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.

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.

Poised with his camera outside Rome’s elegant Hassler hotel, the King of Paparazzi is waiting to get a shot.

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

A US military investigation into the accidental shooting death of an Italian intelligence officer in Baghdad is expected to conclude that the American soldiers generally followed instructions as they fired on the agent’s approaching car, a senior US defence official said.

IRAQI politicians tried again yesterday to end a near three-month deadlock over forming a new transitional government, as the death toll from car bombings targeting police and civilians in Saddam Hussein’s hometown and Baghdad rose to 29.

Italy and the US disagree over the findings of an investigation into the accidental shooting death by US soldiers of an Italian intelligence agent in Baghdad, according to Italian news reports.

Italy was commemorating the victims of mob-related violence today, remembering hundreds of policemen, magistrates and citizens killed by the Mafia.

An administrative court has upheld Italy’s new anti-smoking law, one of the toughest in Europe, Italian newspapers reported today.

Italy’s anti-gay nominee to be the EU’s justice and home affairs commissioner said that he was discriminated against as a Catholic and as a member of Premier Berlusconi’ centre-right government when a European Parliament committee voted against his appointment.

Pope John Paul II led prayers today for the release of two Italian aid workers kidnapped by an armed gang in Iraq, while Premier Silvio Berlusconi urged a united front against terrorism.

Four Moroccans have been arrested in Rome carrying powdered cyanide, maps showing the US embassy and the capital’s water supply network.