First it was "The Sopranos." Then it was "Jersey Shore, "Jerseylicious" and "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."Soon it spread to the "Mama's Boys of the Bronx," "The Manzani's," "Brooklyn 11223" and a "Slice of Brooklyn."Coming soon is the made-for-TV Syfy movie "Jersey Shore Shark Attack," which Manny Alfano describes as "a combination of 'Jersey Shore' and 'Sopranos' meets 'Jaws.'"

WASHINGTON -- Seven ancient objects looted from Italy, including three music sheets from choir books dating back to the 13th century recovered in McMinnville, will be on their way home following a return ceremony Thursday.
Janet Napolitano, secretary of the federal Department of Homeland Security returned the antiquities to Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero at the Embassy of Italy in Washington.

 

 Italy's Maxxi museum, which opened just two years ago, has been hard hit by the country's economic problems, which have resulted in widespread cuts in cultural funding. Now the high-profile art museum, designed by architect Zaha Hadid, faces possible closure.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi paid large sums of money to the Sicilian Mafia to protect himself and his family from kidnapping in the mid-1970s, Italy's highest appeals court said on Tuesday. Cosa Nostra's protection "was not free", the court said, adding that the media magnate was a victim of extortion.

The Italian government has been persistent, tenacious and very effective in forcing repatriation of its looted antiquities. Seizing the ethical high ground, then playing legal and diplomatic hardball, it has extracted scores of prized objects from American museums. None was hit harder than L.A.'s Getty Museum, which has bid adieu to 40 pieces Italy was able to prove had been illegally dug from its soil.