Rome  - Italy's government condemned Thursday the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in which an Italian man was among those killed.

"The attacks in India, that were almost certainly carried out by groups linked to al-Qaeda, confirm that terrorism remains the number one threat to the entire community of nations," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.

Frattini, in a television interview, also expressed condolences to the family of the Italian victim, Antonio De Lorenzo.

Rome  - Colourful tartans well-known in Scotland currently are all the rage in Italy. Anyone with a sense of style from Milan to Messina and from Pordenone to Palermo is wearing plaids.

Rome - Italy's conservative government presented Wednesday a state-sponsored credit card which will be provided to needy people to help them cope with the country's current economic recession.

The "carta per gli acquisti" or "social card" as local media have dubbed it, is worth 40 euros (51 dollars) per month and allows bearers to buy goods at chain stores and supermarkets that have adhered to the initiative, Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said.

The government estimates that some 1.3 million people will benefit from the card. It is set to cost the state 450 million euros per year.

Rome - Italian authorities have seized over 241,000 counterfeit banknotes during the first six months of 2008, a haul which marks a 314 per cent increase over the previous six months, a commander of Italy's anti-fraud police said Tuesday.

The "value" of this fake cash amounted to 12.4 million euros, with copies of the 20 euro banknote accounting for over a third of all those seized, Leandro Cuzzocrea said, citing Economy Ministry figures.

During the same period in 2008, authorities also confiscated more than 11,000 counterfeit coins, some 90 per cent of which were copies of the two-euro coin, Cuzzocrea said.

Stockholm - Italian author Roberto Saviano and British- Indian author Salman Rushdie were due Tuesday to discuss "Freedom of speech and lawless violence" in Stockholm's Old Town.

Both authors have been threatened for their writings and were under police protection. The discussion was organized by the Swedish Academy, the body that selects the Nobel literature prize.

The Academy said some 450 people were to attend the discussion Tuesday evening.

Amsterdam - Italian national Giuseppe Nirta, aged 35, will remain in custody in the Netherlands until an Amsterdam court has decided whether or not he will be extradited to Italy to serve a prison sentence of 14 years and 18 months for dealing in drugs.

The leader of the so-called 'Ndrangheta clan from Italy is also a suspect for the German police in the gangland-style massacre.

In August 2007, a total of six Italians were murdered in Duisburg.

Wim de Bruin, spokesman of the Dutch public prosecutor, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday that Italy had filed its request for the Nirta's arrest last month.