Italy has named a woman as the country’s spy chief for the first time, ending the dominance of military men known for internecine rivalries in the intelligence services. Elisabetta Belloni, 62, was named as the general secretary of Italy’s Security Intelligence Department (DIS) after rising through the ranks at the Foreign Ministry. SponsoredShe will oversee Italy’s domestic and overseas spy agencies, which were recently caught up in a scandal that recalled the Cold War era when a Russian embassy diplomat was spotted in a car park in Rome handing over cash to an Italian official in return for secret documents. Belloni rose to prominence at the Foreign Ministry by running its crisis unit from 2004 to 2008, handling the release of Italians taken hostage, sometimes

Source: The Times May 13, 2021 23:02 UTC