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VATICAN RADIO. Pope Benedict XVI says political leaders and industrialists must make workers and their families the priority during the economic crisis. (Read the article)
Reuters. taly's president handed Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev the keys to an Orthodox church and pilgrim hostel in Italy on Sunday, saying it could help ease a 1,000-year schism between Christianity's two biggest churches. (Read the article by Oleg Shchedrov)
TIMESONLINE. Silvio Berlusconi is under attack over his latest "gaffe". The office of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, has taken the unusual step of denying reports that he boasted to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, that he had "given him his woman". (Read the article by RIchard Owen)
The Philadelphia Inquirer. Imagine Italia - beyond stereotypes. The Philadelphia Flower Show takes you there, and to its less familiar regions. We love our Italian fantasies, and the producers of the 180-year-old Philadelphia Flower Show are counting on that. (Read the article by Ginny Smit)
The Washington Post. When the bills started piling up and the banks wouldn't lend, the white-haired art dealer in the elegant tweed jacket said he drove to the outskirts of Rome and knocked on the rusty steel door of a shipping container. A beefy man named Mauro answered. He wore blue overalls with two big pockets, one stuffed with checks and the other with cash. The wad of bills he handed over, the art dealer recalled, reeked of the man's cologne and came at 120 percent annual interest. (Read the article by Mary Jordan)
REUTERS. Italy's centre-right government moved on Friday to restrict transport strikes, drawing an immediate rebuke from one of the country's biggest unions.The cabinet approved a bill to require support of at least half the workforce to call transport strikes after the country endured hundreds of stoppages in the sector last year, many of them in protest at the sale of the airline Alitalia.
"There can be no ambiguity about the right to strike and Berlusconi is taking a path which is dangerous for democracy and freedom and may harm relations between companies and workers," CGIL union boss Guglielmo Epifani said. The government says its aim is not to deprive unions of the right to strike but to ensure that crippling transport strikes are only carried out if there is majority support from workers in a sector or company, respecting rules that limit disruption. (Read the Article)
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE. Italy is returning ownership to Russia of an Orthodox church named after St. Nicholas in a goodwill gesture toward Moscow and the Orthodox faithful. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev traveled to the southern Italian city of Bari for the hand-over ceremony later Sunday, which aims to boost ties between the two countries as well as improve often tense Roman Catholic-Russian Orthodox relations.
Russia built the church in the early 20th century to welcome its pilgrims who traveled to Bari to pray near the relics of Nicholas of Myra, a fourth-century saint associated with Christmas and much revered by Russian Orthodox faithful. (Read the Article)
SIFI NEWS. One of Galileo Galilei’s fingers, which is the only remaining part of the 17th century astronomer’s body, is to go on display in Italy. According to a report in the Telegraph, the finger, which is the middle digit from Galileo’s right hand, is mounted on a marble base and encased in a crystal jar. It will be among 250 objects which will go on display in Florence as part of an exhibition entitled ‘Galileo: Images of the Universe from Antiquity to the Telescope,’ which opens next month in Florence. (Read the Article)
WASHINGTON POST. At a time when businesses most need loans as they struggle with falling sales, rising debt and impending bankruptcy, banks have tightened their lending to them. That is great news for loan sharks. Confesercenti, the national shopkeepers association, estimates that 180,000 businesses recently have turned to them in desperation. (Read the Article by Mary Jordan)
Telegraph. Italy's gaffe-prone premier has been caught out joking to French president Nicolas Sarkozy that he "gave" him his Italian-born wife, Carla Bruni. (Read the article by Nick Squires)