LuminosityItalia

Italian state police have arrested 18 people for running an immigrant smuggling ring that trafficked refuges into France with the goal of reaching northern Europe. “A squad in Cremona took two years to uncover an organization for human trafficking that operated internationally,” said a statement from the Polizia di Stato. Police said they “found a large and branched criminal association that for payment facilitated the entry of non-EU citizens from Syria, Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan”. Read the rest of the story at our   English-language news portal for Italy .

If Italy were a brand it would be the 9th most valuable in the world. That was the finding of the UK-based business analysis company Brand Finance, which evaluated countries across the globe using a range of metrics to give each a ranking of its overall economic value in 2016. The report, made in conjunction with the FDI Intelligence unit of Britain’s Financial Times, says brand Italy is worth $1.521 trillion, a 21 percent increase over the previous study, as Italy overtook former No 9 Switzerland. Read the rest of the story at our   English-language news portal for Italy .

Police officials in Rome detained and fined a 40-year-old German man for stripping down and dancing naked in the Trevi Fountain. His was the latest in a string of tourist splashes into the iconic fountain, a trend seemingly inspired by Anita Ekberg’s impulsive foray into its waters in the 1960 Federico Fellini film “La Dolce Vita”. Police said the man was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs when arrested. Read the rest of the story at our   English-language news portal for Italy .

Though Italy lags behind other major EU economies in e-commerce, the sector showed strong growth in 2016 will rise even more sharply this year, according a study from Milan’s Polytechnic University. Findings from Eurostat say that only 8 percent of revenues for Italian companies are generated over the Internet compared to 24 percent in Germany and 17 percent in France. Read the rest of the story at our English-language news portal for Italy .

Nearly 25 years after he helped organize bomb attacks that killed famed anti-mafia prosecutors, fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro will be tried in absentia in Caltanissetta, Sicily beginning March 13. Long one of Interpol’s most wanted men, Denaro has not been seen in public for more than two decades. Read the rest of the story at our English-language news portal for Italy .

Rescue teams are still digging through the ruins of a luxury hotel and compacted snow after an avalanche swept down a steep mountainside at 100 km/h on Jan 20 and buried clients and hotel staff inside. At last report, five bodies had been recovered, 23 people remain missing and 11 have been pulled from the shattered building alive, though none in the past 24 hours. Read the rest of the story at our English-language news portal for Italy .

Soon after Europe’s most wanted man, the terrorist Anis Amri, was fatally shot by a rookie Italian policeman during a routine ID check, investigators found an intriguing connection. Hunted across Europe, Amri met his demise in the working-class Milan suburb of Sesto San Giovanni, just a few kilometers from where the truck he used in a Berlin killing spree originated. Had the 24-year-old Tunisian refugee come full circle, returning to a support group of fellow terrorists? The clues were compelling – and possibly alarming. Was the former factory town, once known as “Sestograd” for its Communist Party residents and local government, actually now home to a nest of terrorists? Read the rest of the story at our English-language news portal for Italy .

Protracted negotiations and the final sale of AC Milan to a murky consortium of Chinese buyers will finally reach fruition in mid-February, according to published reports in Italy, drawing to close a two-year saga that left local fans perplexed. Following a deal signed last summer, a varied and mysterious mix of buyers has been reported, all with ties to China in one form or another. Tranches of deposit money and operating capital for the storied football club began arriving in early fall. The €800 million transaction was originally set to conclude on June 15, but as summer turned to autumn and then winter, one deadline after another passed. It is now supposed to be finalized within a month. Current owner Silvio Berlusconi and his team at Fininvest might have considered the sale maddeningly difficult, but it could be just the beginning. The Chinese can be slow, changeable and confusing in their approach to management. Read the rest of the story at our English-language news portal