Italian royals return home

The descendants of Italy’s last king today said they were overjoyed at the prospect of returning to their homeland following the failure of a petition that would have kept them in exile.

Victor Emmanuel, the son of the late king, and his family uncorked champagne bottles at their stately Lake Geneva home a day after a group trying to collect the 500,000 signatures necessary to call a referendum said it was only able to get about 21,000.