L'Aquila, Italy  - The Italian government has ordered the closure of a group on the social networking website, Facebook, calling for the death of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, an official said Thursday.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni also indicated that members of the group, "Let's Kill Berlusconi," would be reported to the judiciary.

On Thursday more than 17,000 members were registered to the group which appears on the Facebook category "Just for Fun - Outlandish Statements"

L'Aquila, Italy  - He ducked and he dived, he charmed and he chided, he smiled and, most importantly of all, he survived.

Silvio Berlusconi, arguably the most controversial leader to have ever presided over a Group of Eight (G8) summit of the world's most powerful nations, entered this year's get-together in L'Aquila with the reputation of a gaff-prone lecher.

L'Aquila, Italy  - The world's greatest powers turned their attention to Africa on Friday as they bid to support more productive farming and end hunger in the world's poorest countries with an aid package worth up to 15 billion dollars.

The package, planned and largely funded by the United States and Japan, was set to be approved by the Group of Eight (G8) leading developed economies, the Group of Five (G5) top developing states, and African leaders on the third and last day of a summit in the Italian city of L'Aquila, diplomats said.

L'Aquila, Italy  - The world's greatest powers at last began to talk the talk on climate change when they met in the earthquake-ravaged Italian town of L'Aquila on Thursday.

Now the question is whether they can walk the walk fast enough as they build up to crucial United Nations talks in Copenhagen in December.

L'Aquila, Italy - US screen star George Clooney, during a visit Thursday to L'Aquila, said he plans to make a movie in the central Italian city which was devastated in an April earthquake and is the site of this week's Group of Eight summit.

Accompanied by fellow actor Bill Murray, Clooney said shooting for the film, in which he intends to play a role, would begin in September, the ANSA news agency reported.

L''aquila, July 9 : US president Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cozied up to each other at a summit of the G8-G5 groupings at L'Aquila in Italy on Thursday.

Leaders of the world's richest nations and major developing powers would have on the table raging issues like global warming and international trade, with the poorer countries seeking concessions.

US President Barack Obama would chair the climate discussions, but hopes of agreeing ambitious goals have faded after China and India rejected demands to halve the emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

L'aquila, July 9 : A 16 year old tribal girl from Orissa's Koraput district rubbed shoulders with world leaders at the Junior Eight summit in Italy.

Sanjukta Pangi is representing India in the J8 (Junior 8) international youth summit, which is currently being held in Italy along with the G8 conclave.

Hailing from a small tribal community of Orissa, blushing Pangi don't even know the names of the leaders she had met in Italy's town of L'aquila, the venue of G8 summit.

L'Aquila, Italy - Plans by US President Barack Obama to boost food production in the world's poorest nations mark a welcome shift in aid policies that could help reduce migration towards the West, a UN agency on the food aid frontline said Thursday.

"The time has past when we just gave aid and then turned away," said Kanayo Nwanze, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The initiative aims to "prevent problems rather than solve them," he said.

L'AQUILA, July 9 : Fourteen young people from countries attending the G8 today called on their respective leaders to get tough with countries who don't meet climate change targets and teachers whose standards slip.

At the meeting, the J8 representatives presented these recommendations and others for the 14 leaders attending the G8.

The young people were chosen by their peers to represent the UNICEF Junior 8 (J8). One young person represented each of the G8 countries and non-G8 countries invited to L'Aquila - Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa. In all there were 54 young delegates aged 14 to 17.

L'AQUILA, July 9 : Leaders of the world's richest nations and major developing powers met on Thursday (July 9) to discuss global issues on the second day of a G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy.

They are trying to arrive at a common ground on global warming and international trade, with the poorer countries seeking concessions.

US President Barack Obama would chair the climate discussions, but hopes of agreeing ambitious goals have faded after China and India rejected demands to halve the emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

L'Aquila, Italy  - US First Lady on Thursday shook her head in front of a badly damaged church in L'Aquila, apparently touched by the devastation of an April earthquake in the Italian city, the site of this week's Group of Eight (G8) summit.

Obama's gesture came as she joined several other spouses of leaders attending the summit, for a tour of L'Aquila's medieval centre which bore much of the brunt of the tremor that killed nearly 300 people and left some 60,000 homeless.

Flanked by firefighters and security officials, the group, made its way on foot to the central Piazza Duomo square during the morning visit.

L'Aquila, Italy  - The leaders of the world's top developed and developing powers began talks in the mediaeval Italian town of L'Aquila on Thursday in a search of agreement on liberalizing global trade and fighting global warming.

The meeting comes a day after the Group of Eight (G8) leading developed economies called for a "rapid, ambitious, balanced and comprehensive conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda" based on a "strengthened dialogue with our major partners."

L'Aquila  - US President Barack Obama is planning a top-level summit in March next year in Washington to discuss nuclear security, broadcaster CNN reported Thursday.

Obama reportedly made his suggestion to other world leaders during a dinner Wednesday night at the G8 summit of industrialised nations in the Italian city of L'Aquila.

During the president's visit to Russia earlier in the week, he had also mentioned a conference on the threat posed by the proliferation on nuclear materials.

L'Aquila, Italy - Rich nations should reverse the decline in agricultural aid they give to the world's poorest so as to reduce hunger and improve global peace and security, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday.

"The share of agriculture in official development assistance has fallen from 17 per cent in 1980 to 3.8 in 2006. We need to bring resources back to their 1980s levels," Jacques Diouf, a Senegalese diplomat who has headed the FAO since 1994, told the German Press Agency dpa.

L'Aquila, Italy - The Group of Eight (G8) leading economies is to push emerging powers such as China and India to help keep global warming within a safe limit of 2 degrees centigrade, European leaders said Wednesday.

"We have agreed for the first time (in the G8) that average global temperatures must rise by no more than 2 degrees ... We hope that we will get that agreement tomorrow too," Brown said during a pause in a summit of G8 leaders in the Italian town of L'Aquila.

L'Aquila, Italy - Group of Eight (G8) leaders are to reject protectionism and call for a "rapid, ambitious, balanced and comprehensive" conclusion to the stalled Doha round of talks on world trade, according to the summit's latest draft conclusions.

The draft declaration for the annual G8 summit, running from Wednesday to Friday in the Italian town of L'Aquila, sets the basis for discussions among G8 leaders.

L'Aquila  - The world's eight richest powers should give a "very clear" condemnation of North Korea's testing of nuclear bombs and missiles, European Union officials said as the annual G8 summit opened in the Italian town of L'Aquila.

"We've seen this kind of provocation from North Korea, we've seen it before, I think that we will be very clear on not accepting that and speaking very clearly against these kind of measures," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said as he arrived at the summit.

L'Aquila, Italy  - Three moderate earthquakes measuring between magnitude 2.2 and 2.8 shook the venue of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in the central Italian city of L'Aquila ahead of the arrival of world leaders, local media reported Wednesday.

The tremors were felt at 3.35, 8.16 and 9.40 am local time (0740 GMT), with their epicentre located in the nearby Monti Reatini, the online edition of Il Centro daily reported.

L'Aquila, Italy  - The world's eight richest nations eyed a possible agreement on climate change with developing powers on Wednesday as they gathered for a summit in Italy.

But the summit was set to go ahead without China's President Hu Jintao, who was forced to fly home overnight to deal with ethnic violence in the north-western city of Urumqi.

L'Aquila, Italy  - World leaders are set to push for action on trade, climate change and the nuclear programmes in Iran and North Korea when US President Barack Obama joins the world's top table for the first time from Wednesday to Friday in Italy.