Focus::Daily News
NEWSLINE
AP. An ailing Italian Red Cross worker who was kidnapped in January in the Philippines by the Abu Sayyaf rebel group was freed Saturday, officials said. No ransom was paid for the release of 63-year-old Eugenio Vagni, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in an interview with Italian state TV. Frattini gave no details about how Vagni was freed. Frattini also expressed gratitude that no government attacks were launched to free the hostage. (Read the Article)
AP. An Italian lawmaker in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's coalition has resigned after being filmed singing a racist chant about Naples and its residents. Matteo Salvini, a member of the often xenophobic, anti-immigrant Northern League party, resigned his seat in the lower chamber of Parliament on Tuesday. He denied the decision was connected to the scandal. In the video published by left-leaning daily La Repubblica, Salvini is shown at a party gathering in June leading a profanity-filled chant often sung by northern fans at soccer stadiums to denigrate rivals from Naples and other southern towns. (Read the Article)
USA TODAY. President Obama took a shirt-sleeved tour Wednesday afternoon of the earthquake-ravaged city that's hosting this week's Group of Eight summit. Walking through the old town's narrow streets, about 15 minutes from the summit site, the president saw collapsed buildings, scaffolding and piles of rubble everywhere. (Read the Article)
TELEGRAPH. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has pledged to help rebuild an Italian village which was all but destroyed by April's earthquake, 65 years after Nazi troops carried out a massacre of civilians. Mrs Merkel was accompanied by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, for her tour of the devastated hamlet, which took place on the sidelines of the G8 summit in nearby L'Aquila. They inspected the ruins of the local church, which will be rebuilt with the help of £2.6 million donated by Germany. (Read the Article)
BLOOMBERG.COM. Greenpeace activists occupied four Italian coal-fired power plants, demanding action from world leaders to stave off climate change on the opening day of a Group of Eight summit being hosted by Italy. At least 100 demonstrators took part in the protest at Enel SpA-owned generators in Brindisi, Marghera and Porto Tolle and at a fourth power station in Vado Ligure owned by Tirreno Power. G8 leaders must stop putting the interests of polluting industries such as coal ahead of the climate, Greenpeace said. (Read the Article)
CNS. Pope Benedict XVI asked leaders of the world's wealthiest countries to "listen to the voice of Africa" and poor countries during their summit in Italy. The global economic crisis threatens not only to derail efforts to end extreme poverty in the world, but also could plunge other countries into ruin as well, the pope said in a July 4 letter to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, host of the Group of Eight summit. Pope Benedict said his encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), which was to be released July 7, would discuss the importance of "the values of human solidarity and of love in truth" in development programs and international cooperation. (Read the Article)
GUARDIAN. Italy topped the medals table at the end of the Mediterranean Games in Pescara on Sunday after 11 days of record-breaking performances and attendances.
The hosts ended up with 176 medals across the 29 sports, well ahead of second-placed France on 140, while they also took the most golds with a total of 64. Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini gave the Games, little known outside the region, some publicity by reclaiming the world record in the 400 metres freestyle before Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer Faber smashed the men's 100 backstroke world record.(Read the Article)
AP.Six policemen were hurt in clashes late Saturday with demonstrators at a rally of more than 3,000 people against the 500-million-dollar enlargement of a US military base in Italy, police said. Some 300 youths, wearing helmets and carrying plexiglass shields, pelted riot cops with rocks and bottles during the American Independence Day demo. The police replied with tear gas and baton charges, AFP photographers said. (Read the Article)
M&C. Italian Mafia expert Laura Garavini welcomed Monday moves by Germany to crack down on money laundering. 'It's not a good day for the Mafia,' said Garavini, a German-based member of the anti-Mafia Commission in the Italian parliament. She was commenting on a decision by the German parliament to adopt measures that would make it easier to seize the assets of criminals convicted in Italy or other EU member-states.(Read the Article)
AP. Survivors of central Italy's earthquake staged a torch-lit procession overnight in the ruined city of L'Aquila, where leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations will gather this week for a summit. Hundreds marched through downtown L'Aquila before dawn Monday to mark three months from the April 6 quake, which killed about 300 people, forced tens of thousands from their homes and leveled entire blocks in this mountain city and the surrounding Abruzzo region. (Read the Article)