Ischia mayor wants fatty locals to count calories A town in the island resort of Ischia has ordered local restaurants to offer low-cal menus in a bid to get overweight locals to lose their status as the country's leading fatties.

British director Stephen Frears will be honoured by Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli on Friday during one of this week's many star-studded events at the Ischia Global Film & Music Fest.

Multiple-Oscar-winners Hilary Swank and Oliver Stone are among the Hollywood A listers taking part in the upcoming movie bonanza on this island in the Gulf of Naples.

Ischia found itself cut off from the mainland on Thursday due to a protest by island residents against the reduction in service by the Caremar ferry lines.

Some 100 Carmar employees and residents occupied the docks in the islands's main port preventing any ferry or hydrofoil from arriving or departing.

Some 80 people have been able to return to their homes on the island of Ischia after Sunday's fatal landside which killed four people. A total of about 250 people were forced from their homes at dawn on Sunday by a landslide caused by heavy rains on the island in the Bay of Naples.