ITALY: Moving to a Shootout

In the smoke-filled salon of a 17th century Roman palazzo, Italy's Christian Democrats last week battled for the future of their strife-torn, dispirited party. After five hours of tense debate, party leaders finally emerged with a plan of action, a marked change after the vacillation and near paralysis that have gripped the governo diparcheggio, or "parking-meter government," slapped together two months ago under Premier Aldo Moro. They would make one last—and probably foredoomed—try to cooperate with the other parties on emergency economic measures. If that failed, they would have to accept the inevitability of an early election—probably this June, a...