(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Italian petrol station operators
on Thursday declared a two-day strike for next Wednesday and
Thursday, July 8-9.
The strike, in protest against the alleged failure of the
government to uphold pledges to protect a shrinking network,
will exclude the area around L`Aquila which is hosting a
Group of Eight summit from July 8 to 10.
Stations on the rest of the country`s roads will close
from 19:30 (17:30 GMT) on Tuesday July 7 until 07:00 (05:00
GMT) on Friday.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Culture Minister Sandro Bondi on
Thursday presented 14 antiquities returned to Italy by the
Cleveland Museum of Art after the government proved that the
works had been looted or stolen.
The returns include a bronze statuette of an archer
dating from 900-700 BC Sardinia, silver bracelets stolen from
the grave of an Etruscan woman, an Attic drinking vessel in
the shape of a mule`s head and a four-foot-high wine vessel
from Puglia dating to the 4th century BC th

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Culture Minister Sandro Bondi on
Thursday presented 14 antiquities returned to Italy by the
Cleveland Museum of Art after the government proved that the
works had been looted or stolen.
The returns include a Neolithic bronze statuette of an
archer dating from 900-700 BC Sardinia, silver bracelets
stolen from the grave of an Etruscan woman, an Attic drinking
vessel in the shape of a mule`s head and a four-foot-high
wine vessel from Puglia dating to the 4th cen

(ANSA) - Viareggio, July 2 - The toll from Tuesday`s gas
train explosion in the Tuscan town of Viareggio rose to 19
Thursday as a woman died in hospital.
About ten of the burns patients from the disaster are
fighting for their lives, hospitals said.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the government was
considering ``changing the rules for the transport of these
tanker cars``.
He did not go into specifics, but promised a
``thoroughgoing`` investigation into the cause of the

(ANSA) - Washington, July 2 - MotoGP world champion and
current standings leader Valentino Rossi has risen to fifth
place among the world`s top earning non-American sportsmen,
according to a ranking compiled by the American magazine
Sports Illustrated.
The annual list was drawn up the combined salary,
winnings, endorsements and appearance fees of leading
sportsmen and this year saw the Yamaha rider rise from
seventh to fifth place with total earnings of $35 million.
Rossi share

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Italy cracked down on illegal
immigration and crime with a new law Thursday.
For the first time, illegal immigration becomes a crime
and Italians are encouraged to report illegals.
The controversial law, which passed by 157 votes to 124,
also enables private citizens - but mainly former officers -
to help the police in crime hotspots.
Silvio Berlusconi`s centre-right government, which came
to power on a strong law-and-order ticket stressing links
between

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - The new law and order reforms
which were definitively adopted by parliament on Thursday
will cause Italy`s prison system to ``implode``, a union
representing police guards has warned.
Making illegal immigration a crime, the UIL PA union
observed, ``will deal a devastating blow to an already
disastrous situation in the penitentiary system``.
``With some 64,000 inmates the system is already near
collapse and putting more people behind bars will cause it to

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Culture Minister Sandro Bondi on
Thursday presented 14 antiquities returned to Italy by the
Cleveland Museum of Art after the government proved that the
works had been looted or stolen.
Among the returns are a Gothic copper processional cross
made near Siena in the 14th century and stolen several
decades ago from a Tuscan church as well as a bronze
statuette of an archer dating from 900-700 BC Sardinia.
``The 14 pieces will now return to their places of
o

(ANSA) - Venice, July 2 - The Adriatic resort of Jesolo
has decided this year to name a section of its seafront after
Italian screen icon Sophia Loren.
The resort north of Venice will hold a special naming
ceremony on July 16 on the tract known as `Seafront of the
Stars`.
The annual initiative began in 2001 and the first star
chosen to lend their name to the seafront was the late actor
Alberto Sordi.
Since then the promenade has been dedicated to Gina
Lollobrigida; opera si

(ANSA) - Trieste, July 2 - The head of a police union has
criticised the way border controls have been reinstated for
next week`s Group of Eight summit in Italy, calling it
``improvised``.
Italy suspended the Schengen Treaty, which allows for
open borders with its European neighbors, as a security
precaution ahead of the G8 summit in L`Aquila which will
include the participation of leaders of countries like the
United States, Russia, Britain and France as well as a host
of internati

(ANSA) - Vatican City, July 2 - The Catholic Church risks
approaching modern science with the same prejudices that
resulted in it rejecting the theories of Galileo, a Vatican
official warned Thursday.
Presenting a new edition of documents relating to the
trial of the 17th-century Italian astronomer found guilty of
heresy for saying the earth orbits around the sun, Vatican
Secret Archive Prefect Sergio Pagano said the Church risks
the ``same preconceptions`` against stem-cell research

(ANSA) - Pordenone, July 2 - Italy will soon be deploying
two more Tornado fighter jets to Afghanistan, Italian Defense
Minister Ignazio La Russa said on Thursday.
``They will be used in tactical support missions and
will be in addition to the two we already have there,`` La
Russa told the press.
Looking at the role Italian forces have played in
Afghanistan, the defense minister observed that ``while there
is certainly cause for concern, there is also reason for
pride``.
`

(by Denis Greenan).
(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Defenders of wartime pope Pius
XII have ``nice surprises`` in store, the keeper of the
Vatican`s secret archives said Thursday.
The controversial pope, who has been criticised for not
speaking out clearly against the Holocaust, ``even ran
personal risks`` to save Jews, said Msgr Sergio Pagano,
Prefect of the Secret Archives.
``When the archives can be published there`ll be some
nice surprises,`` he said.
``I can`t tell you any m

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Vincenzo Montella, the striker
who helped AS Roma to the scudetto on 2001, is hanging up his
boots, the Roman club said Thursday.
Montella, 35, a nippy little centre-foward known as The
Little Aeroplane because of his wheeling goal celebrations,
scored 94 times for Roma between 1999 and 2006, making him
the fifth-highest scorer in the club`s history.
He joined Roma from Sampdoria in 1999 and got his last
start for the Giallorossi in December 2006, before loa

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Italy cracked down on illegal
immigration and crime with a new law Thursday.
For the first time, illegal immigration becomes a crime
and Italians are encouraged to report illegals.
The controversial law, which passed by 157 votes to 124,
also enables private citizens - former members of the police
or armed forces - to help the police in crime hotspots.
The law covers a wide range of issues but its main focus
is on illegal immigration.
The government