ROME (Reuters) – Storm clouds are gathering over Mario Monti’s efforts to transform the Italian economy, with his approval ratings dropping, mounting protests against his reforms and a damaging row with the parties that sustain him in parliament.

Monti shot out of the blocks after being appointed prime minister in November and quickly implemented tough austerity measures to fend off the debt crisis. But he now risks running into political quicksands that will slow down and weaken the much harder task of reviving a notoriously stagnant economy.

ROME (Reuters) – Storm clouds are gathering over Mario Monti’s efforts to transform the Italian economy, with his approval ratings dropping, mounting protests against his reforms and a damaging row with the parties that sustain him in parliament.

Monti shot out of the blocks after being appointed prime minister in November and quickly implemented tough austerity measures to fend off the debt crisis. But he now risks running into political quicksand that will slow down and weaken the much harder task of reviving a notoriously stagnant economy.

ROME, March 22 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Mario Monti’s
attempt to force through labour reform in Italy ran into
political trouble on Thursday, raising the risk that the
coalition supporting him in parliament could split or the
measures be weakened.

The leadership of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD),
which supports Monti, had initially seemed ready to accept the
reform despite trenchant opposition from its close ally the
leftwing CGIL union, which has called a day-long protest strike.

ROME (Reuters) – Corporal Romina Marenda of the Italian army never expects to go into combat, apart from meeting another woman in the ring.

Lightweight Marenda will be one of Italy’s biggest hopes when women’s boxing makes its debut at the London Olympics this year, as long as she manages to qualify at the world championships in China in May.

ROME, March 8 (Reuters) – Corporal Romina Marenda of
the Italian army never expects to go into combat, apart from
meeting another woman in the ring.

Lightweight Marenda will be one of Italy’s biggest hopes when
women’s boxing makes its debut at the London Olympics this year,
as long as she manages to qualify at the world championships in
China in May.

ROME, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Whether or not Greece secures
a new bailout to avoid bankruptcy next month, relations between
Athens and Germany look close to breaking point. Their
inflammatory exchanges reflect a wider rift between northern and
southern Europe.

Greek resentment of pressure from northern creditors led by
Berlin is shared in other parts of the south, where a
single-minded focus on belt-tightening rather than growth is
seen as more likely to worsen the euro zone debt crisis than fix
it.

ROME (Reuters) – Whether or not Greece secures a new bailout to avoid bankruptcy next month, relations between Athens and Germany look close to breaking point. Their inflammatory exchanges reflect a wider rift between northern and southern Europe.

Greek resentment of pressure from northern creditors led by Berlin is shared in other parts of the south, where a single-minded focus on belt tightening rather than growth is seen as more likely to worsen the euro zone debt crisis than fix it.

ROME (Reuters) – The remarkable success of Prime Minister Mario Monti, feted as a hero both at home and abroad, has created turmoil among Italy’s discredited politicians and is likely to provoke radical shifts in the political landscape over the coming year.

Some analysts say the impact of Monti will spark a political revolution comparable to the “Clean Hands” corruption probe — whose 20th anniversary is this week.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s technocrat government has suffered its first major defeat in parliament in a vote that revealed the strains and discontent in the political alliance sustaining Prime Minister Mario Monti as he combats a major economic crisis.

The chamber of deputies on Thursday night voted 264 to 211 to pass a legal amendment which will make it possible to bring civil suits directly against magistrates for trial errors.

ROME (Reuters) – Lawyers in Naples taped up their mouths and turned their backs on a government speaker at a solemn ceremony to mark the start of Italy’s judicial year.

Colleagues abandoned a similar ceremony in Venice last week, leaving their robes symbolically on their chairs. Italy’s hundreds of thousands of lawyers plan a strike and nationwide demonstrations on February 23-24 and have threatened to block all judicial activity.