Italy's new government wins parliament OK

Italy's new centrist government won a confidence vote in Parliament. Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini's five-party coalition, which had already won Senate approval, received 369 votes, with 247 against, in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house).

After the vote ratifying Italy's 41st postwar government, the prime minister chaired urgent talks among economic ministers to resolve the country's stock market crisis. The stock markets were closed last week for the first time since 1917 when share prices fell by over 20 percent in half an hour. They are due to reopen today (July 13).