ROME (AP) — Italian state TV and news agency ANSA say Marella Agnelli, widow of Fiat tycoon Gianni Agnelli and a 20th-century symbol of elegance, has died at her family home in Turin, in Italy’s northern Piedmont region, at 91.
Piedmont Gov. Sergio Chiamparino says Italy has lost an illustrious figure known for “grace and elegance.”
The daughter of a Neapolitan prince and an Illinois-born mother, she married Agnelli in 1953.
With an academic arts background, she did photography for Conde Nast publications. Agnelli herself was the subject of a photo that became an iconic fashion image – a 1953 black-and-white portrait by Richard Avedon highlighting her long, graceful neck and dignified beauty.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland’s whaling industry will be allowed to keep hunting whales for at least another five years, killing up to 2,130 Baleen whales under a new quota issued by the government.
The five-year whaling policy was up for renewal when Fisheries Minister Kristjan Juliusson announced this week an annual quota of 209 Fin whales and 217 Minke whales for the next five years.
While many Icelanders support whale hunting, a growing number of businessmen and politicians are against it due to the North Atlantic island nation’s dependence on tourism.
Whaling, they say, is bad for business and poses a threat to the country’s reputation and the expanding international tourism that has become a mainstay of Iceland’s national economy.
“We risk damaging the tourism sector, our most important industry,” legislator Bjarkey Gunnarsdottir said in a speech Wednesday, referring to the international criticism and diplomatic pressure that Iceland faces for allowing the commercial hunting of whales.
The Icelandic Travel Industry Association issued a statement saying the government was damaging the nation’s “great interests” and the country’s reputation to benefit a small whaling sector that is struggling to sell its products.
BERLIN (AP) — An avalanche hit a forest in Austria near the German border killing one skier, Austrian police said. Four others were rescued from the snow but emergency workers kept up the search for others who may have been buried alive.
The avalanche hit an off-piste forest in Reutte near the German border. Most roads leading to the site were blocked by the avalanche and from a previous avalanche, making rescue efforts more complicated.
“Of the four people who were rescued alive, one person is injured,” said police spokesman Michael Eder. He said all five were out on backcountry skiing tours when they were hit by the avalanche. He didn’t have any details about their identities or nationalities.
“We are continuing our search for others who may have been buried, but it’s getting dark now and will become more difficult to find anybody,” Eder added.
Four helicopters were taking emergency staff to the site and around 60 firefighters and mountain police with search dogs were on the scene.
The avalanche hit a treeless site near a hotel in an otherwise wooded area, but Eder said it was too early to know what had caused it.