Motion against minister blow to Berlusconi

ITALY’S opposition said yesterday it would present a no-confidence motion against one of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s most loyal ministers, in another blow for the already wounded premier.

Culture Minister Sandro Bondi has so far dismissed calls to step down over the collapse last Sunday of the 2,000-year-old House of the Gladiators in the ruins of ancient Pompeii, buried by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

He was forced to acknowledge that more buildings at the UNESCO world heritage site south of Naples may collapse.