Castel Gandolfo, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI on Monday received former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, who since she was liberated in July, had expressed a desire to thank the pontiff in person for his support.

The Franco-Colombian Betancourt, accompanied by her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, met Benedict for private talks at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

Pulecio had met Benedict in January when the pontiff made one of his several appeals for the release of hostages in Colombia where leftist FARC rebels kept Betancourt captive for over six years.

Rome - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced on Saturday that his country is to invest five billion dollars over the next 25 years as part of a compensation deal for years of colonial rule over the North African state.

Speaking during a visit to the coastal city of Benghazi, Berlusconi said the accord between Italy and Libya "will provide for 200 million dollars a year over the next 25 years through investment projects in Libya."

London, Aug. 30 : The Vatican has said that "Christianophobia" must be fought with the same determination as anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.

The Mirror quoted Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Dominique Mamberti as saying that the deaths of 13 people in Orissa, India, there is a need for promoting religious freedom as a vital part of international relations and human dignity.

"In order to promote this dignity in an integral way, so-called ''Christianophobia'' should be combated as decisively as ''Islamophobia'' and anti-Semitism," he said.

Melbourne, Aug 27 : The Italian priest, who was organising an online beauty competition for nuns, has called off his plans amid protests from faithful and local religious authorities.

The Rev. Antonio Rungi thought that the ‘Miss Sister 2008’ would give nuns more visibility within the Catholic Church and fight the stereotype.

But later changed his mind after seeing reports that suggested that nuns would be metaphorically put on a catwalk, insisting that he had been misunderstood.

Rungi said what he had in mind was not just external beauty but the "overall beauty."

"I wanted to make a blog on vocations, one where everybody could bring their own experiences," the Courier Mail quoted Rungi, as saying.

London, Rome - Britain and Italy criticised Tuesday Russia's decision to recognize the independence of Georgia's rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in London said that the British government "categorically rejects" the Russian decision.

On Tuesday Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree recognizing the breakaway regions' independence after Russian lawmakers on Monday unanimously passed a resolution to that effect.

London, August 22 : Italian researchers are developing gadgets that can drift like plankton, which they believe may help improve their understanding of the world’s oceans.

Experts at the University of Genoa say that their "smart plankton", which will carry sensors and communicate using flashing lights, will drift through the ocean collecting data.

Davide Brizzolara, a researcher associated with the project, says that using this approach will provide greater coverage than static underwater sensors do, and would be cheaper than using autonomous underwater vehicles.