Alagna, Gheorghiu ring in the new year at the Met - Boston Globe
NEW YORK— At the end of Giacomo Puccini's "La Rondine," an enamored woman jilts her ardent but poor lover, saying she can't give up her old life as a rich man's mistress. And, she says, she doesn't want to financially ruin her soulmate. But on New ...

Lower costs hands Italians 1000 euro 'bonus'-Berlusconi - FXStreet.com
ROME, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Italians on average will save 1000 euros next year thanks to a steep fall in oil prices and a decrease in food and borrowing costs, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said in remarks published Wednesday. "In all, summing up the ...

Berlusconi determined to be different with G8 - Australian Broadcasting Corp.
ELEANOR HALL: This week, Italy will take over the presidency of the exclusive club of world leaders known as the G8. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he is determined to make a difference during his leadership. But he will be leading the ...

Berlusconi Plan Saps Pensions With Private Funds Bush Promoted - Bloomberg
Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Italy did for retirement financing what President George W. Bush couldn’t do in the U.S.: It privatized part of its social security system. The timing couldn’t have been worse. The global market meltdown has created losses ...

Italian party seeks Lufthansa as Alitalia partner - Reuters
MILAN, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Italy's Northern League party renewed its calls on Monday for German airline Lufthansa to become Alitalia's new partner and said its leader would meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the matter. After a three-month ...

France bans adverts on state TV during primetime - Guardian Unlimited
French president Nicolas Sarkozy 's controversial cultural revolution of the country's television industry began last night as public service broadcasting (PSB) channels scrapped evening primetime advertising , amid an outcry from journalists and ...

Turkish PM phones European leaders on Israeli offensive in Gaza - Xinhua News Agency
ANKARA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday talked on phone with some of his European counterparts as part of his efforts to bring an end to the Israeli assault on Gaza, the semi-official Anatolia news agency ...

Israel to truck aid to Gaza, envoy tells Italian minister - Earthtimes
Rome - Israel is sending a convoy of 73 trucks to carry food and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip , Israel's ambassador in Rome told Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, on Monday. Ambassador Gideon Meir said the supplies would reach Gaza by ...

Reinventing the European left - Financial Times
With rightwing politicians across Europe nationalising banks, pumping public money into the economy, and demanding tighter regulation of “rogue” financial markets, it is hard to tell where the ideological dividing lines in politics now lie. By ...

Peter Popham: Silvio wants the power and the glory - The Independent
It was a throwaway remark at the end of a press conference, but it is still resonating: Silvio Berlusconi wants to change Italy's system of government to a presidential one, like the French or American system. Harmless enough, one might think. Today ...