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Nine-year-old Italian boy killed in Burkina Faso attack

A nine-year-old Italian boy was among the 28 people killed when extremists attacked a hotel and café in Burkina Faso on Friday, according to Italian media reports.

Published: 18 January 2016 08:35 CET
Nine-year-old Italian boy killed in Burkina Faso attack
French investigators stand in front of the Splendid Hotel on Saturday in Ouagadougou. Photo: Issouf Sanogo/AFP

Misha Santomenna was reportedly among the 28 people killed in the siege at the Splendid Hotel and nearby Cappuccino café in the west African country’s capital of Ouagadougou, Corriere reported.

Italy’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that the boy was inside the café, along with his mother, when the attack by al Qaida-linked extremists happened.

The ministry added that it is trying to learn the fate of the boy.

His mother, of Ukrainian origin, is also believed to be among the victims. Victoria Yankovska had co-owned the cafe with her husband, Gaetano Santomenna, since 2012. Yankovska’s sister is also reported to have died.

Authorities in Burkina Faso are carrying out formal identification of the victims, a process which could take some time because of the number of those killed and of different nationalities, the ministry said.

Among those confirmed dead include two French, two Swiss, six Canadians and one each from the US, Holland, Portugal and Libya.

 

TECHNOLOGY

Finally there’s an emoji for that Italian hand gesture

Messaging your Italian friends is about to get that much easier with a new emoji representing one of Italy's best-known hand gestures.

Published: 3 February 2020 13:21 CET
Finally there's an emoji for that Italian hand gesture
How the new 'Pinched Fingers' emoji might look. Image: Emojipedia/Twitter

No more searching for a meme or GIF: the palm-up, fingers-closed hand gesture will appear among the new batch of emojis set for release in 2020.

Officially known as the 'Pinched Fingers' emoji, the Italian hand gesture is one of 62 new icons expected to make it onto devices by September or October this year.

The emoji dictionary Emojipedia defines the icon as “an emoji showing all fingers and thumb held together in a vertical orientation, sometimes referred to as the Italian hand gesture ma che vuoi [what do you want]”. 

The gesture will be familiar to pretty much anyone who's ever interacted with an Italian: usually performed while flicking the wrist up and down, it can mean anything from “are you serious” to “come on” to “what the hell”.

It is included in Emoji 13.0, the latest set of standardised emoji, following a request filed by US-based Italian journalist and entrepreneur Adriano Farano and two others, Jennifer 8. Lee and Theo Schear.

“Thanks to Italian immigration and the growing popularity of its way of life, Italian gestures are unique and bear a cultural meaning both in Italian speaking areas and worldwide such as to deserve a place as an emoji,” they argued in an official submission to the Unicode Consortium, the body that sets universal emoji standards.

“Adding the 'what do you want?' emoji would not only be a useful addition for the Italian diaspora abroad who is still proud of its origins. It would also, more broadly, offer users a much needed expression to engage in animated conversations by adding a touch of humour.”

Unicode's samples of how the Italian hand emoji might look on different systems. 

While uses vary, they suggest the gesture chiefly expresses “disbelief to what our interlocutor is pretending us to do or be, unless our interlocutor clarifies his/her intentions; modesty towards a compliment, as to say: 'what are you saying, it’s not true?'; sarcastic surprise when our interlocutor is exaggerating his/her arguments and we ask him/her to come to the point”.

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While Farano identifies 'Pinched Fingers' as “the most important and visually distinct” Italian hand gesture, some may be hoping that it opens the door to the inclusion of more Italianisms in future updates. 

Italian developers have already created a separate app, Neapolicons, that provides users with images of gestures common in southern Italy.

Do you have a favourite Italian hand gesture? Sign to let us know in the comments below.

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