While most soccer-loving fans around the globe will be glued to their televisions next year during the World Cup, restaurants and cinemas around Italy might find themselves extra busy during the summer.

“Let the festival continue” was how the French reacted to Ireland’s win over Italy on Wednesday. And so say all of us.

CHINA: Rules making it easier to file lawsuits in China have led to concerns over frivolous claims, such as one in which a man says actress Zhao Wei stared at him too intensely through his TV set.

The baby is named after Pope Francis.

Dozens of asylum-seekers on a boat that sank near the Italian coast last month with the loss of 366 lives were raped and tortured in Libya before starting their journey, the police said yesterday.

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has emerged from his self-imposed silence inside the Vatican walls to publish a letter to a prominent Italian atheist defending his record on sexually abusive priests and discussing topics from evolution to theology to the figure of Jesus Christ.

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has emerged from his self-imposed silence inside the Vatican walls to publish a letter to a prominent Italian atheist defending his record on sexually abusive priests and discussing topics from evolution to theology to the figure of Jesus Christ.

“Of course Trapattoni would never be sacked. He’s a furbo,” said the butcher in my village yesterday.

Carlos Tevez is expected to complete a £13.5 million move to Juventus later this week.

Cardinal Seán Brady is the latest in a line of cardinals across the world facing criticism from clerical sex abuse victims for being allowed to vote for the next Pope.

Juventus head coach Antonio Conte has won the Golden Bench award after being recognised as the Serie A coach of the 2011-12 season.

Inter Milan’s performance in a 4-1 defeat at Fiorentina was “too ugly to be true”, according to Nerazzurri head coach Andrea Stramaccioni.

The landlord of a pub where a group of English football fans were attacked by 50 knife-wielding Italians has described the ambush.

English football fans have been attacked in Italy by knife-wielding Ultras, leaving two seriously injured in hospital, according to reports.

The Vatican has been hit by further controversy with an Italian newspaper publishing documents claiming that Pope Benedict’s butler was not the only person in possession of confidential correspondence.

The worst crisis in Pope Benedict’s pontificate deepened when Italian media said at least one cardinal was among those suspected of divulging sensitive documents as part of a power struggle at the top of the Church.

The captain of the doomed Italian liner Costa Concordia said he was told by managers to take his ship close to shore on the night it ran aground and capsized, according to bugged conversations leaked in Italian newspapers.

THE deepening divisions in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition over how Italy can meet EU demands for more robust efforts to tame a $2 trillion debt are fuelling calls for early elections.

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is facing new accusations over a prostitution scandal that has added a fresh distraction as Italy struggles to avert a debt crisis which could tear the eurozone apart.

ITALY’S second austerity package in less than a month was met with a chorus of criticism a day after becoming law, with the largest union threatening a general strike over the “injustice” of the measures.

Italy’s government has vowed that its new austerity package will slash the country’s huge bureaucratic costs, with thousands of jobs and local elected posts being gradually eliminated.

THEY are calling it the Italian Spring.

ITALIAN Premier Silvio Berlusconi claims he is too old to have had all the sexual encounters prosecutors accuse him of having.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi claims he is too old to have had all the sexual encounters he is accused of by prosecutors.

DOZENS of naked women surround the Italian prime minister vying with each other to arouse him — Silvio Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” parties as reportedly described to prosecutors by a key participant.

PRIME MINISTER Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday he had no intention of stepping down and dismissed a weekend demonstration by women across Italy over his involvement in a sex scandal.

SORDID details of the grasping ambition of parents of young girls caught up in Italy’s latest sex scandal emerged yesterday as excerpts from wire-taps were splashed over the country’s papers.

Rafael Benitez's agent claims the Inter Milan coach is unfazed by growing speculation in Italy that he will be out of a job before the Serie A season resumes in January.

ITALIANS voiced shock yesterday after violent protests set off by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s narrow victory in a vote in parliament that leaves his government hanging by a thread.

THE Vatican kept up its attack on the Nobel committee yesterday for giving the medicine prize to in-vitro fertilisation pioneer Robert Edwards, saying he had led to a culture where embryos are seen as commodities.

A CORRUPTION scandal, an unpopular austerity budget and a string of government resignations have pushed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s popularity to a new low, a new opinion poll showed.

The Italian press pulled no punches this morning as they dissected the Azzurri’s World Cup failure.

Italy’s media hailed Inter Milan’s heroics today after they eliminated holders Barcelona to reach the Champions League final.

SILVIO BERLUSCONI’S cutting remark about a female rival’s lack of beauty has stirred a rare public backlash from thousands of Italian women who had largely kept silent about the prime minister’s womanising and sex scandals.

REPORTS that 30 women attended 18 parties hosted by Silvio Berlusconi and some were paid to have sex with guests have added to the Italian leader’s problems at a time of speculation that his grip on power may be weakening.

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is launching legal actions against media in Italy and abroad, including Britain, France and Spain, for libel in their coverage of his private life, his lawyer has said.

ITALIAN Premier Silvio Berlusconi joked that he is “no saint“, in his first comments on his sex scandal since a news weekly released what it said were conversations between him and a prostitute.

Under-fire Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi tried to laugh off the increasingly sordid sex scandal enveloping him today, joking that he was "no saint".

THE approval rating of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been dogged by a messy divorce and accusations of cavorting with teenage girls and escorts, has fallen below 50% for the first time.

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private life was back in the spotlight when a leading news group posted audio tapes and transcripts of what it said were conversations with a female escort.

The prostitute at the centre of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s sex scandal today dismissed his claims that he did not know her, saying they spent a night together followed by an “intimate” breakfast.

Silvio Berlusconi has lashed out against an Italian newspaper demanding that the premier explain the nature of his relationship with an 18-year-old.

A VERY public divorce and allegations of being an aspiring teenage model’s “Papi” have put a dent in Silvio Berlusconi’s popularity ratings, says a new poll.

AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi has fuelled speculation Carlo Ancelotti will leave the club this summer by accusing the Rossoneri boss of costing the club the Serie A title this season.

PREMIER Silvio Berlusconi’s second wife, former actress Veronica Lario, is seeking a divorce after 19 years of marriage, citing his reported flirtations with younger women.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s second wife is seeking a divorce after 19 years of marriage and three children, citing his reported flirtations with younger women.

Two Italian newspapers have reported that Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s wife is seeking a divorce.