Milan (Italy), Oct 2 : The recent attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka are tarnishing the secular image of India in Europe. Christians are questioning the effectiveness of the law and order machinery in the country.

Christians in Italy want to seek Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to ensure safety of their co-religionists and churches in India against activities of hoodlums.

Members of the Christian community in Italy were developing a dislike for Hindus and Sikhs residing in the European countries.

Rome - "A pinch of Parmesan" has taken on a different connotation in Italy where the famous cheese is the food product most targeted by shoplifters in supermarkets.

During the period 2006-2007, one in 10 Parmesan products vanished from the shelves of Italian supermarkets without being paid for, a group representing Italian producers of agricultural products said Thursday.

The figure marked an 11 per cent increase over the previous year, the group, CIA, said.

Rome  - The current world financial meltdown is proof that god-less political and ideological remedies are not capable of preventing global ills, the Vatican's second highest official, Cardinal Tarciso Bertone said Tuesday.

"Through distinct roles, politics needs religion; when God is ignored, the capacity to respect rights and recognize the common good vanishes," said Bertone who, as the Holy See's Secretary of State, holds a position similar to that of prime minister.

He was speaking at conference in Rome organized by the Italian branch of the Aspen Institute, an American nonprofit organization which seeks to promotes leadership values.

Rome- Italian anti-Fascist resistance veterans have reacted angrily to Spike Lee's film Miracle at St Anna, which deals with the exploits of black US soldiers in Italy during World War II, but also with a massacre of civilians committed by Nazi troops.

On Tuesday, a branch of Italy's main partisan association ANPI said it would picket a screening of the film because of the "historical lies" it contained.

ANPI militants would also distribute pamphlets at the screening scheduled for Wednesday in the Tuscan city of Viareggio to protest the "offence against the Resistance."

Rome  - Italian police arrested Tuesday three mafia suspects linked to the killing of six African immigrants near Naples on September 19, news reports said.

Police surprised the three - all wanted members of the Casalesi crime family of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra - in their hideout, a small villa near Licola, a north-western suburb of Naples.

Police also seized two Kalashnikov assault rifles and two pistols which may have been used to gun down the Africans who were killed in nearby Castel Volturno, the reports say.

The arrests follow a massive manhunt involving more than 400 extra police launched in the aftermath of the killings of the Africans - three men from Ghana, two from Liberia and one from Togo.