Premier Silvio Berlusconi met with Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 
last Wednesday. Italy¹s prime minister said he had come to "illustrate the 
friendship that Italy holds for the Tunisian people." He added that he hoped 
to give a fresh impulse to existing business relations between the two 
countries, singling out tourism. The two leaders discussed new developments 
in the fight against terrorism, and the Middle East crisis. 

They agreed that the United States, Russia and Europe should push the peace 
negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians forward, including a Marhall 
Plan for Palestinians. 
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(2) ROME RESEARCHERS DISCOVER MALARIA "SHIELD"
 
The fields of pharmacology and immunology will benefit from the findings of a 
study performed by researchers from Rome¹s Sapienza University, who revealed 
that a genetic mutation could prevent malaria. David Modiano and Mario 
Coluzzi discovered that the populations of marshy areas in West Africa, for 
instance Burkina Faso, were less likely to develop malaria because they were 
the carriers of a mutated gene in their hemoglobin. The mutation, which acts 
like a protective shield, reduces malaria risk with 93% for persons who 
inherited the mutation from both parents and with 30% if derived from only 
one parent. 
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(3) ITALIANS WILLING TO SPEND MORE ON CULTURE THAN SOCCER 

The Italian Authors and Publishers Organization (SIAE) published its 
statistics for the year 2000 and concluded that last year, Italians spent 731 
billion lire ($346 million) on theater tickets and 450 billion lire ($213 
million) to watch soccer matches. The family budget allocated 316 billion 
lire ($151 million) to watch various forms of theater, and 146 billion lire 
($70 million) to attend ballet and opera performances. Another 177 billion 
lire ($85 million) was collectively spent to go to popular music concerts, 
while 82 billion lire ($40 million) was spent on classical concerts. Cinema 
is the big winner in entertainment expenditures, with a combined ticket 
acquisition for last year of 103 million pieces and box office receipts 
totaling more than one trillion lire ($500 million).