In many ways it was the perfect Champions League moment, writes Tommy Martin.

To paraphrase Edmund Burke’s timeless warning — the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing — is probably so well-thumbed that its wake-up-and-smell-the-failure pungency has faded.

Two populist and stridently anti-European Union political groups, both fierce rivals, surged in Italy's parliamentary election at the expense of the country's traditional powers, but neither gained enough support to govern alone, preliminary results showed.

Billionaire businessman Andrej Babis is set to become the Czech prime minister after his populist ANO party scored a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.

Robert Harvey examines the relatively new phenomenon in politics that has seen the rise of the supra-politician promising to save the day, despite their lack of political experience

Red Flag Consulting has disputed businessman Denis O’Brien’s claim he is entitled to know the identity of its client for a dossier of allegedly defamatory material about him, including describing him as “Ireland’s Berlusconi”.

The Czech prime minister has said his government will resign over unexplained business dealings of his finance minister and rival.

AC Milan head coach Vincenzo Montella dedicated his side's win against Fiorentina to club president Silvio Berlusconi.

A Milan judge has ordered former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi to be tried on corruption charges.

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Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is suffering a serious case "aortic insufficiency" and will undergo surgery to replace the valve, doctors said.

Ex-Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has been taken to hospital for scheduled tests after doctors discovered a small irregular heartbeat during an earlier appointment.

 How did a kitschy, carnival performer propel himself to the brink of power in the most powerful country in the world? asks Bernard-Henri Lévy

The highlights, talking points and gaffes from the football weekend

USA: A cloak of invisibility may be common in science fiction but research suggests such a device may be moving closer to reality.

SCOTLAND: A mascot from the first Commonwealth Games held in Scotland almost half a century ago has been uncovered.

Carlo Ancelotti will decide whether or not to manage AC Milan next season on Wednesday, according to club vice-president Adriano Galliani.

Silvio Berlusconi’s acquittal in his notorious ‘bunga bunga’ case has been upheld by Italy’s highest court.

Italian police have searched the homes of several women who attended ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s famed “bunga bunga” parties as part of an investigation into alleged witness tampering during the billionaire’s sex-for-hire trial.

Italy gave us the Roman empire and the Renaissance two of the most influential forces in European history. Has this legacy coloured Italians’ perception of themselves and their place in the world, wonders Marjorie Brennan.

A judge in Milan has shaved six weeks off Silvio Berlusconi’s once-a-week community service helping Alzheimer’s patients, the media mogul’s penalty for a tax fraud conviction.

Italy’s president has resigned, setting off a scramble for a new head of state that will test premier Matteo Renzi’s ability to unite his own bickering party without alienating opposition support for electoral reform.

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An Italian appeals court has acquitted former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in a sex-for-hire case, reversing a lower court conviction that had carried a seven-year prison sentence and a lifetime ban on holding political office.

An Italian appeals court has acquitted former premier Silvio Berlusconi in a sex-for-hire case.

An Italian court has begun considering former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s appeal against a conviction of paying for sex with a teenager at so-called bunga-bunga party at his private villa.

Arsenal may be the team to benefit from Italy’s early exit from the World Cup with under-fire Mario Balotelli prepared to consider a move away from AC Milan, according to his agent.

Silvio Berlusconi’s legal challenge to a conviction of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute has opened as the former premier spent his seventh morning working with Alzheimer’s patients as part of a tax-fraud sentence.

Ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been heckled as he arrived to begin a year's worth of community service at a hospice.

Italian prosecutors say they have arrested a former Silvio Berlusconi aide for allegedly helping a businessman convicted of Mafia association.

Silvio Berlusconi will perform community service working with Alzheimer’s patients, administrators at the centre he has been assigned to say.

Silvio Berlusconi will perform community service for his tax fraud conviction at a centre for the elderly, a Milan court has ruled.

A long-time ally of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi facing the final appeal to his conviction for Mafia association has been detained in Lebanon.

Silvio Berlusconi has asked to serve his one-year sentence for tax fraud helping disabled people, according to judicial sources.

Pope Francis has scored plenty of magazine covers but now he has got a magazine all to himself.

As Matteo Renzi edges closer to becoming the next Italian prime minister, Dario Thuburn looks at his meteoric rise to national politics

Silvio Berlusconi’s political corruption trial has opened in the southern city of Naples, presenting yet another legal challenge for the three-times former Italian premier.

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is being investigated for allegedly attempting to derail investigations into his infamous “bunga bunga” parties.

Silvio Berlusconi has lodged an appeal against his conviction for paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

Italian football is the continuation of politics by other means rather than war.

An Italian court has accused ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his lawyers of tampering with evidence by paying off witnesses in a trial related to his notorious “bunga bunga” parties.

Former premier Silvio Berlusconi has been expelled from the Italian Senate over his tax fraud conviction.

Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has declared a “day of mourning for democracy” as the Senate prepared to vote on whether to kick him out of parliament following his tax fraud conviction.

Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has begged senators not to kick him out of parliament, claiming new evidence proves he did not commit tax fraud, in a last-ditch bid to stave off a vote that could keep him out of public office for years.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was the ringmaster of “bunga bunga” sex parties at his luxurious villa near Milan, giving the go-ahead for young women to perform pole dances and stripteases, according to a court document.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said his children feel persecuted just as Jewish families did in Nazi Germany because he is being hounded by the country’s magistrates who want to eliminate him politically.