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VARIETY. Emanuele Crialese's immigration-themed "Terraferma" has been selected to represent Italy in the foreign-language Oscar race. The passionate morality tale produced by Cattleya and RAI Cinema recently won the special jury prize in Venice and unspooled in Toronto. (Read the article by Michael Day)
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES. Only in hindsight does earthquake prediction work with real accuracy. Seismologists can assess long-term risks and likely scenarios, but they'd be the last ones to say they can foretell the time, date and epicenter of the next Big One. Yet in Italy, a trial is underway for a group of seismologists and a government official accused of manslaughter for being overly reassuring about underground rumblings that preceded a killer quake in 2009. (Read the article)
AFP. Italy's flamboyant ex-porn star and former politician Cicciolina plans to set up a new political party as the antithesis to her country's corrupt politics, according to excerpts from an interview published in Italy. (Read the article)
FOX NEWS. The head of Fiat SpA (F.MI), one of Italy's largest industrial groups, said the government must regain credibility on the world stage before it can look at getting the economy to grow faster. "This is essential, otherwise its useless to talk about growth," Sergio Marchionne told reporters at the opening of a daycare center sponsored by Fiat in L'Aquila, the Italian town devastated by an earthquake in 2009. (Read the article by Carlo Renda)
MSNBC. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government appeared to be in a state of denial and shell-shock after Italy's top Roman Catholic bishop issued a blistering attack against the country's rulers. (Read the article by Philip Pullella)
USA TODAY. A defense lawyer told an Italian court Tuesday that Amanda Knox, the American student convicted of killing her roommate, isn't a manipulating, sex-obsessed "femme fatale" as her accusers charge, but is rather like Jessica Rabbit — just drawn that way. (Read the article)
CORRIERE DELLA SERA. Concerning “stories that if proved indicate at several levels lifestyles difficult to reconcile with the personal dignity and the decorum of institutions and public life”, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco pointed the finger at behaviour that is “not just contrary to public decorum but intrinsically sad and vacuous”, and in recent weeks has been the subject of judicial inquiries as well as a large number of newspaper articles. (Read the article)
CSN CHICAGO. Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who has had flirtations with Williams' Turkish club Besiktas, was recently offered a one-year contract for $6.7 million to play for Italian league team Virtus Bologna, according to reports. (Read the article)
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Real life in Italy is always one step ahead of anyone's imaginings. In the past few months, our political scene has started to resemble a spaghetti-western version of Mel Brooks's "Blazing Saddles"—anything goes. But we Italians are not laughing anymore. (Read the article by Beppe Severgnini)
ANSA. Eni has restarted oil production in Libya after months of inactivity due to fighting between forces loyal to strongman Muammar Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi rebels, the Italian oil giant said. (Read the article)