When the satirical US rock group The Tubes wanted to shock audiences in the mid-Seventies, they had their lead singer, Fee Waybill, wear a leather mask and thong, and little else, as he shone a torchlight into his face and sang their ode to S&M entitled "Mondo Bondage". They were following in the footsteps of the exploitation director Russ Meyer, who called his 1966 pseudo-documentary about strippers Mondo Topless, and the cult film-maker John Waters, who named his 1969 black comedy Mondo Trasho. However, mondo – the Italian noun for "world" – was first introduced into the English language by another director, Gualtiero Jacopetti, whose "shockumentaries" entitled Mondo Cane ("A Dog's Life", 1962), La Donna Nel Mondo ("Women of the World", 1963) and Mondo Pazzo ("Mad World", also known as Mondo Cane 2, 1963) proved unlikely box-office successes at a time when cinema and television shied away from graphic images.

Italy is famed for its healthy Mediterranean diet, but alarming new figures show that it has a higher proportion of overweight children than anywhere in Europe.

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Jean-Claude Trichet insisted to European parliamentarians yesterday that the European Central Bank remains fully independent of national governments, despite the Bank's emergency purchase of Spanish and Italian sovereign bonds earlier this month. The ECB's President pointed out that the Bank has only bought bonds in the secondary market (rather than directly from governments) and called for all eurozone states to show "strict respect" for budgetary discipline in exchange for such market assistance.

Europe's stock markets bounced higher yesterday as investors were encouraged by the views expressed on Friday by Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve.

Pristine and fragile stretches of the Sicilian coastline are under threat from the rush to plunder the island's rich oil resources, environment campaigners warned yesterday.

Britons are among the most pessimistic in the world about their country's economic prospects, it was revealed today.

Casey Stoner tightened his grip on the MotoGP title, blitzing to victory at the Indianapolis Grand Pix yesterday for his third consecutive win and seventh of the season.

Irish rider Dan Martin won the ninth stage of the Tour of Spain on Sunday, while Dutchman Bauke Mollema took the overall leader's jersey from Joaquin Rodriguez by one second.

The local favourites delivered a convincing win as the Spanish yacht Bribón won the Murcia Trophy, fourth in the series of five which makes up the Audi MedCup. The 52-footer had just two results outside the top three in the nine races.

'Binge tourism' reaches a new low when police fire rubber bullets to restore peace. Alasdair Fotheringham reports from the Benidorm plaza dubbed 'British square'

Sport can dish up some cruel misfortunes, not least for the resurgent Italian crew of Azzurra in the Audi MedCup. After a great start in the 21-mile coastal race the big blue TP52 was leading only to be pipped at the first mark by its red sistership of the Franco-German All 4 One.

The man who pays his way