Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said President Giorgio Napolitano is the victim of “unacceptable insinuations in the press” regarding recordings made by prosecutors of phone calls with the head of state’s office. “We must oppose every attempt to destabilize the country,” Monti’s office said today in an e-mailed statement. 

 A Sardinian miner slashed his wrist in front of television cameras on Wednesday as some 100 fellow workers stayed barricaded underground in a campaign to keep Italy's only coal pit open. "We cannot take it any more. We cannot! We cannot!" Stefano Meletti, 49, shouted to reporters in a dark chamber of the Carbosulcis mine, where miners armed with explosives have locked themselves in since Sunday night.

 Finale Emilia has its own remarkable Jewish history. Its local dish is “la torta degli ebrei,” or “pie of the Jews,” and the ancestors of some of the most prominent Italian Jewish families are buried in Finale Jewish cemetery, including Donato Donati, the 16th-century progenitor of the journalist Arrigo Levi, who has been communication advisor for two Presidents of Italy.  

 Italy, challenging India's right to try Italian marines accused of killing two fishermen, took its case to the Supreme Court in New Delhi on Wednesday in a dispute over jurisdiction on the high seas.