TIMES ONLINE. The Italian Catholic Church today berated the French government for "presuming" to lecture Pope Benedict XVI on Aids and condoms, saying that as a former colonial power, France was in no position to "give lessons". However an opinion polls in La Repubblica said that a majority of Italians also disagreed with the Pope's stand. The poll said that 52.3 per cent were "absolutely against" the Pope's view - which overshadowed his trip to Africa last week - that condoms are not the answer to the Aids epidemic and on the contrary only "aggravate" it by encouraging sexual promiscuity. (Read the Article)

The Newyork Times. This historic home, built in the 1890s, is 750 square meters (8,073 square feet) and is in the southern Sicilian town of Modica, a Unesco World Heritage site. It is down the street from the Cathedral of San Giorgio, a city landmark. (Read the article by Lisa Keys)

BOSTON.COM. Boston political campaigns have long been entangled with questions of race and ethnicity. Irish politicians dominated city politics for most of the 20th century until Mayor Thomas M. Menino made history as the city's first Italian-American mayor in 1993. (Read the article by John C. Drake)

ANSA. 12-volume collection of work by Leonardo da Vinci is being unbound and the 'notebook' of the Renaissance genius will go on show at two separate locations in Milan later this year. The Codex Atlanticus will be separated into a bundle of loose pages, each of which will each be displayed in rotation. (Read the article)

ANSA. talian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was aboard on Tuesday for the inaugural run of the high-speed Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) train which travels from Milan to Rome in three hours. (Read the article)

ANSA. The new governor of Sardinia said Tuesday he will repeal a so-called 'luxury tax' regime that has been the bane of the millionaires and yacht-owners who use the island as a summer playground. (Read the article)

BOSTON.COM. A suspicious fire that destroyed the Medford Water and Sewer Department building and the Italian-American War Veterans social club housed on the second floor may have been deliberately set in order to cover up an earlier theft of city vehicles and equipment yesterday, officials said. (Read the article by John M. Guilfoil and Matt Collette)

LOS ANGELES TIMES. As the first element of the partnership, the Getty Villa in Malibu will present  an exhibition centered on the Etruscan bronze, “The Chimaera of Arezzo,” from July 16 through Feb. 8. The Getty also plans an exhibition of ancient bronzes, including Greek, Roman and Etruscan works, and a show devoted solely to Etruscan art. (Read the article)

BOSTON.COM Chazz Palminteri is pointing to a spot on East 187th Street in the Bronx a few yards down from its intersection with Cambreleng Avenue. It was there, back in the early '60s, that a neighborhood wise guy gunned down a man in broad daylight who had come out of his car with a baseball bat to beat another man in a car vying for the same parking space. (Read the article by Sam Allis)