ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s top court said on Tuesday it had ordered a retrial of American Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher because their acquittals contained “shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies.”

Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito were initially found guilty of killing the 21-year-old Leeds University student in 2007 during what was described as a drug-fuelled sexual assault, but both were cleared on appeal in 2011.

VATICAN CITY, June 14 (Reuters) – Pope Francis and the new
head of the world’s Anglicans acknowledged deep differences over
issues ranging from gay rights to women priests but pledged to
seek unity when they met on Friday for the first time since both
took office in March.

Relations between the Catholic and Anglican churches have
been strained for years, especially over Anglican ordination of
women as priests, and the meeting at the Vatican was billed as
an opportunity to reduce tensions.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s battered center-left won the election for mayor of Rome on Monday and appeared set to do well in other cities, giving a lift to Prime Minister Enrico Letta as he strives to control an uneasy coalition with traditional rivals on the right.

The center-left candidate, former surgeon Ignazio Marino, took 63.8 percent of votes in a run-off ballot on Sunday and Monday, defeating the outgoing mayor Gianni Alemanno who won 36.2 percent, a partial Interior Ministry count showed.

ROME, June 10 (Reuters) – Italian local elections that end
on Monday could give a morale boost to Prime Minister Enrico
Letta and confirm that support for the populist 5-Star Movement
is waning.

Despite a slump in turnout as Italians lose faith in their
politicians, Letta hopes for a positive result for his
centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which nearly imploded after
throwing away a 10-point lead it held ahead of February’s
inconclusive general election.

ROME (Reuters) – Fewer Italians than usual have turned out to vote in local elections that end on Monday, displaying their growing disillusionment with politics in a country run by an uneasy left-right coalition.

Center-left Prime Minister Enrico Letta hopes for a boost after his Democratic Party (PD) threw away a 10-point lead before February’s inconclusive general election, but, even if results go his way, low turnout would show support for mainstream parties is, at best, lukewarm.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis warned the Catholic Church to not close in on itself at a Mass to mark Pentecost Sunday attended by more than 200,000 people, urging the faithful to be open and present in a new and changing world.

The Church should ask itself daily whether it is resisting new challenges and remaining “barricaded in transient structures which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new,” he said.

ROME, May 13 (Reuters) – The thought of eating beetles,
caterpillars and ants may give you the creeps, but the authors
of a U.N. report published on Monday said the health benefits of
consuming nutritious insects could help fight obesity.

More than 1,900 species of insects are eaten around the
world, mainly in Africa and Asia, but people in the West
generally turn their noses up at the likes of grasshoppers,
termites and other crunchy fare.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s first black minister has responded to a barrage of sexist and racial insults by saying she is proud to be black, not colored, and that Italy is not really a racist country.

Cecile Kyenge, an eye doctor and Italian citizen originally from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was named integration minister by Prime Minister Enrico Letta last Saturday, one of seven women in the new government.

ROME, April 11 (Reuters) – Global food prices rose 1 percent
in March, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday,
pointing to a surge in dairy costs, while cereals prices were
little changed and seen facing downward pressure in coming
months.

Food prices spiked over the summer of 2012 fuelled by a
historic drought in the United States and dry weather in other
major producers. Prices eased slightly towards the end of last
year but have been nudging higher again for the past two months.

ROME (Reuters) – Two months after placing first in a vote but falling short of winning power, Italy’s main center-left party is still divided over whether to swallow its animosity and consider a government with its scandal-plagued nemesis, Silvio Berlusconi.

Italy has been in limbo since a February election gave no bloc enough votes to govern alone. The center left won a majority in the lower house but not in the Senate, and a huge protest vote for the populist 5-Star Movement has split parliament three ways.