Italian writer Marcello D'Orta has died at the age of 60 after a long illness. D'Orta was the author of Io Speriamo che me la Cavo or "Me, Let's Hope I Make It", a best-seller which was turned into a successful Paolo Villaggio "fish out of water" comedy film about an elementary school teacher from northern Italy who is sent by mistake to an impoverished town in the Naples region. 
  

 Al Qaeda members may be among thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat from Africa to Europe, posing a potential security risk for the European Union, Italy's Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said on Monday.

 Born just a day apart in the United States, two strikers were celebrating scoring in an international friendly on Monday night. But for different teams. And the Stars and Stripes were nowhere in sight on the banks of the River Thames.

At least 17 people have been killed in flooding and hundreds made homeless after a cylone swept over the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Italian authorities said on Tuesday. 

Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, has erupted again, lighting up the sky over much of eastern Sicily and shooting up a towering column of ash.The eruption, which began late Saturday and tapered off Sunday morning, didn't endanger any of the villages dotting the mountain's slopes, and no evacuation was ordered. 

At least 17 people were killed by floods and hundreds made homeless after a cyclone swept over the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Italian authorities said on Tuesday.The government declared a state of emergency after Cyclone Cleopatra dropped 450mm of rain in an hour and a half overnight, causing rivers to burst their banks, sweeping away cars and flooding homes across the island."This is a national tragedy," Prime Minister Enrico Letta said.The declaration of a state of emergency will allow resources to be freed up more quickly to reach devastated areas, with swathes of the island under muddy flood waters that covered cars and swamped houses.