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Published on 21 September 2012 at 10:03

The Italian government has revised the country’s growth forecasts from -1.4% to -2.4% for 2012 and from +0.4% to -0.2% for 2013. The prospect of a balanced budget by 2013, as promised by PM Mario Monti, is receding.

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Recession in 2013 too – La Stampa

GDP in the eurozone fell by 0.6% between July and September, according a monthly survey conducted among companies of the 17 member currency zone. The situation in France is of particular concern with industrial orders down sharply. Economists expect the ECB will lower its key rate in October, from 0.75% to 0.50%.

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Activity plummets in eurozone economies – Les Echos

At a meeting in Madrid, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has categorically rejected Catalonia President Artur Mas' request for greater fiscal autonomy. Rajoy argues that it would be contrary to the Constitution, but is willing to discuss funding for Catalonia. In response, Mas suggests that early regional elections could be held in November or December, which could turn into a referendum on independence.

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Next step – La Vanguardia

The two leaders of Portugal’s ruling coalition parties, PM Pedro Passos Coelho (PSD, centre-right) and Paulo Portas (CDS-PP, right) are to maintain a united front to ensure that the EU/ECB/IMF troika releases the next tranche of bailout money. "Marriage of convenience continues," writes the Lisbon daily, on the day that President Aníbal Cavaco Silva brings together the country’s highest officials to discuss the controversial increase in employee social security contributions, a measure which has triggered massive demonstrations.

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Passos and Portas tied to troika – i

The British government has ordered that information about murdered former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko's links with British intelligence services be withheld from a preliminary hearing for the inquest into his death. Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive Polonium 210 in 2006 and was in regular contact with MI5 or MI6 (respectively domestic and foreign intelligence) prior to his death.

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Censored: MI5 links to murdered Litvinenko – The Independent

Amsterdam’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is to reopen on September 23 after an eight year makeover. But it must resign itself to not being one of the world’s top museums, say experts in an interview with the Dutch daily. Despite the importance of its collection, its €20 million annual budget trails too far behind Britain's Tate museums (€154.6 million in 2011), New York’s MoMA (€84.5 million ) and the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Metz (€111.3 million).

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Stedelijk Museum doesn’t make world summit – NRC Handelsblad

A €98 million exhibition of 3,000 works from the Islamic world, and this weekend's opening of the eastern wing of the Louvre museum, completes the Grand Louvre project. 23 years ago President François Mitterrand launched the project with the inauguration of the Pyramid in the museum's main square.

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Louvre opens to Islam – Libération

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