After no big snowfall for 26 years, Rome is being hit by its second snowstorm in a week.

Snow blanketed Rome’s suburbs yesterday, and has settled in the capital’s centre.

On Friday, Rome’s schools closed as a precaution, and monuments including the Colosseum were shut to the public for fear tourists could fall on ice.

Many places, including the university town of Urbino in the northern Marche region, and mountain villages in Abruzzo and Basilicata south of Rome, hadn’t dug out from the storm a week earlier and were battered again.

Big lorries were ordered off national roads, raising fears that food won’t reach stores.

First lady tackles obesity

Michelle Obama yesterday spent the day at a Florida church, speaking with religious leaders about their role in helping people eat better and become more physically fit.

It is part of the first lady’s three-day national tour to mark the second anniversary of her Let’s Move campaign against childhood obesity. During a stop in Longwood, Florida, she told a crowd of more than 3,000 people from 15 denominations that they’re taking on one of the most urgent challenges of our time. She said they’re showing that no problem is “too big, too complicated, too entrenched to be solved”.

New Mandela bank notes

The complete series of South African bank notes will bear Nelson Mandela’s image, the country’s president said yesterday on the 22nd anniversary of the anti-apartheid leader’s release from prison.

“With this humble gesture, we are expressing our deep gratitude as the South African people, to a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity worldwide,” President Jacob Zuma said at the central bank offices.

Zuma did not say when the new notes would appear. Mandela’s image will appear on all South African notes, which are issued in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 rands, officials said.

Mandela, the 93-year-old Nobel Peace prize winner, became South Africa’s first black president in 1994. Known affectionately by his clan name, Madiba, he has retired from public life.

‘Godfather of talk radio’ dies

Wilmot Perkins, the man considered Jamaica’s godfather of talk radio, has died aged80.

Former employers released statements saying Perkins died on Friday at home after a brief illness. Former Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding offered his condolences.

Perkins was considered Jamaica’s longest-serving radio talk show host, working for more than 50 years in radio.

He launched his first programme called What’s your Grouse? in 1960.

He later became a farmer but returned to radio in the 1970s, ultimately launching a show called Perkins On Line.

Capsized cruised ship still moving

Italian officials said rough seas have increased movements of the crippled Costa Concordia and are thwarting the start of fuel removal a month after the cruise ship capsized off a Tuscan island.

The national office overseeing search and anti-pollution operations said that instruments registered increased and faster movements of the ship, which is resting on its side just outside Giglio island’s port.

But they said the movements have since slowed down.

If the ship keeps shifting, it could drop down onto deeper seabed, complicating plans to remove fuel.