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Centre-left leader empowered to form Italy's new government
The centre-left coalition's leader, Pier Luigi Bersani, has been given mandate to form the new Italian government on Friday, a month after political election that gave no clear winner.
Crisis, wave of suicides and desperate acts among entrepreneurs
Hit hard by the crisis, small entrepreneurs in Italy often face a double drama: economic and psychological. In the last four years a growing number of small-and-medium businessmen have been committing suicide, especially in Lombardia and Veneto, the two most productive regions of the country. Many are still on the verge of collapse.
Italian enterprises, struggling for cash
The Italians entrepreneurs struggle to keep up with their payments. According to latest data, at least 47 thousands companies have been unable to fulfil prompt payments in 2012: not a big figure compared to the total number of the monitored firms (around 2 million), but a 45% increase compared to 2007, the last year before the crisis.
"Automatic excommunication" for Conclave tweeters
During the Conclave, cardinals will be forbidden to communicate with the world and to tweet. The penalty is excommunication.
The Vatican issued on Friday a series of four interregnum postage stamps
The postal administration of the Vatican City State prepares and issues special postage stamps, marking the upcoming "sede vacante", to be used during the period that will precede the election of a new pope.
Italians vote in key parliamentary elections
Italians have begun voting in crucial general elections as the country, one of Europe's biggest economies, battles recession and high unemployment. Four candidates are taking part in the first general election since former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of those standing, resigned in November last year after becoming embroiled in a series of scandals and escalating the country's debt crisis.
