Frankfurt - Italian author Claudio Magris, 69, on Monday received a top German award for ideas.

The 20,000-euro (26,000-dollar) Walter Hallstein Prize was presented in the city of Frankfurt.

"My dream is of a European state," said Magris. He said the important problems could no longer be solved at national level.

Joschka Fischer, a former German foreign minister, eulogized Magris at the ceremony as "a great European intellectual."

Rome - Italy's foreign ministry confirmed Monday that two Italian Roman Catholic nuns have been abducted in Kenya.

"Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is constantly monitoring the situation," the ministry said in a statement in Rome.

The nuns may have been taken across the border into Somalia, the ANSA news agency said, citing Somali "news reports."

Rome - Scores of buses, trams and subways were idled Monday in many Italian towns and cities as local public transport workers went on strike.

Rome  - A Ryanair Boeing 737 overran a runway Monday at Rome's Ciampino airport during an emergency landing, Italian officials said.

None of the 166 passengers on board the flight from Frankfurt, Germany, were injured, according to the ANSA news agency.

Pilots decided to make the emergency landing following problems with one of the plane's engines, Ciampino's rescue services chief, Marco Ghimenti said.

Johannesburg  - South African singer Miriam Makeba died Monday morning from a heart attack in an Italian clinic, her manager confirmed.

Makeba, 76, felt ill after a performance on Sunday evening and was brought by ambulance to a hospital in Castel Volturno in southern Italy, where she died, Italy's ANSA news agency said.

"It was a life well lived," her manager told South African private radio station Radio 702.

"It's really the passing of an era, her legacy will always live on. She hasn't been well for some time now, she had serious arthritis. She had plans for another album to come out. She opened the eyes and ears of the world to South African music," he said in an interview with a different radio station.

Rome/Johannesburg  - South African singer Miriam Makeba died Monday morning from a heart attack in an Italian clinic, an Italian media report said.

According to the ANSA news agency, 76-year-old Makeba felt ill after a performance on Sunday evening and was brought by ambulance to a hospital in Castel Volturno in southern Italy, where she died.

Makeba, a former anti-apartheid activist, was born on March 4, 1932, and enjoyed international fame with the hit song Pata Pata.