[Quest:] Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There is more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment. This is CNN, and on this network, the news always comes first. A magistrate has granted bail to the South African track star Oscar Pistorius in the amount of $112,000. Pistorius, who is accused of killing his girlfriend, must report to police every Monday and Friday. The magistrate said the prosecution had failed to make its case that the Olympian was a flight risk if bail was granted. Tensions are on the rise in the West Bank where hundreds of Palestinians have been clashing with Israeli forces on Friday. The protesters are demanding the release of hunger strikers being held in Israeli prisons, and Israeli forces reportedly fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. Leaders from Syria's opposition coalition have been meeting in Cairo for a second day and have been talking about forming an interim government. Members of the opposition say a new government is important, and Thursday's bombing in Damascus is another sign that the al-Assad regime does not have a handle on security. Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has held talks with President Obama at the White House, where they discussed actions against North Korea and trade links between Japan and the US. After the meeting, Mr. Obama warned forced spending cuts in the US will slow down the economy if they come into effect at the end of the month.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] The overall impact to the economy will be to slow down the recovery, and not only may there end up being direct job loss, but because the economy is softer, it also means that we're not going to be driving down unemployment as quickly as we should. So
[Quest:] This weekend Italy is set to choose the leader whose task it will be to bring the country out of recession and continue the reforms demanded by the European Union. Polls open this Sunday and Italians have been handed a colorful palette, a varied cornucopia, a variety of candidates. Now I promise you for a Friday, this is complicated. Bear with me. I promise you. Here we go. The contenders: so we have the we have the Chamber of Deputies and we have the Senate. And so when you need a majority of 630 of deputies and then a chamber of 315 Senate. Now Pierre Luigi Bersani is the Democratic Party from the center left. He keeps austerity; he keeps pro-growth and all of those. Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister from the People of Freedom, center right, he would scrap the property taxes, being prime minister three times before. Mario Monti is the civic choice center. He is responsible for most of the current austerity. And then Deputy Grillo, the five-star movement populist. He's a former comedian and actor, and he's anti-big business; he's the and he would like a referendum excuse me on the euro. So the only thing I've promised you here is that there are many possibilities and lots of difficulties. Let's start with Bersani. So Bersani gets a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and, as is perhaps possible, he gets one in the Senate. That would be arguably the most straightforward. But assume he doesn't get enough deputies in the Senate to actually get a majority and he has to start shopping around for coalition. Now we're in coalition territory. Well, first of all, it would be Mario Monti, who perhaps would join him because Monti, of course, similar prospects; austerity continues. But if he's still not got enough, you end up with Silvio Berlusconi. Now the possibilities there, unlikely, bearing in mind the animus. But it is possible. And finally if all of this isn't quite working out as it was intended, you have Grillo, who is arguably going to demand some sort of price for going into coalition. Finally, if none of them manage to get a coalition together, then eventually, of course, the Italian president has no choice but to call fresh elections and we're back to square one. Whoever wins will take control of a country enduring its longest recession in 20 years, double-digit unemployment. As Ben Wedeman found out, this bleak new reality is putting pressure on some of its oldest industries.
[Unidentified Male:] That's lifting up.
[Ben Wedeman, Cnn Correspondent:] Clay in the hands of an artist slowly becomes a work of art in the Umbrian village of Deruta.
[Unidentified Male:] This is so difficult.
[Wedeman:] But he makes it look so easy. For 25 generations, the family of Ubaldo Grazia has been making and selling luxury ceramics. It's a family business with a colorful history, going back hundreds of years.
[Ubaldo Grazia, U. Grazia Maioliche:] The apprentice and the women, this is the [inaudible]. Look, recognize. That's my grandfather on the [inaudible].
[Wedeman:] He looks like an artist.
[Grazia:] Oh, yes, Grand, he was a womanizer.
[Wedeman:] A womanizer, too. Times have turned tough here since the start of the global economic crisis. The factory's most important market for almost 100 years has dried up.
[Grazia:] From Los Angeles, July 1926. Look, our from Los Angeles, California, Tony Duaio, 1926.
[Wedeman:] It says, Blake, Washington,
[D.c. Grazia:] Washington, D.C. Yes, unbelievable, unbelievable.
[Wedeman:] Ubaldo can drop names.
[Grazia:] [Inaudible].
[Wedeman:] Oh, really?
[Grazia:] Yes. [Inaudible] friend of Paul Simon. [Inaudible].
[Wedeman:] Of Simon and Garfunkel?
[Grazia:] Simon and Garfunkel.
[Wedeman:] OK. So Mel Gibson, Simon and Simon, Paul Simon. Who else?
[Grazia:] This is [inaudible] George Clooney. Look.
[Wedeman:] High-end stores in the U.S. have stopped placing orders and Ubaldo has had to cut his staff from 75 to 15. Italy is just days away from general elections, reviving the ailing economies topic number one but faith in politicians is low. Now I wanted to ask you, you know, Italians are famous as artists, as creative people.
[Grazia:] Very creative, yes.
[Wedeman:] Are your politicians as creative as your artists?
[Grazia:] It could be, but no, no. No.
[Wedeman:] Why? Why? I mean, so in so many smart people in Italy. What
[Grazia:] Oh, I know. I know [inaudible]. But when the people got just working for themselves to take advantage of their position. I mean, we lost everything. We have to be a good citizen to be good politician.
[Wedeman:] Recent generations of the Grazia family have leaned toward the left. Ubaldo says he'll vote for the center left Democratic Party.
[Grazia:] In this factory, we used to have [inaudible] instead of the [inaudible]. We used to have a gym.
[Wedeman:] Palestra.
[Grazia:] Palestra for the workers. They had showers. At home they even didn't have the bathroom. But they had showers in the factory.
[Wedeman:] Wow.
[Grazia:] This means to be socialist. [Inaudible].
[Wedeman:] Italians are famous for their ability to thrive in adversity, political and economic. And despite the hard times and his 73 years, Ubaldo isn't giving up or slowing down. Anybody painting now?
[Grazia:] Of course. Let's [inaudible]. Let's go. [Inaudible].
[Wedeman:] A family's centuries-old legacy is at stake Ben Wedeman, CNN, Deruta, Italy.
[Quest:] Our team is in Rome and in Italy coverage the elections; the results when they are announced on Sunday. Talking of results being announced on Sunday, gosh, that was smooth, if ever it was one. The Oscars are on Sunday. Now, look, if you haven't got your invite, you're not going. Never fear; our QUEST MEANS BUSINESS Movie Awards are even closer. They're after the break.