(ANSA) - Viareggio, July 3 - The train station here in
this seaside Tuscan town reopened on Friday, just three days
after a gas train explosion ripped through a neighborhood by
the tracks leaving at least 21 people dead.
Although the station has reopened, rail officials said
delays and cancellations would continue for several days,
given that the Viareggio station was an important hub along
the rail line running up and down Italy`s west coast.
In fact, only one of the eight track

(ANSA) - Perugia, July 3 - Two men were arrested Friday
on suspicion of planning to cut power on a central Italian
rail line.
The men, who were not identified, were part of an Italian
anarchist group with links to domestic terrorists in jail,
police said.
The pair were arrested in a stolen car on their way to
the line between Orte in Umbria and the Adriatic port of
Ancona.
Police said they found two home-made grappling hooks they
said the men planned to use to bring power cabl

(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) - 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) - Viareggio, July 2 - The death toll from Tuesday`s
gas train explosion here stood at 18 on Thursday morning with
close to 20 people still in critical condition.
The cabinet will meet in Rome on Friday to declare this
seaside Tuscan town a national disaster area.
Prosecutors on Thursday sealed off a road, via
Ponchielli, by the railroad tracks which suffered the brunt
of the explosion in order to preserve possible evidence.
Two building on via Ponchielli were torn down T

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - The Vatican has spent over three
million euros restoring the last frescoes ever painted by
Michelangelo which may have unveiled a new self-portrait by
the Renaissance genius.
Restorers spent seven years cleaning up the frescoes of
the Conversion of Saul and the Crucifixion of St Peter that
Michelangelo painted between 1542 and 1550 in the Pauline
Chapel inside the Vatican.
The massive works flank each side of the chapel, which
is strictly off limits to th

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - The death toll from Tuesday`s gas
train explosion in Viareggio rose to 17 Wednesday as two
small children and a man died in hospital.
Transport Minister Altero Matteoli told parliament that
20 of the 31 people injured are in critical condition.
Two children, aged 2 and 3, suffering from burns on 90%
of their bodies, died in hospital.
Four children have now died after a fireball engulfed
homes and streets in the Tuscan seaside town early Tuesday.
Three

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - Nine monuments damaged in
April`s Abruzzo earthquake from a list of 45 drawn up for
Premier Silvio Berlusconi have so far received a sponsor who
will help fund restoration, Culture Minister Sandro Bondi
said Wednesday.
Berlusconi requested the list after foreign governments
expressed an interest in helping pay for the restoration of
heritage sites, quipping that it would be a ``sort of wedding
gifts list``.
Bondi said France will sponsor L`Aquila`s 17th-c

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - Nine monuments damaged in April`s
Abruzzo earthquake from a list of 45 drawn up for Premier
Silvio Berlusconi have so far received a sponsor who will
help fund restoration, Culture Minister Sandro Bondi said
Wednesday.
Berlusconi requested the list after foreign governments
expressed an interest in helping pay for the restoration of
heritage sites, quipping that it would be a ``sort of wedding
gifts list``.
Bondi said France will sponsor L`Aquila`s 17th-c

(ANSA) - Viareggio, July 1 - The death toll from
Tuesday`s gas train explosion in Viareggio rose to 17 on
Wednesday when an unidentified man died from his injuries,
hospital sources said here.
Some 20 of the 30 people injured are said to be in
critical condition while three other people are still
missing.

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - The death toll from Tuesday`s gas
train explosion in Viareggio now stands at 16 while many of
the 31 people injured remain in critical condition, Transport
Minister Altero Matteoli said on Wednesday.
In a report to parliament, Matteoli said his ministry
was examining the possibility of making a special examination
of train tanker cars, those used for the transport of liquid
gas and other explosive fuels, which are registered abroad.
Matteoli told MPs that

(ANSA) - Viareggio, June 30 - The government will declare
a state of emergency for the gas train explosion that hit
Viareggio Tuesday, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said after
visiting the site.
He said the state would cover 100% of the cost of
rebuilding the houses demolished in the blast, which killed
16 people and left 14 in critical condition.