VENICE, Italy (Reuters) – Up-and-coming Irish actor Michael Fassbender plays a sex addict in “Shame,” a movie by British video artist Steve McQueen that is vying for the top prize at the Venice film festival.

It is the second lead role for Fassbender in a competition movie at this year’s festival after his portrayal of psychoanalyst Carl Jung in David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method.”

MILAN, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The head of Libya’s rebel
government warned on Thursday of dangerous destabilisation in
the country unless financial aid from the West arrives quickly
to help restore services to the population.

Mahmoud Jibril spoke after meeting Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi, who said Rome had begun unfreezing 350
million euros ($504.3 million) of Libyan funds in Italian banks
to help the rebel movement govern Libya.

Aug 25 (Reuters) – (Corrects figure for frozen assets in
4th graf)

* Rebel leader says foreign funds needed urgently

* Italy begins unfreezing Libyan assets

* Eni says priority is to resume gas flows

By Silvia Aloisi

MILAN, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The head of Libya’s rebel
government warned on Thursday of dangerous destabilisation in
the country without urgent financial aid from the West to
restore services to the population.

Mahmoud Jibril spoke after meeting Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi, who said Rome had begun unfreezing 350
million euros of Libyan funds in Italian banks to help the rebel
government run the country.

MILAN (Reuters) – A new advertisement on Italian television calls tax evaders parasites and compares them to intestinal bugs, but the cash-strapped government will need much more than that to fight one of the most endemic plagues of its economy.

With Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi forced to ram through a 45.5 billion euro (39.8 billion pound) austerity budget to calm markets worried about Italy’s debt pile, the government is once again promising to crack down on tax evasion worth 120 billion euros a year in hidden revenues — or nearly three times the budget plan.

MILAN (Reuters) – Big holdings of Italian bonds by the country’s banks are making them a proxy for funds responding to debt concerns by cutting their exposure to Italy.

Italian banks had hitherto weathered the financial crisis better than their European peers, thanks to a tradition of conservative lending and relatively limited exposure to riskier assets, such as Greek bonds.

MILAN (Reuters) – Concern over Fiat SpA’s (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) ballooning debt dragged its stock lower on Tuesday as the Italian car maker moved a step closer towards a full merger with Chrysler by outlining plans for a single management team.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, who also runs Chrysler, raised his 2011 targets on the back of forecast-beating second-quarter results that incorporated the number 3 U.S. automaker for the first time since Fiat took a majority stake in it last month.

MILAN, July 26 (Reuters) – Concern over Fiat SpA’s
ballooning debt dragged its stock lower on Tuesday,
overshadowing the forecast-beating quarterly results that
prompted the Italian carmaker to raise its full-year targets.

Fiat, Europe’s sixth-biggest automaker by market share,
posted group trading profit of 525 million euros ($753 million),
as strong U.S. and Brazilian sales helped offset a weak European
market in a quarter that included profits from U.S. arm Chrysler
for the first time.

MILAN, July 26 (Reuters) – Strong U.S. sales for Chrysler
and growth in Brazil will help offset a weak European market for
Fiat SpA , combined financial results are set to show on
Tuesday as the two car makers move closer towards a full merger.

Fiat’s second-quarter results will incorporate one month’s
figures from Chrysler for the first time after it took over
management of the U.S. number three automaker in a 2009 bailout.

MILAN (Reuters) – Strong U.S. sales for Chrysler and growth in Brazil will help offset a weak European car market for Fiat SpA (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which is tightening its grip on the U.S. automaker.

Fiat will report second-quarter results on Tuesday, incorporating Chrysler for the first time after raising its stake in the company past the 50 percent mark last month.

MILAN (Reuters) – In his previous job as head of Sky Italia, Tom Mockridge made a point of climbing the stairs to his seventh-floor Milan office instead of using the lift.

Now that he is the new boss of News Corp’s British newspaper unit, he will need all the stamina he can muster to put behind the company a phone hacking scandal undermining Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.