sicilian city.

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Prada charts course between useful and zany at Milan fashion week

Fashion label has taken items you might already own – a white vest, a backpack – to its menswear show

No one comes to Milan fashion week for its “useful clothes”. Yet this was the verdict of the director Luca Guadagnino, who sat in the front row on Sunday’s menswear show: “Useful, yes, wearable, yes, all those things. Everyone can wear this.”

Price tags aside, his point was this: just as in previous collections, Prada took things you might already own – a ribbed white vest, a backpack – and turned them into must-have pieces. They did the same with duffle coats, donkey jackets, black office brogues and navy parkas. Sometimes fashion holds up a mirror to what’s happening in the world, but sometimes it reminds us of what we already own.

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US-born princess vows to stay in Rome villa despite eviction order

Saga continues over property housing Caravaggio’s only ceiling fresco as fifth auction fails to attract bids

A princess living in a villa in Rome that contains the only ceiling fresco ever painted by Caravaggio has said she would “vigorously defend” her right to stay in the sprawling property after a judge ordered her eviction.

The US-born Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, the only occupant of the 16th-century Villa Aurora, has been embroiled in a long-running inheritance dispute with the three sons of her late husband, Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, who was the property’s last owner.

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Anger brews in Italy over Ireland’s plans for alcohol health warnings

Critics say warnings are a ‘direct attack’ against Italy as a key exporter of wine

A plan by Ireland to put stark health warnings on bottles of wine, beer and spirits has caused anger in Italy.

Ireland is free to go ahead with the measure, which would warn consumers about the risks of cancer and liver diseases linked to alcohol, after a deadline passed for the European Commission to oppose it.

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‘Astonishing’ Pompeii home of men freed from slavery reopens to public

House of the Vettii features ornate and erotic friezes – and a fresco of the god Priapus with a huge phallus

An ornate house – containing a fresco featuring a huge phallus – that was owned by two freed men freed from slavery in the ancient city of Pompeii has reopened to the public.

The House of the Vettii was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD74 before being rediscovered in a largely preserved state during excavations in the late 19th century.

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Vatican reopens investigation into teenager who went missing in 1983

Emanuela Orlandi case has triggered several theories but never yielded any concrete answers

The Vatican has reopened an investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a case that has gripped Italy for almost 40 years and embroiled the powerful Holy See.

Emanuela was 15 when she vanished on 22 June 1983 while making her way home from a flute lesson in Rome. The Orlandi family lived in Vatican City, where her father was a lay employee in the papal household.

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Benedict XVI funeral expected to draw big crowds to St Peter’s Square

Tens of thousands gather to see Pope Francis bury his predecessor

An estimated 100,000 Catholics have descended on St Peter’s Square for the funeral of the former pope Benedict XVI.

Benedict died on Saturday, aged 95, almost a decade after becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign. He will become the first former pontiff in the modern history of the Catholic church to be buried by an incumbent pope, Francis, who arrived outside St Peter’s Basilica in a wheelchair on Thursday.

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Naples plans ‘rebirth’ for its crumbling Poggioreale cemetery

Burial place has fallen into severe disrepair, to dismay of families of those laid to rest there

Wild vegetation smothers the crumbling tombs, most of them dating back to the 1800s, that line the square beneath the imposing Chiesa Madre, or Mother Church, at Poggioreale monumental cemetery in the southern Italian city of Naples.

In the middle of the square, a makeshift storage area has been installed for coffins containing retrieved skeletal remains of the dead that were flung out of burial niches after a series of collapses at multistorey marble columbariums last year.

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Benedict XVI: thousands expected to pay respects to former pope

Benedict’s body displayed in chapel of the Vatican monastery and will lie in state at St Peter’s Basilica

Thousands of people are expected to pay their respects to former pope Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday, in the days leading up to his funeral this week.

Benedict’s body was displayed on Sunday in a chapel of the Vatican monastery where he lived, and will lie in state at St Peter’s Basilica from Monday until Thursday. His funeral in St Peter’s Square will be a simple, solemn and sober ceremony in keeping with his wishes, the Vatican said.

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Tributes and reaction as ex-pope Benedict XVI dies aged 95 – as it happened

This live blog has now closed, you can read more about the death of Benedict XVI here

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, says he is saddened to learn of Benedict XVI’s death.

His visit to UK in 2010 was a “historic moment for both Catholics and non Catholics”, he adds.

Today I join with the church throughout the world, and especially with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and all in the Catholic Church, in mourning the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

In Pope Benedict’s long life and ministry of service to Christ in His Church he saw many profound changes in the church and in the world. He lived through the Nazi regime in Germany and served briefly in the Second World War. As a younger theologian and priest he witnessed first-hand the discussions of the Second Vatican Council. As a professor and then as an Archbishop he lived in a divided Germany but saw too the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of his homeland.

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China bridles as EU states prepare to scale up Covid monitoring

France joins Spain and Italy in requiring arrivals to show a negative result with the UK to follow suit

European countries are preparing to scale up the monitoring of potential new coronavirus variants from China, as Spain and France brought back mandatory testing at airports in response to Beijing’s rapid rollback of anti-infection measures.

The two countries on Friday followed Italy’s lead by requiring arrivals from China to show a negative test result, though unlike Rome, Spain makes exceptions for those who can prove they are fully vaccinated.

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Sea rescue charities rebel against Italian anti-immigration rules

NGOs say measures including requirement to request port after first rescue could result in thousands of deaths

Sea rescue charities are rebelling against tough new anti-immigration measures imposed by the Italian government, arguing that they could result in thousands of deaths.

Ship captains risk fines of €50,000 and having their vessels impounded if they break the rules, which include a requirement to request a port and sail to it immediately after undertaking one rescue instead of remaining at sea to rescue people from other boats in difficulty.

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EU states resist joining Italy on Covid testing for arrivals from China

Italy urges action at European level as more than 50% of recent arrivals from China test positive at Milan airport

Member states of the European Union have resisted pressure from Italy to immediately impose mandatory anti-Covid checks on travellers entering the borderless Schengen area from China, with health officials in Brussels saying they would instead continue to monitor the consequences of Beijing’s rapid rollback of its previously stringent hygiene restrictions.

In recent days more than 50% of passengers from China at Milan’s Malpensa airport have tested positive for the virus, and on Wednesday Italy brought back mandatory coronavirus tests for everyone arriving from China, after reports of rising infection rates in the world’s most populous country.

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Ruggero Deodato, director of notorious horror Cannibal Holocaust, dies aged 83

Italian film-maker found infamy when rumours about his 1980 ‘found footage’ horror led to him being charged with murder

Ruggero Deodato, director of the notorious 1980 horror film Cannibal Holocaust, has died aged 83. Italian media reported that he died on Thursday.

Deodato had a lengthy film-making career and operated in a variety of genres but remains best known for his gruesome horror film, which was banned in multiple countries and even resulted in him being put on trial for murdering his actors.

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US to require arrivals from China to provide negative Covid test

Other countries including Italy have taken similar steps after Beijing’s rollback of ‘zero-Covid’ policies led to surge in cases

The US has announced all travellers from China must provide a negative Covid-19 test to enter the country, joining other nations imposing restrictions because of a surge of infections.

The increase in cases across China follows the rollback of the nation’s strict anti-virus controls. Beijing’s “zero Covid” policies had kept the country’s infection rate low but fuelled public frustration and crushed economic growth.

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‘It is a war’: senator and Auschwitz survivor Liliana Segre on fighting Italy’s far right

Liliana Segre, 92, has been subjected to racist attacks, and fears the Holocaust will become a footnote in the history books

An Italian senator who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and this year found herself witnessing a far-right government take power again in Rome has said her “personal nightmare” is that the Holocaust will all but vanish from history books.

Liliana Segre, 92, was the only one of her relatives to survive the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews as part of Nazi Germany’s second world war campaign to obliterate the Jewish population in Europe.

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