Rome  - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi drew criticism Monday from opposition leaders for what they said was his failure to condemn outright Russia's military intervention in Georgia.

"A phone call is not enough," said the Catholic centrist party UDC's leader Pierferdinando Casini, referring to Berlusconi's conversation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Sunday.

Berlusconi phoned Putin from his Sardinian villa, a luxury holiday residence where the billionaire-turned-politician has hosted the Russian leader in the past.

Grado, Italy - Two Norwegian tourists - a man and his eight- year-old son - were killed overnight by a falling tree when a strong whirlwind swept through the north-eastern Italian seaside resort town of Grado, news reports said Saturday.

The Norwegians, identified by the ANSA news agency as Nilds Hammer, 44, and his son Dastrom, were inside a tent when the tree toppled onto it.

The mother of the family who was also in the tent was not hurt in the accident, ANSA said.

London, Aug. 8 : Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apparently is not too bothered about the credit crunch woes of his fellow Italians, for he has gone ahead and purchased a neo-classical villa at Lesa on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

According to The Times, 71-year-old Berlusconi already owns a mansion in Milan - which he is expanding - luxury seaside villas in Sardinia and Bermuda, and a Renaissance palace in Rome, among other properties. The family that launched the Campari drinks empire formerly owned the latest buy.

Turin, Italy  - Andrea Pininfarina, the scion of one of Italy's most celebrated car-design companies, died Thursday when a scooter he was riding was hit by a car. He was 51.

Pininfarina, president and CEO of Pininfarina, the company founded by his grandfather in 1930, was apparently on his way to work when the accident occurred on a road outside the north-western city of Turin, traffic police said.

Pininfarina was riding a Vespa scooter when he was hit by a car driven by a 78-year-old man who was not injured in the accident but was being treated for shock.

The name Pininfarina is associated with the sleek designs of some of the most famous Ferrari sports cars models, including the Ferrari Testarossa.

Reggio Calabria, Italy - Italian police arrested Thursday a wanted Calabrian mafia boss who is the brother-in-law of a chief suspect in the August 2007 killings of six Italians in Duisburg, Germany, news reports said.

Police blocked the 31-year-old Paolo Nirta, after a short chase on foot down the narrow alleys of San Luca, a town considered the stronghold of the Calabrian version of the mafia, the 'Ndrangheta.

Nirta is the suspected acting-boss of the Nirta family which has been locked in a bloody fued with a rival clan, the Pelle-Vottari family, since the early 1990s.

Islamabad - Pakistani Army aviators on Wednesday airlifted an Italian climber left stranded on K2, the world's second-highest mountain, by an ice fall last week, officials said.

Suffering from frostbite, Marco Confortola took five days to descend to an advance base camp at an altitude of 5,800 metres, but efforts to rescue him on Tuesday were hampered by foggy conditions.

"Confortola has been rescued by a military helicopter in the morning (on Wednesday)," Italian embassy spokesman Sergio Oddo told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Oddo said the mountaineer was being flown to the town of Skardu where he would undergo a medical check-up and later depart for Islamabad by "first available flight."