When Cécile Kyenge accepted the post of minister of integration in Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s center-left government, she knew that as Italy’s first black national official she would be breaking new ground. What she may not have expected was the stream of racial slurs that have accompanied her first eight weeks in office.

 He has been called the Italian Schindler, credited with helping to save 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Giovanni Palatucci, a wartime police official, has been honored in Israel, in New York and in Italy, where squares and promenades have been named in his honor, and in the Vatican, where Pope John Paul II declared him a martyr, a step toward potential sainthood.

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake was felt across central and northern Italy on Friday, causing some minor damage in rural areas but there were no immediate reports of injuries. 

 The 60-year-old insists the Azzurri possess plenty of quality in their armoury and cannot be underestimated, as he reflects on the "extraordinary" feat of taking on his home nation.

 James Gandolfini, the Emmy Award-winning actor who shot to fame on the HBO drama “The Sopranos” as Tony Soprano, a tough-talking, hard-living crime boss with a stolid exterior but a rich interior life, died on Wednesday. He was 51.

 The death of James Gandolfini, best known for his role as an anxiety-ridden mob boss on HBO's "The Sopranos," on Wednesday affected many in Hollywood and beyond. Friends and colleagues tweeted and made statements after hearing news of the actor's death.