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Berlusconi's flatpack solution for Italy quake homeless Rome (AFP) April 25, 2009 Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi offered advice to those still homeless after the April 6 earthquake in central Italy, telling them Saturday to go shopping for new furniture at Ikea. "There are still places in hotels and the 1,300 apartments that remain vacant," he said during a visit to Onna village, epicentre of the earthquake that notably devastated the nearby city of L'Aquila. "It's enough to go to Ikea and, with a bit of money, get furniture," he said, the domestic ANSA news agency reported. "I'm thinking now of setting up a way to reimburse such a small amount of money." Berlusconi was in the disaster zone for the April 25 anniversary of the liberation of northern Italy in 1945 by Italian partisans, supported by Allied forces -- one of the closing chapters of World War II in Europe. In the aftermath of the earthquake that killed more than 300 people, the outspoken prime minister raised eyebrows when he sugggested that the 65,000 left homeless should look at their plight as a kind of camping trip. On Thursday, he proposed moving the Group of Eight summit on July 8-10 from the chic Mediterranean island of La Maddalena, off Sardinia, to L'Aquila to help the reconstruction of the medieval city. The idea is subject to approval by other G8 governments. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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