WASHINGTON POST. "What did you think?" he snorted. "You think I would whack the secretary of the Treasury in the middle of a press conference? You been watching too many reruns of 'The Sopranos.' We don't operate like that anymore. We're legitimate businesspeople. And as such we believe that in these difficult times it is our patriotic duty to behave like legitimate businesspeople, and that means demanding the government give us billions of dollars." (Read the article by Michael Kinsley)

New York Times. Stephen Caracappa and Louis J. Eppolito, two highly decorated former detectives who were convicted of serving as assassins for the mob, helping to kill at least eight men in one of the most spectacular police corruption scandals in New York City’s history, were sentenced on Friday to life in prison — for the second time.  (Read the article)

ANSA. olice on Thursday busted a major human trafficking racket whose members referred to the immigrants they shipped from Libya to Italy as 'tuna fish', 'crates of tomatoes' or, if they were minors, 'school satchels' during telephone calls. (Read the article)

ANSA. The remains of a 'vampire' have been found in a grave in Venice lagoon, an Italian forensic anthropologist has claimed. (Read the article)

CORRIERE DELLA SERA. Italy has announced that it will recall its delegates from the working groups on the UN Conference on racism and xenophobia, planned for April 20-24. The government considers two points in the main conference document to be anti-Semitic, and has said it will not allow its delegates to return until changes have been made. (Read the article)

ANSA. Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the Holy land in May will not take in Israel's Holocaust museum where WWII pope Pius XII is accused of silence on the Holocaust, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See told ANSA.  (Read the article)

ANSA. Italian actress Monica Bellucci received a prestigious world prize for women Thursday night and paid tribute to a preteen Yemeni girl who was prevented from attending the ceremony after becoming a global icon against forced marriages. Nojoud Muhammad Nasser, 10, was not allowed out of Yemen to accept the honour in the World Hope category. (Read the article)

THE HUFFINGTON POST. March 8th is International Women's Day. First proposed by German political Clara Zetkin in 1910, it was officially adopted in 1911 as a means to celebrate the economic, social and political achievements of women. (Read the article by Maria Eitel)

CHINA VIEW. Italian Senate Speaker Renato Schifani on Thursday called for action to wipe out sexual discrimination, as a new report shows Italian women hold far fewer key decision-making posts than their European sisters. Speaking ahead of International Women's Day, Schifani said the festival should not just be a "ritual celebration," but should also give pause for thought. "We should look at how much still remains to be done to ensure not just formal equality -- recognized with great foresight by the drafters of the Italian constitution in Article 3, which places sexual equality as first among all the fundamental equalities -- but also concrete and effective equality," the speaker said. (Read the Article)

MONSTERS AND CRITICS. Long a pet project of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian government revived Friday a plan to build the world's largest suspension bridge linking Sicily to Italy's mainland. The cabinet meeting in Rome approved a 17.8-billion-euro (22.4 billion dollar) public works programme including new rail links, motorways and tunnels. Some 1.3 billion euros have been earmarked for the bridge project which is estimated to be worth a total of 6.1 billion euros. (Read the Article)