ANSA. Italian farmers groups vowed a 'zero tolerance' drive after buffalo were found 'doped' with hormones in one of Italy's prime mozzarella-making zones Thursday. (Read the article)

AP. Experts unveiled Thursday a previously unknown portrait of Leonardo da Vinci showing the artist and inventor as a middle-aged man with piercing eyes and long, flowing hair. The painting, displayed at a news conference in Rome, was discovered in December in the collection of a family from Italy's southern Basilicata region. Who made the painting and when it was done is still being investigated, but experts have ruled out it being a self-portrait. (Read the article)

REUTERS. Italy, the world's biggest wine producer, sees the economic crisis as a way to build on the trend to higher-quality, higher-priced wines, the chairman of the Federvini trade group said on Thursday.Lamberto Vallarino Gancia, whose federation groups 90 percent of Italian producers, told Reuters the downturn was showing that consumers were buying pricier wines and tending to drink them at home rather than at bars or restaurants, where prices are higher by the glass. (Read the article by Ian Simpson)

VOA NEWS. Italian officials are pressing for steps to prevent a repeat of the tragedy involving hundreds of migrants from Africa who are missing and believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean over the weekend. The migrants were cramped in un-seaworthy vessels which left Libya for Italy. Italy's Interior Minister is hopeful that these crossings will come to an end in mid-May. The problem of illegal immigrants reaching Malta from Libya could be resolved if a declaration made by Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni is put in place.  Minister Maroni says an agreement is in place with Libya that envisages the start of joint Italian-Libyan patrols in front of the Libyan coast on May 15. He added that on that day he expects the flow of migrants coming to Italy from Libya will stop and the problem will be resolved. (Read the article by Sabina Castelfranco)

THE DAILY NEWS RECORD. James Madison University's president made Italian history Thursday afternoon without ever leaving Harrisonburg. Before Thursday, officials of Florence, Italy, had never handed over the keys to that famed Tuscany city to someone outside its boundaries. JMU's Linwood Rose became the first. According to Florence Councilman Riccardo Nencini, who presented the keys to Rose, the gift was approved by Florence's government in a resolution last month and was the first exception to the city code of its kind. (Read the Article)