BREAKING NEWS

Italian newspaper draws criticism with "Mein Kampf" giveaway

MILAN- An Italian newspaper has been criticized for distributing free copies of an annotated version of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" with a paid supplement to Saturday's edition.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Twitter that Il Giornale's decision to give away the copies of the Nazi leader's political treatise was "squalid" and expressed solidarity with Italy's Jewish community.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was quoted as telling Corriere della Sera it was unprecedented for a newspaper to use "Mein Kampf" to boost sales, while the ANSA news agency quoted Israeli Embassy sources as expressing surprise.
But Il Giornale, a center-right daily owned by the family of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, said the decision to distribute the edition of the text, which includes critical notes by an Italian historian, aimed "to study what is evil to avoid its return."