Turin, Italy - Dozens of birds were killed Wednesday at a private zoo in Italy in an arson attack claimed by radical animal rights activists, news reports said.

Several bottles filled with petrol were used to start the fire which killed some 40 hawks, buzzards and owls in an aviary at the Zoom Zoo near the northern city of Turin.

"This is for the imprisoned animals - Animal Liberation Front" was found spray-painted in red near the scene of the early morning attack.

Firefighters prevented flames from spreading to a warden's shed and other buildings, one of them housing several tigers, the reports said.

Turin, Italy - Carnival-time is approaching in Italy, but in a new twist to the custom of wearing disguises, a robber has held up a bank wearing a mask resembling Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, news reports said Wednesday.

The man, together with two accomplices, all armed with toy pistols, broke into a branch of the Unicredit bank in the north-western city of Turin.

Police intervened and arrested two of the robbers, including the false "Berlusconi" and another man who was wearing a mask resembling one of Berlusconi's close aides, Marcello Dell'Utri. The third suspect managed to escape.

Turin, Italy - Italian industrial group Fiat reported Thursday a 69.8 per cent drop in its 2008 fourth-quarter profit in the face of a global economic slump which has cut demand for cars, the company's main product.

Turin-based Fiat, which earlier this week announced possible merger plans with US carmaker Chrysler, said net profit in the final quarter fell to 180 million euros (232 million dollars) compared to 597 million euros for the same period in 2007.

Full year profit was down 16.2 per cent from euro 2.05 billion in 2007 to euro 1.72 billion.

Turin, Italy  - Fiat is set to revive another old name, the Topolino or "Little Mouse," which it is planning to launch as a new mini car in 2010, Germany's auto-motor-sport magazine reports.

The Topolino, built between 1936-1955, is considered the predecessor to the Fiat 500 - another name which the Italian company has revived with the new retro-look Fiat
500.

Turin, Italy - Some 48,000 workers at auto maker Fiat began Monday an almost month-long vacation, following the company's decision temporarily to halt production at its factories in Italy, a Fiat spokesman said.

The decision by the Turin-based Fiat - Europe's fifth-biggest car maker by market value - to shut its plants until January 12, comes amid the global economic downturn which has had a major impact on the car market.

Fiat, which also produces cars with the Ferrari and Alfa Romeo brand names, has fared better than many other car manufacturers, also thanks to strong sales of its agricultural sector vehicles.

Turin, Italy - Barack Obama's victory in the US presidential vote marks a "great step forward for humanity" that could be mirrored with the election of a black pope, according to a top US Roman Catholic cleric.

"If Obama at the White House is like the first time man (stepped on) the moon, then it can certainly happen at the threshold of St Peter's," the Archbishop of Atlanta, Wilton Daniel Gregory, was quoted as saying in an interview published Thursday in an Italian newspaper.