INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE. Italy's Banco Popolare on Tuesday became the first Italian bank to seek state aid to strengthen its capital base, by announcing it will issue bonds to the government. The Verona-based bank said in a statement that it intends to sell €1.45 billion ($1.85 billion) of convertible bonds to the government "to ensure adequate capital to the group, allowing it to reinforce support to families and small and medium-size businesses." (Read the Article)

CHINA VIEW. Italy will help Africa through the global economic downturn and aid its recovery when the worst is over, an Italian government official said here on Wednesday. At a briefing after a two-day meeting concerning the impact of the global economic crisis on funding for African infrastructure, Foreign Undersecretary Vincenzo Scotti said Italy will propose "financial mechanisms that mitigate risk and foster greater funding from private groups" at this year's G8 summit on the island of La Maddalena off Sardinia. (Read the Article)

ANSA. An Italian doctor was among the three staff members of the international organization Doctors Without Borders kidnapped in Darfur, the group confirmed on Thrusday. According to Doctors Without Borders, the kidnapping took place Wednesday evening, and not in the morning as had previously been reported, and the other two staff members were a Canadian nurse and a French doctor working for the organization's Belgian branch. (Read the Article)
 

REUTERS. Italy aims to boost capacity of photovoltaic (PV) installations -- which turn sunlight into power -- to 16,000 megawatts (MW) in 2020 from about 280 MW now on the back of generous government incentives. Italy is Europe's third-biggest PV power producer after Germany and Spain, but with a total installed capacity of about 270-280 MW at the end of 2008, the country makes less than one percent of its power at PV facilities. (Read the Article)

ANSA. Sting has spoken for the first time about his life as a farmer on the large Tuscan estate where he has spent much of the last 15 years. (Read the article)

ANSA. ope Benedict XVI has admitted to making ''mistakes'', including not checking the Internet, when he lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust denier and three other ultra-traditionalist bishops. (Read the article by Fiona Winward)

THE NEW YORK TIMES. Rome. State archaeologists are up in arms over a proposal to shift control of fragile ancient monuments here to a government committee with special powers, saying it will undermine their authority. (Read the article by Elisabetta Povoledo)