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ANSA. The fulcrum of Rome's busiest square was operated by a woman for the first time on Monday as Piazza Venezia's famous traffic-cop pedestal resurfaced in burnished glory. (Read the article)
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ANSA. An innocent Congolese bar owner who was detained in connection with the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher was awarded 8,000 euros for unjust imprisonment by a Perugia appeals court Monday. (Read the article)
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LOS ANGELES TIMES. purported self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci that was recently discovered at a private library in the Basilicata region of southern Italy will be displayed for the first time in April and May at the Museo delle Antiche Genti di Lucania in the town of Vaglio di Basilicata near Potenza (Read the article by Susan Spano)
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THE NEWYORK TIMES. Rovereto. Over the last decade, Mr. Torghele, 56, an entrepreneur in this northern Italian city who first made money selling pasta in California, has developed a vending machine that cooks pizza. The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes. (Read the article by John Tagliabue)
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ANSA. Italian automaker Fiat on Friday denied press reports that its board was reviewing a plan to merge with French rival PSA (Peugeot-Citroen). (Read the article)
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ANSA. Italian and United States researchers have discovered a mutated form of beta-protein that can prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. (Read the article)
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EXAMINER. A 14th-century house in Verona, Italy known as the “House of Juliet” may be offered for weddings as early as next month if a proposal by Veronese city official Daniele Polato is approved. Local legend links the home to Shakespeare’s doomed lover Juliet Capulet, and Polato would like to enhance Verona’s tourist traffic by making the house available for local and destination weddings. “We have inherited this splendid reputation and we want to promote it,” says Polato. (Read the Article)
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INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE. Italy's Banco Popolare on Tuesday became the first Italian bank to seek state aid to strengthen its capital base, by announcing it will issue bonds to the government. The Verona-based bank said in a statement that it intends to sell €1.45 billion ($1.85 billion) of convertible bonds to the government "to ensure adequate capital to the group, allowing it to reinforce support to families and small and medium-size businesses." (Read the Article)
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CHINA VIEW. Italy will help Africa through the global economic downturn and aid its recovery when the worst is over, an Italian government official said here on Wednesday. At a briefing after a two-day meeting concerning the impact of the global economic crisis on funding for African infrastructure, Foreign Undersecretary Vincenzo Scotti said Italy will propose "financial mechanisms that mitigate risk and foster greater funding from private groups" at this year's G8 summit on the island of La Maddalena off Sardinia. (Read the Article)
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ANSA. An Italian doctor was among the three staff members of the international organization Doctors Without Borders kidnapped in Darfur, the group confirmed on Thrusday. According to Doctors Without Borders, the kidnapping took place Wednesday evening, and not in the morning as had previously been reported, and the other two staff members were a Canadian nurse and a French doctor working for the organization's Belgian branch. (Read the Article)