France’s Italian-born first lady donates $70,000 to L’Aquila quake survivors

October 4th, 2009 Berlusconi: new homes for Italian mudslide victimsROME — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised Sunday to build new houses for the victims of massive mudslides in Sicily that killed at least 22 people and left more than 500 homeless. Berlusconi visited the devastated area around the eastern coastal city of Messina and met with survivors who were being housed in area hotels.

September 26th, 2009 LONDON - US First Lady Michelle Obama couldn't help but fall victim to the beast of jealously when husband Barack moved in for a smooch with French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. According to the Daily Express, Michelle looked uncomfortable when the US President went on to greet Bruni-Sarkozy with a peck on the cheek.

August 20th, 2009 Italian police rescue migrants adrift off SicilyROME — Italian border police rescued five African migrants adrift for days in a dinghy off the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Thursday. Survivors said up to 75 others died at sea, according to authorities.

July 11th, 2009 LONDON - French First lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy gave glimpse of her philanthropist side as she pledged a personal donation of a whopping 43,000 pounds to a hospital treating survivors of earthquake- ravaged town of L'Aquila. The former model-singer visited the earthquake-hit region a day after the wives of other leaders participating in the Group of Eight summit (G8) did, reports The Daily Express.

July 9th, 2009 Clooney: I'll film in Italy quake areaL'AQUILA, Italy — George Clooney has toured the ruins of Italy's recent earthquake and told the survivors he'll shoot a film in their mountain region. The actor inspected crumbled buildings during a visit on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in L'Aquila.

July 9th, 2009 US first lady tours quake-hit cityL'AQUILA, Italy — Michelle Obama and other first spouses toured the center of L'Aquila on Thursday to see the destruction wrought by an earthquake in the Italian city hosting world leaders for the Group of Eight summit this week. Obama shook her head as she took in the extent of the damage to centuries-old churches and other treasures turned to rubble by the earthquake that claimed more than 300 lives.

July 7th, 2009 Basketball court ready for Obama at G-8L'AQUILA, Italy — A summit held in a police barracks in a quake-stricken city may not provide Barack Obama with the luxury to which a U.S. president is accustomed.

June 23rd, 2009 Italy: Strong aftershock hits quake zoneROME — A powerful aftershock hit the quake-struck areas of central Italy on Monday, rattling buildings as far away as Rome. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

June 22nd, 2009 NY restaurant uses Italian grandmas as chefsNEW YORK — Now that's Italian! A Staten Island restaurant is relying on a group of Italian-born grandmothers for its menus. The women take turns cooking at 35-seat Enoteca Maria, using recipes from the different parts of Italy they come from.

April 23rd, 2009 Italy asks to move G-8 summit to quake-hit cityROME — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi says he wants to move this summer's Group of Eight summit to earthquake-stricken L'Aquila from Sardinia to both save money and provide the region with an economic boost. Berlusconi told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in L'Aquila that the security costs of holding the July 8-10 summit in the Sardinian island of La Maddalena would have cost euro220 million ($285 million) alone — money better spent on reconstruction efforts in Italy's central Abruzzo region.

April 23rd, 2009 Italy seeks to move G-8 summit to quake-hit cityROME — Italy's government wants to move this summer's Group of Eight summit from Sardinia to earthquake-stricken L'Aquila — both to save money and to give the devastated central region an economic boost. Premier Silvio Berlusconi told a news conference Thursday after a Cabinet meeting in L'Aquila that the cost of holding the July 8-10 summit on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena would be euro220 million ($285 million).

April 20th, 2009 ROME - Reports indicate that the powerful earthquake in the central Italian Abruzzo regional capital L'Aquila last week has unearthed prehistoric dwellings there. Some of the vaulted caves measure up to five meters in height, Italian geologist Gianluca Ferretti told Italian daily La Stampa.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said the US was ready to help the more than 200 victims of a devastating earthquake in the heart of Italy and offered his condolences in a telephone call Tuesday with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Italian people and victims 'are in the thoughts and prayers of the American people at this time,' Obama told his Italian counterpart, according to the White House.

April 8th, 2009 L'AQUILA - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has advised traumatised earthquake survivors to view living in emergency tent accommodation as like being on a "camping weekend". His statement is unlikely to go down well with an estimated 17,000 people who have been made homeless by the powerful earthquake which struck the Abruzzo region of central Italy on Monday, with many of them enduring freezing temperatures in tent cities put up by the army, reports The Telegraph.

April 7th, 2009 L'AQUILA - Survivors who lived through the earthquake in the central Italian town of L'Aquila said the devastation was "like 20 seconds of hell". he death toll has risen to 179, as rescue workers used mechanical diggers and their bare hands to search through the night for survivors.