Italian News (2)

- Hallowe'en, until very recently unknown in Italy, has caught on in a big way in the last couple of years; pumpkin growers report a huge increase in sales

- Italian medical research, a somewhat unsung success, has been active: Teams working under Luigi Naldini in Milan and Cesare Galli in Cremona have managed to rewrite human DNA in a breakthrough that holds promise for the treatment of a range of diseases.
Italy's leading expert on breast cancer Umberto Veronesi says that in ten years the survival rate among breast cancer patients should rise to 85%
Andrea Decensi, director of the oncology department at Genoa's Galliera Hospital, said a drug used to treat osteoporosis has proven to also be effective for the prevention of breast cancer
Teams working at Aviano near Pordenone and Rome's Tor Vergata University have discovered that chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL) is more aggressive when the tumour cells contain a specific protein on their surface.Valter Gattei of the Aviano lab said the breakthrough was "promising" because the protein is "easier and cheaper to detect than other markers".
A team from the universities of Rome and Ancona have found a marker in human bile they claim can identify bile-duct cancer before surgery becomes the only, high-risk option.
Not bad, eh?

- Bread and pasta prices, currently being investigated by the competition commission, have been a major cause in the rise in the inflation rate

- Cortina d'Ampezzo, a ski resort, has voted to switch from the northeastern Veneto region to Trentino-Alto Adige. The referendum was held to preserve the Ladino language, spoken otherwise only in the Alto Adige, but some think the positive vote may have been influenced by the lower taxes paid by their neighbours in Alto Adige.

- The number of legal immigrants in Italy climbed 21.6% last year, over 2005, the highest growth in the European Union

- Dario Fo is the only Italian in a list of living geniuses published Monday in the Daily Telegraph.The Nobel prize-winning writer came seventh; the creator of The Simpsons was fourth, Osama bin Laden joint 43rd

- The Vatican has published a document from the secret archive saying the wiping out of the Knights Templar in the 14th Century may have been a little harsh. They were bad, but not that bad

- Signposts have been erected marking the via Francigena route for pilgrims from Rome to Canterbury. There is renewed interest because it has been shown to be quicker than queuing for Ryanair