Rome  - Demonstrations and strikes organized by Italy's largest labour union confederation on Friday attracted tens of thousands of workers and jobless people protesting the conservative government's handling of the economic crisis.

Three separate marches staged in Rome snarled traffic in the capital city's centre, where security measures for a meeting of representatives of the Group of Seven industrialized nations had already restricted mobility.

Some 700,000 people took part, organizers said.

Rome - Protectionism and financial regulation were the expected hot topics at a dinner later Friday bringing together economy ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven (G7) most-industrialized nations.

The gathering in Rome comes amid the backdrop of the global economic downturn and is set to mark the first international appearance of new US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner.

Talks were scheduled to resume Saturday and conclude with a joint statement issued by delegates in the afternoon.

Rome  - Spanish cycling star Alejandro Valverde has been summoned by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in a new doping investigation linking the rider to the Operation Puerto affair.

CONI said on its website Wednesday that Valverde has been summoned to a hearing for Monday.

Italian media reports said DNA tests on blood samples taken from the rider last July match blood samples seized by police from the laboratory of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

Rome  - Spanish cycling star Alejandro Valverde has been summoned by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in a new doping investigation linking the rider to the Operation Puerto affair.

CONI said on its website Wednesday that Valverde has been summoned to a hearing for Monday.

Italian media reports said DNA tests on blood samples taken from the rider last July match blood samples seized by police from the laboratory of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

Rome- Following the controversial death of Eluana Englaro, a comatose woman at the centre of a right-to-die debate in Italy, lawmakers said Tuesday they would seek to introduce legislation on so-called "living wills".

Proposals mentioned differ in the extent to which people could use such documents to specify before their death what type of medical treatment they wish to receive.

The documents would be used in the event of a person falling into a permanent vegetative state, like Englaro's, and losing the ability to communicate their wishes.

Rome  - A tiny Italian far-right party has claimed success in raising funds for a money prize it is offering to parents who name their babies after wartime fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, or his wife Rachele.

"We've got 516,000 euros (668,000 dollars), with donations coming in from all over the world," MSI-Fiamma Tricolore official, Vincenzo Mancusi, told Milan-daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published Sunday.

Substantial donations from Carinthia - the state in Austria which was until recently governed by the late far-right leader Joerg Haider - France and Spain have been registered, Mancusi said.