Valletta, Malta  - The foreign ministers of Italy, Libya and Malta are to meet on December 5 to discuss illegal immigration and oil exploration in the waters between the three countries, it was stated Monday.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgem will be meeting in Malta at the invitation of Foreign Minister Tonio Borg.

Borg told Parliament Monday this was the first time that concrete proposals had been made on the delineation of the waters for oil exploration purposes.

New Delhi, Nov 17 (ANI): Chief of the Italian Army Staff Lietunant General Fabrizio Castagnetti arrived at New Delhi on Monday and was given a Guard of Honour at South Block.

He is visiting India on an official tour from November 17-21 on a reciprocal visit and cement our bonds of friendship further.

His visit will not only enhance the existing military cooperation between the two countries but will also open up new opportunities for training cooperation.

Rome - Two Zlatan Ibrahimovic's classy feats Saturday gave Inter Milan a 2-0 win against Palermo and kept the reigning champions at the top in the Italian Serie A.

The powerful Swede surprised veteran goalkeeper Alberto Fontana right after the break with a fast drive from outside the area that grazed the far post before inflating the goal.

Rome - Roman Catholic nuns in Italy under whose care a comatose woman has been surviving on life support for 14 years, have launched an appeal to save her life in the wake of a ruling by Italy's top appeals court allowing her family to halt the treatment.

"Our hope, and that of many like us, is that the death by hunger and thirst of Eluana, and others in her condition, will not be carried out," the nuns of the Misericordine Order said in a letter published Saturday in the Catholic newspaper, Avvenire.

Rome - Italian university students and lecturers staged demonstrations Friday in several cities around the country against government plans to streamline Italy's tertiary education sector.

The protests which have the support of two of the four main labour union confederations, and most of Italy's centre-left opposition, included a march through the streets of Rome.

Police strengthened security around parliament's lower house Chamber of Deputies where some protestors threatened to stage an unauthorized rally.

Rome - Italy's economy has contracted for the second consecutive quarter, marking a recession that comes in the wake of the international credit crunch, the country's central statistics office said Friday.

Gross domestic product in the third quarter in Italy - the eurozone's third largest economy - shrank 0.5 per cent from the second quarter, when it contracted 0.4 per cent, the Rome-based Istat said.

The third quarter fell 0.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2007.

Italy follows Germany, Europe's largest economy, in posting two consecutive quarters of contraction - the technical definition of a recession.