Rome - Italian government officials were set later Thursday to hold talks with labour unions on the fate of troubled national carrier Alitalia, amid what news reports said was optimism on an agreement over the carrier's takeover by a private consortium.

The late-morning meeting including the nine unions representing Alitalia employees was scheduled to be held at Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office in Rome.

The premier's close aide Gianni Letta was expected to chair it.

"I am hopeful, but to say that everything has been concluded is not correct," Transport Minister Altero Matteoli said ahead of the talks.

Rome  - Gomorrah, a grim, violent portrayal of the Camorra - the Neapolitan version of the mafia - has been selected to represent Italy at next year's Academy Awards, Italy's film industry association ANICA said Wednesday.

Directed by Matteo Garrone and based on Roberto Saviano's best-selling book of the same name, Gomorrah in May won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prix - the prestigious competition's third prize.

ANICA's announcement on Wednesday's came as Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the Italian state is engaged in a "civil war" with the Camorra.

Rome - Italy's conservative government approved Tuesday the deployment of 500 troops in a mafia-infested area near the southern city of Naples where six African immigrants were gunned down last week.

On Monday, police arrested a 29-year-old man - a convicted member of the Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the mafia - in connection with last Thursday's killings in Castel Volturno.

The attack shocked Italy and Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, speaking following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said the state had promptly replied to the "massacre."

"First we dispatched an extra 400 police, now we have taken the decision to deploy the troops," he said.

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI spoke Saturday about the "emptiness" of modern times and called for a "New Europe" in which people, especially the young, could approach the "spiritual treasures" of religion.

Today's world was characterized by a "dangerous culture of emptiness and senselesness," the pope said in an address at the general meeting of the Benedictine order in Castel Gandolfo.

The men and women of the religious orders were asked to present suggestions for possible new ways of spreading the world of God.

Rome - Italy's near-bankrupt flagship carrier, Alitalia, is to continue with regular scheduled flights, at least until Monday September 22, according to the airline's government-appointed commissioner.

"Much depends on what will happen in the next few days," Commissioner Augusto Fantozzi said in the aftermath Thursday of the collapse of a bid by a consortium of private investors to take control of the state's controlling stake in Alitalia.

Fantozzi said that by law the company was compelled to continue providing services as long as funds are available. The commissioner indicated last week that money to buy fuel was in short supply.

Rome - Six people were killed in two separate shooting incidents in southern Italy late Thursday, according to police officials.

Five Africans were killed and two others injured by gunshots in Castel Vultorno, 35 kilometres north-west of Naples, ANSA news agency reported, indicating that the shootings were linked to drug trafficking.

Three of the immigrants were from Ghana, one from Liberia and one from Togo.