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 The ghost of Benito Mussolini, Italy's 20th Century Fascist dictator and Duce, dead and gone now for almost 70 years, is still stalking the country's politics.Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is actively campaigning for re-election in next month's general election, set off a chorus of outrage this week. 

 The director of the Vatican Museum has warned that Italy's cultural heritage is "vanishing" after prosecutors in Naples said two more people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in a "premeditated, organised and brutal" sacking of the city's 16th century Girolamini library. 

Of the many people who walk past 542 Hamilton Street in Allentown, few would give a second glance to the Victorian era building that was once the home of the Empire Beauty School, except for those who might look up in a spare moment and wonder about the nude sculpture of a woman in the upper window.

Despite the government’s best efforts, tax evasion remains something of a pastime in Italy, where, famously, more than a few of the Ferrari-driving set claim impoverishment when it comes to declaring their incomes.