The Local

An Amazon distribution centre in the UK. Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/AFP AFP [email protected] @thelocalitaly 20 December 2017 17:32 CET+01:00 Workers at Amazon's distribution centre in Italy went on strike for about two hours on Wednesday to demand better pay and conditions, the second time workers have walked off the job in less than a month. The workers at Amazon's Castel San Giovai facility in the north of the country have been demanding better wages and a restructuring of work conditions for weeks. Some 500 workers previously observed a one-day strike on Novemb...

Italy has been chasing Amazon for taxes owed. Photo: Loic Venance/AFP Amazon has agreed to pay the Italian taxman €100 million to settle a dispute over suspected tax fraud, the Italian revenue service said on Friday. Italian authorities have been investigating Amazon for tax evasion in the period between 2011 and 2015, but the deal meant the case is now closed, it said in a statement. Citing investigators, Italian media reported in April that Amazon had established a mechanism to declare some €130 million of Italian profits in Luxembourg, which has a much lower corporate tax rate. Italy has previously forced other US inteet giants to pay up for taxes owed, includin...

A Twitter account claiming to belong to Anita Raja on Tuesday night "confirmed" media reports that the translator was behind the successful Elena Ferrante novels, sending Italian media into a frenzy. But by Wednesday moing, it seemed that the account was a fake. The account, was created on Tuesday evening, with a tweet saying it would only stay open temporarily to allow for an "explanation".It used the handle @AnitaRajaSta - 'Sta' being an abbreviation for the suame of Raja's husband, writer Domenico Staone - and followed 48 accounts of joualists and news organizations (including The Local Italy). "I confirm it. I'm Elena Ferrante. But this doesn't change anything regarding readers' relation...

Ferrante gained fame for writing about the working class districts of Naples. Photo: Carlo Raso/FlickrOne of literature's unresolved mysteries appears to have been cracked with the unmasking of the true identity of Italian publishing sensation Elena Ferrante. In its wake, a literary row erupted on Monday over joualistic ethics and writers' right to protect their identities and the personal back stories that may, or may not, inform their work.Claudio Gatti, an Italian investigative joualist, says he has established that Ferrante is a pen name for Anita Raja, a Rome-based translator who is married to a well-known novelist, Domenico Staone.Ferrante's best-selling novels, particularly her Naples...