Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's policies risk creating genocide in the conflict-torn country unless there is swift action to stop him, Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said on Wednesday.

Italian police raided the home of the former head of the Vatican bank on Tuesday as part of an inquiry into alleged corruption at aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica, Italian news reports said.

The raid at Ettore Gotti Tedeschi's house in Rome was "aimed at clarifying suspected instances of international corruption, that is to say the payment of bribes by Finmeccanica subsidiaries," La Repubblica daily reported.

The tax returns of an elite Italian dentist were less than pearly white and he may have pulled in eight million euros of undeclared income in five years, police said Friday.

Italian police Colonel Gavino Putzu said the unnamed dentist worked in an upscale part of Rome crammed with plastic surgeons and high-end doctors who typically earn at least three million euros ($3.75 million) a year.

Qatar could invest in a new ancient Roman theme park, Italian media reported Wednesday, a day after the Gulf state's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani met with local officials in the Eternal City.

"We showed the emir several plans. The one that most caught his attention and which he said he wants his people to work on is the idea of a theme park on ancient Rome" the city's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, was quoted as saying.

Some 100 people did battle with feather-filled pillows Sunday in front of central Rome's Santa Maria in Trastevere church, to celebrate International Pillow Fight Day.

The pillow warriors, most between 18 and 30 years old, lined up face-to-face, then unleashed their fiercest pillow-fight moves when the church's bells rang at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT).

The Colosseum in Rome held a special tour to mark Women's Day on Thursday, exploring the famous monument's feminine angle -- from female gladiators to noblewomen in love with the arena fighters.

"From senators' wives to humbler women, many were crazy about gladiators. They were like footballers today," said Lucilla Rossi, a tour guide.

More than 260 people were rescued early Saturday from a ferry which ran aground off Italy in a snow storm, while emergency services freed people trapped in cars and trains in freezing temperatures.

The Shardon ferry ran aground shortly after setting off from Civitavecchia port near Rome, causing panic among the 262 passengers who feared a repeat of a cruise ship tragedy in the area last month which killed 32 people.

Vandals have attacked and stolen several statues from the gardens of the Villa Medici in Rome including two works dating back to ancient Rome, the director of the French-owned palace told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

"I am absolutely shocked by this act of vandalism," Eric de Chassey told AFP, saying that the vandals had come twice last week and again overnight Monday when they were disturbed by a guard.

A pair of doves seemed to prefer the company of Pope Benedict XVI to the great outdoors on Sunday when he had trouble convincing them to take flight in a traditional peace gesture.

The first dove hesitated on the windowsill of the pope's Vatican apartment for a long spell before flying off, while the second flew back into the room before flying out again.

A Japanese businessman has agreed to invest around one million euros ($1.3 million) to restore a 2,000-year-old Roman pyramid in the Italian capital, La Repubblica daily reported on Thursday.

Yuzo Yagi, a fashion business owner from Osaka, is due to sign the agreement later this month and work on the pyramid, which was built in 13 AD as a tomb for Roman magistrate Gaius Cestius is set to start in April, officials said.