Topic: Italy

"The distinction between Greece and Italy from the point of view of markets is massively different" than a few years ago, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti told CNBC.

The Greek cabinet approved a draft bill spelling out reforms required by the EU and the IMF on Friday, taking Athens closer to getting a new 130 billion-euro bailout after the prime minister warned the alternative was "catastrophe."

The credit rating agency Standard & Poors has downgraded 34 out of 37 Italian banks it reviewed, citing the italian banking industry and the country's general economic risk  as reasons for the downgrade.

After appearing to be resolved, Greece's bailout is unraveling again. Renewed fears of a Greek default sparked a broad selloff in financial markets Friday.

Greece's largest police union has threatened to issue arrest warrants for officials from the country's European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders for demanding deeply unpopular austerity measures.

A negotiated agreement to provide further aid for Greece is "much better" than a Greek exit from the euro, not just the country itself but for the wider euro zone as well, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told CNBC.

Striking Greek workers denounced a new wave of austerity on Friday as an imposition too far by Europe and the IMF.

European shares ended the week lower after euro zone leaders imposed further conditions on Greece to receive its next rescue package and the country's far-right leader said he could not vote in favor of the bailout deal.

For all the struggles that Greece has gone through to satisfy its demanding lenders, Europe’s troubles are not going away, the New York Times reports.

Greek political leaders said they had clinched a deal on economic reforms and spending cuts needed to secure a second bailout, but euro zone finance ministers demanded more measures and a parliamentary seal of approval before providing the aid.

Greek leaders clinched a long-stalled deal on reforms and austerity measures needed to secure a bailout and avoid a messy default just hours before the country's financial backers were to meet in Brussels on Thursday.

ECB President Mario Draghi pledged relaxed rules for banks taking part in a long-term refinancing operation, boosting hopes that additional liquidity will be injected but played his cards close to his chest on the issue of Greek debt.

Germany expects the Eurogroup to take no decision on a Greek bailout and accompanying bond swap at a meeting later on Thursday, a government official said, as the ground had not yet been laid for a deal.

European shares closed in the green but off their session highs, as Wall Street was broadly flat, with enthusiasm over a deal in Greece on new austerity measures waning.

Greek leaders failed on Thursday to agree on a reform and austerity program, the price of a financial bailout to avoid a messy default, forcing Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos to go to the country's financial backers with an incomplete deal.