Focus::Daily News
NEWSLINE
ANSA. he Vatican on Friday rapped the teachings of a medieval Christian mystic cited three times by Barack Obama as someone who wanted a better world. ''Few of those who expound on Gioacchino da Fiore (Joachim of Fiore, 1130-1202 AD) on the Internet know, or go to the trouble of finding out, what this character really said,'' said Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household. (Read the article)
ANSA. Venice is continuing its drive to help save the city's art heritage by receiving SMS and Internet funding.
The campaign, launched last year, is dubbed SMS, which also stands for Save St Mark's. (Read the article)
THE TELEGRAPH. Mr Berlusconi was responding to questions from journalists about his stewardship of the Italian economy, which has lurched into recession despite his assurances that the country is well-placed to weather the world crisis. "I'm paler [than Mr Obama], because it's been so long since I went sunbathing. He's more handsome, younger and taller," quipped the media mogul, who is renowned for his gaffes. Mr Berlusconi, 72, was accused of racism in November when he hailed then President-elect Obama as "handsome, young and also suntanned". (Read the article by Nick Squires)
REUTERS. Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore SpA will shut down its free daily newspaper 24 Minuti because of the sagging advertising market, the publishing group said on Thursday. 24 Minuti will shut down on April 1, Il Sole said in a statement. The daily was distributed in Rome and Milan. The move was taken "in response to the negative trend of the Italian advertising market in 2008 and the further deterioration in the opening months of 2009", it said. (Read the Article)
CEP NEWS. Italian industrial orders fell 2.1% since December, despite expectations of a 4.5% decline, ISTAT reported on Friday. In the previous month, orders levels had slipped 0.6%. According to ISTAT, domestic demand had declined 3.1% month-over-month, while domestic orders managed a modest 0.1% increase. (Read the Article)
SKY SPORTS. The Italian Olympic Committee confirmed the news in a statement on Thursday. The accident took place on Wednesday evening when the car Parisi was driving collided with a truck carrying electrical goods in Voghera in the Pavia region of Italy. The 42-year-old, who was originally from the Calabria region, is reported to have died instantly. (Read the Article)
VOA NEWS. In 2000, with years of experience as a professional photographer behind her, Susanna Lucia Lamaina decided to begin an annual pilgrimage to Garaguso to capture life there on film. She found it fascinating. "Antiquity and modernity live side by side," she marvels. "You can see a 45-year-old man herding a group of sheep, and on the other side of the road, a man of the same age is driving a BMW." (Read the Article by Jean di Marino)
THE NEW YORK TIMES. A number of neighbors in Bay Ridge -- including many senior citizens of Italian descent whose families settled here over a century ago -- signed a petition protesting the service cuts decided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and scheduled to go into effect this summer.
Unless Albany intervenes, the MTA’s financial crisis will interrupt 145 years of mass transit history. An electric streetcar started running on Third Avenue in 1893; before that, there was a steam-powered streetcar; and before that, in the 1860s, there was a horse-drawn stagecoach providing access to the 39th Street ferry.
If the State Legislature doesn’t bail out the transportation authority, the New York Times wirtes, hundreds of people will suffer, "including those who depend on public transportation to get them to physical therapy or to the Lutheran Medical Center on56th Street or to the Food Town down on 92nd that everyone treks to for good, affordable meat." (Read the article by Susan Dominus)
REUTERS. Greece has returned to Italy two murals smuggled from an Italian church more than 20 years ago, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday. The frescoes dating to the 13th century were seized from the church in the southern region of Campania, in 1982. Greek police found them in 2006 on a small island in the southern Aegean during an anti-smuggling mission (Read the Article)
AGI NEWS ON. The index as calculated by the ISAE (Italian institute for economic studies and analysis) has dropped from 104 to 99.8, going back to the values seen at the end of last year. The index for the general economic outlook has dropped even more, from February's 70.4 to 62.1. (Read the Article)