St. Petersberg Times
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer
Friday, April 23, 2004

LIPETSK - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Vladimir Putin flew on Putin's Ilysuhin jet to Lipetsk to praise each other, trade jokes,display a new camaraderie, boost bilateral trade, simplify visa procedures,  and open a washing machine plant.

The Merloni plant will initially be able to produce 100,000 washing machines a year and over the next 18 months attain capacity to make 1 million a year.

Merloni already has a Stinol refrigerator plant in Lipetsk that opened in 1993. The Italian giant employs 5,000 people in the city, located about 350 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

Putin praised the Italian leader, and Berlusconi declared that "Russia must become a close partner of the European Union,that only with Russia can the EU really evolve into a "Big Europe, and then the European Union can confront the  international power of the United States."

Business - Italians Invest In Lipetsk - The St. Petersburg Times. General news from St.Petersburg and Russia
http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/963/news/b_12310.htm
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RECORDATI UPS THE ANTI AND TRUMPS IVAX ON KUTNO DEAL

Warsaw Business Journal
23rd April 2004

Recordati, an Italian pharmaceutical concern, raised its offer for Polish pharmaceutical company to zl.310 per share, equalling the figure offered by U.S. drugs maker Ivax, and securing the deal.

Warsaw Business Journal Online
http://www.wbj.pl/?command=article&id=22205&
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OBITUARIES
Karl Hass, 92; Nazi Convicted of WWII Massacre

Los Angeles Times
Staff and Wire Reports
April 23, 2004

[Preface: The passing of SS Major Hass, who was convicted of the Massacre of 335 Italians at the Rome/Ardeatine Caves, comes on the eve of the trial of 7 Nazi SS Officers for the Massacre of 560 Italians at Sant'Anna Di Stazzema.

These were just TWO of the FOUR HUNDRED different Massacres inflicted on FIFTEEN THOUSAND Italian Civilians by the Nazis during WWII.]

Karl Hass, a former Nazi officer convicted of the wartime massacre of 335 Italian civilians, died Wednesday in Rome. He was 92.

Hass had been living at a rest home near Rome. His health had been failing recently, and on Wednesday morning he suffered a heart attack.

The former SS major was sentenced in 1998 to life in prison for the killings at the Ardeatine Caves on the outskirts of Rome when the Italian capital was under German occupation during World War II.

German soldiers rounded up and shot the civilians — in retaliation for a bomb attack in Rome by Italian resistance fighters that killed 33 Germans.

Hass admitted killing two victims, shooting them in the back of the head.
Hass had been spared prison because of his age and frail health. He was allowed to live out his sentence in the rest home.

Karl Hass, 92; Nazi Convicted of WWII Massacre
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/
la-me-hass23apr23,1,2398523.story?coll=la-news-obituaries
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