ITALY:
Crisis Over, 5-Year Plan Back on Track
Susan Biggin
VENICE--Last week, a government crisis put an eagerly awaited 5-year plan for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in jeopardy. Italy's 1998 budget--of which the ASI plan is a part--would have been shelved if the government had fallen. But after 5 days, the Communists who had left the coalition government returned, and the government won a vote of confidence from Parliament, putting the budget and ASI's plans back on track.