EXAMINER. In co-directors, Emily Chang and Dan De Lorenzo's hilarious new short film The Humberville Poetry Slam, an Asian American poet, Liberty Fu, decides to organize a local slam contest to find four poets who can help him represent their small town and win the National Poetry Slam. (Read the article)

TELEGRAPH. Jay Leno was born in La Rochelle, New York, to a Scottish mother and Italian-American father. Heavy-set with bouffant, salt and pepper hair, Leno, 58, could pass for a mobster on The Sopranos if it weren't for his protruding chin. Political candidates regularly appear on his show, one of the most popular of the country. He will soon be promoted to primetime with a new show at 10pm. He is already on a five-year $100 million (£70 million) deal with NBC. (Read the Article)

REUTERS. Italy is looking to help its fashion industry with a plan that includes tax credits and access to funds for companies feeling the strains of the global economic crisis. The industry warns its members risk "falling to pieces", with small companies being the hardest hit as demand for clothes and accessories falls. (Read the Article by Marie-Louise Gumuchian)

GUARDIAN. Italy's education minister has unveiled plans to set a 30% limit per class on immigrant pupils in an attempt to avoid ghettoes, as the number of foreign children attending Italian schools soars. Maria Stella Gelmini floated the plans as concern grew among some Italian parents at the number of non-Italians in schools. In one Rome suburb, a committee of Italian parents threatened to remove their children from classes after the proportion of immigrant pupils reached 80%. (Read the article)

ANSA.The northern Italian town of Pordenone is preparing to pay tribute to one of New York's most successful modern writers, with a string of events devoted to the life and work of Paul Auster.

 

Charlotteobserver.com. A 350-year-old statue disappeared from a Naples church in an elaborate heist of artifacts nearly two decades ago. Italian officials said they lost a national treasure. (Read the article by Franco Ordoez)

ANSA. Researchers have discovered the largest forest of black coral in the world off the coast of the southern Italian region of Calabria, the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) said Thursday. (Read the article)

ANSA. taly is to get its first gaming museum, with a vast collection of artifacts tracing the dizzying development of videogames from their ancestors in the 1950s through to the latest arrivals on the market. (Read the article)

ANSA. A man who used rods fitted with powerful magnets to 'fish' change out of the capital's famed Trevi Fountain was acquitted of theft by a Rome court Friday but ordered to hand over the loot. (Read the article)