A court-appointed expert said today there was not enough evidence to conclude that a murdered British student had been sexually assaulted or strangled, nor was it possible to narrow the window of time in which she was killed.

Arrest warrants for more than 50 people were issued today in a Mafia sweep across Italy targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets, news reports said.

A police officer accidentally shot and killed an Italian football fan today, during a clash between Lazio and Juventus supporters.

An Italian police officer accidentally shot dead a football fan today while trying to break up a clash with supporters of another club at a motorway rest stop, a police chief said.

The mother of a US student suspected in the murder of her British flatmate comforted her daughter in an Italian jail today, the prison’s chaplain said.

Italian police were arresting scores of suspects today in a crackdown on organised crime clans believed to be involved in a feud that claimed the lives of six Italians in Germany earlier this month.

The bodies of three of the six victims of last week’s Mafia killings in Germany have arrived in Italy, as authorities debated how to handle security at the funerals amid fears of new mob violence.

Italy’s caretaker premier Romano Prodi called on his coalition allies to give him airtight support for another government.

Three Italian women were brutally attacked while on a surfing holiday at a Cape Verde resort island, dragged into the woods, and left for dead at the bottom of a hole, according to the single survivor who recounted the tragedy today.

The Italian parliament today resumed voting to elect the country’s new president, but no winner was expected to emerge from the second round of voting as the two political coalitions still had not agreed on a candidate.

Romano Prodi won his first parliamentary battle today when his candidates were elected speakers of the two houses of parliament, despite a bitterly fought race that indicated his centre-left coalition’s difficulty in controlling the Senate.

A bomb blast rocked an Italian base in southern Iraq today, with Italian news agencies reporting at least four people killed and one seriously injured.

Judges began checking tens of thousands of contested ballots today, with Italian politics in turmoil following Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s demand for a recount of rival Romano Prodi’s narrow parliamentary elections victory.

A confident Romano Prodi insisted yesterday that his centre-left coalition’s Italian election victory was on solid ground, but Premier Silvio Berlusconi called the vote fraudulent and demanded the result be overturned.

The reputed boss of the Italian Mafia Bernardo Provenzano maintained his prison silence today as forensic experts searched his hideout and police arrested three men accused of aiding Italy’s No.1 fugitive.

Centre-left leader Romano Prodi said negotiations would get under way soon to choose a new Italian president who will give his coalition the mandate to govern.

Italy’s parliament today appeared to be heading for an unprecedented split between the conservative coalition led by Premier Silvio Berlusconi and one led by his centre-left challenger.

A Cabinet minister resisted calls for his resignation today, after his decision to wear a T-shirt featuring cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad was blamed for sparking deadly clashes at an Italian consulate in Libya.

Italian prosecutors have concluded an investigation into whether Premier Silvio Berlusconi bribed British lawyer David Mills to give false testimony and they intend to seek his indictment on corruption charges, Italian newspapers said today.

Thousands of people filed past the coffin of an Italian priest shot dead in Turkey ahead of his funeral in a Rome basilica today.

The resignation of Italy’s embattled central bank chief has cleared the way for the government to focus on reforming the nation’s scandal-tainted banking industry at a special cabinet meeting today.

Italy’s premier vowed that construction will start on a high-speed rail link in an Alpine valley where clashes continued today between police and demonstrators.

Authorities have arrested three Algerians suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Italy, news reports said today.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who said recently he had been the target of a suicide terror plot, hinted at continuing threats today, saying his bodyguards were nervous because “they always risk blowing up with me”.

An Italian judge is conducting a closed-door hearing today on a request by prosecutors to indict Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges of false accounting, tax fraud and embezzlement in connection with the purchase of TV rights by his media empire, news reports said.

A judge in Milan held an opening hearing today on a request by prosecutors to indict Premier Silvio Berlusconi on charges of false accounting, tax fraud and embezzlement.

Police in Sicily have arrested two suspected mobsters accused of plotting to murder a judge with a car bomb in an attack like the one that killed one of Italy’s most famous anti-Mafia prosecutors in 1992.

Italy’s European commissioner has called a series of explosions in London a terrorist strike against Europe.

Italy’s emotional battle over whether to relax restrictions on assisted fertility treatment went to the ballot box today.

Italy’s image-conscious leader Silvio Berlusconi, who has undergone a face lift and a hair transplant since becoming premier, has begun a diet.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi won a second and final vote of confidence in parliament today, clearing the last hurdle before his new government is fully empowered to rule following a crisis that had raised the possibility of early elections.

FOUR people were indicted yesterday on murder charges in connection with the death of Italian financier Roberto Calvi, the man known as ‘God’s Banker’ because of his close ties to the Vatican, whose body was found hanging in London in 1982, reports said.

Four people were indicted today for the murder of Italian financier Roberto Calvi, a banker with close ties to the Vatican whose body was found hanging under a London bridge in 1982, reports said.

An ally of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi proposed pulling his party out of the government, reports said today, in a new blow for the conservative coalition after a stinging defeat in regional elections.

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi said he would consider calling early general elections after his conservative coalition suffered a stinging defeat in regional ballots this week, reports said.

The College of Cardinals convened in the Vatican today and Italian news agencies reported that it decided that Pope John Paul’s funeral will be held on Friday at 9am Irish time.

POPE John Paul II was nearing death last night as his health suddenly worsened, drawing anguished prayers from Catholics around the world reluctant to accept his historic pontificate was at an end.

The Vatican has dismissed a report by Italian news agency Apcom that the Pope is in a coma as "rubbish".

Pope John Paul II is reportedly not responding well to medication, but he briefly appeared at his studio window to bless the faithful in St Peter’s Square today.

The Italian journalist who was wounded by US gunfire in Baghdad today said she had not ruled out the possibility that troops shot at her car deliberately.

The Italian journalist who was wounded by American troops in Baghdad shortly after she was released by her Iraqi captors denied US allegations that the car she was in was speeding, and described how the agent who had rescued her died protecting her.

Freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena returned to Italy from Iraq on today hours after US troops fired on the car she was in, wounding her and killing an Italian intelligence officer who apparently tried to protect her.

American troops fired on a car rushing Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to freedom after a month in captivity, killing an Italian intelligence officer who helped negotiate her release and wounding the reporter in another friendly-fire tragedy at a US checkpoint in Baghdad.

Doctors were preparing to operate on Pope John Paul II tonight to help ease his breathing problems, an Italian news agency said.