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ANSA. The Italian cabinet met to consider a new tax on high income earners and other changes to the government's 45-billion-euro austerity package. A statement released by Premier Silvio Berlusconi's office confirmed the meeting, which would look at a 3% tax on those who earn more than 500,000 euros and raising the country's VAT by 1% to 21% in a bid to balance the budget by 2013. (Read the article)
CNBC. If Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi left office, the market would lay off Italy, according to Nouriel Roubini, the founder of Roubini Global Economics. “I think Italy has to do it, fiscal austerity, and even if they do it, the markets are going to be nervous about the credibility if this government,” Roubini told CNBC. (Read the article)
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Riding the wave of Italian immigrant dramas that have been topical for years, writer-director Emanuele Crialese’sTerraferma is an unremarkable story flying a passionate moral banner. The film contrasts Italy’s traditional humanist values to inhuman new laws aimed at stemming illegal immigration and insists it’s morally imperative to rebel against them. (Read the article)
TIME. No pets not allowed! That is the spirit of a new bill put forth by a member of the Italian Parliament that would erase all building regulations that forbid tenants from keeping pets at home. (Read the article)
FOX NEWS. The police official who conducted the original investigation in the Amanda Knox case defended her standards after an independent review harshly criticized the evidence used to convict the American student of murdering her British roommate. (Read the article)
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Italy's industry minister has dismissed widespread calls for Rome to speed up its timetable for passing budget-tightening measures, rebutting criticism that the Italian government's austerity package isn't tough enough to dig the country out of the euro-zone debt crisis. (Read the article)
THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Salvatore Licitra, a tenor known in his Italian homeland as the “new Pavarotti” for his potent voice and considerable stamina, died Monday at age 43 after spending nine days in a coma following a motorscooter accident in Sicily. (Read the article)
VARIETY. The opening of George Clooney's "The Ides of March," complete with a six-course banquet buffet under tents, augured a return to the grand, old party style of the Venice Film Festival.But the lux turned to relaxed the next night for the opening of Madonna's "W.E." While the star had fans screaming outside as she strode the red carpet, there was no post-preem bash. (Read the article)
CBS NEWS. In a ceremony in Venice, Pacino was awarded the Jaeger-Lecoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2011 prize, in recognition of his contributions to contemporary cinema. He presented his movie "Wilde Salome," a complicated examination of Oscar Wilde's once-forbidden play about illicit love and revenge. (Read the article)
THE SEATTLE TIMES. Alex Liddi will do something that no one from his homeland has in nearly half a century. The third-base prospect will become the first Italian-born major-leaguer since Remo Bertoia in 1962 once the Mariners officially add Liddi to their expanded major-league roster. (Read the article)