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CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Never underestimate the power of the petition. Wednesday, United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced that the U.S. would delay imposing a number of additional duties on European Union products, including a 100-percent tariff on Italian mineral water. That tariff, scheduled to be implemented Thursday, was the subject of protest among owners of Italian restaurants. Earlier this week, the Italian American Chamber of Commerce-Midwest sent Kirk a petition signed by more than 60 Chicago-area restaurant owners, protesting the tariff. (Read the Article)

BLOOMBERG. COM. Italy approved an 8 billion-euro ($10.4 billion) plan for emergency aid and for reconstruction in the region of Abruzzo, hit this month by an earthquake that left more than 60,000 people homeless. “We are making 8 billion euros available to spend in the next three years to bring L’Aquila and the surrounding villages to conditions of normality,” Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told reporters after the Cabinet met today in L’Aquila, the region’s capital. (Read the Article by Lorenzo Totaro)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. The Vatican will help restore paintings, statues and other artworks damaged in the earthquake that devastated central earlier this month. Francesco Buranelli, a top culture official at the Holy See, said experts from the Vatican museums will directly restore some of the works. Italy's culture minister has estimated restoration works will cost at least euro50 million ($65million). (Read the Article)

CHICAGO TRIBUNE. More than 60 Italian restaurants in Chicago are joining in a protest against a punitive tariff that's about to double the price of Italian mineral waters. The tariff is a 100 percent import duty that will effectively double the price of such beverages as San Pellegrino, Acqua Panna and Sole. The double duty is part of a U.S. payback for the European Union's ban on American beef containing hormones, and the U.S. has slapped tariffs on dozens of EU imports, not just Italian mineral water. But Italian water is a higher-visibility, higher-volume consumer product than the chestnuts, frozen meats and Roquefort cheese that have been targeted previously. And this latest tariff hits Italy—which the Chamber of Commerce says exports 40 percent of its mineral water to the U.S.—particularly hard. (Read the Article)