A strong earthquake rocked a rural area about 50 miles south east of Rome, but authorities said reports indicated no damage or injuries.

A Romanian airliner "bounced" off the runway while landing at Rome's main airport during heavy winds, injuring a flight attendant and four passengers.

A moderately-strong earthquake has rattled much of north-central Italy, including Milan skyscrapers, but first reports indicate there are no injuries or major damage.

Divers searching the capsized Costa Concordia last night pulled out the body of a woman in a life vest and retrieved a safe and documents belonging to the ship's captain.

OWNERS of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship last night said “preliminary indications” suggested the captain may have been guilty of “significant human error”.

Coast guard divers searching the submerged part of the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia today found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, authorities said.

Economist Mario Monti won some pledges of support today to lead a new technocratic government to rescue Italy from financial disaster, but not from the Northern League, a long-time ally of Silvio Berlusconi.

A train carrying Tunisian immigrants from Italy was halted at the French border today in an escalation of an international dispute over the fate of North African migrants fleeing political unrest for refuge in Europe.

Silvio Berlusconi’s spokesman said today the Italian leader spent a better night in hospital, four days after he was hit in the face by a mentally ill man.

A man punched Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in the face at a rally in Milan and the leader was whisked away in a car after falling to the ground, according to news reports in Italy.

A computer expert testified today in the murder trial of an American student and her former Italian boyfriend that someone had used the young man’s computer, which the defence said might have erased data that could prove his innocence.

Italy announced its first swine flu victim – a 51-year-old Neapolitan man with chronic heart problems, who died in a Naples hospital this morning.

Italian firefighters said a section of a false brick ceiling collapsed at a high school near Turin and that one student was killed and 20 were injured.

An American student suspected in last year’s killing of her British flatmate Meredith Kercher proclaimed her innocence again today during a hearing in Perugia to decide if she must face trial.

Italian police have captured the top boss of the powerful 'ndrangheta organised crime syndicate whose clan feuds have bloodied the southern region for years.

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.

Hundreds of police raided a small town in southern Italy today, burrowing through a secret tunnel and searching homes as they arrested more than 30 suspected members of organised crime clans believed to be involved in a feud that claimed the lives of six Italians in Germany earlier this month.

Hollywood royalty Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married tonight in a torch-lit Italian castle.

A powerful earthquake flattened buildings in central Indonesia early today, killing at least 2,900 people and injuring thousands more in the country’s worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami.

Centre-left leader Romano Prodi said today he intends to govern Italy for the full five years of Parliament’s term, and said Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s refusal to acknowledge that Prodi won the elections is “not my problem, it is his.”

Elections pitting Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition against centre-left forces led by Romano Prodi were too close to call tonight after projections showed Berlusconi’s forces leading in the Senate but running neck-and-neck in the lower Chamber of Deputies.

A man climbed on to the side of the dome of St Peter’s Basilica today, and an Italian news report said it appeared he was threatening to jump.

Italian police captured the suspected killer of a policeman in a shoot-out today in which a young woman was briefly held hostage near Rome’s Circus Maximus.

A German aid ship which has sailed southern Mediterranean waters for three weeks in search of a haven for its passengers, including 36 Sudanese seeking asylum, was blocked by Italian coast guard motorboats from docking at a Sicilian port.