Italy's president has accepted the resignation of Premier Enrico Letta after he was sacked by his own Democratic party in a back-room mutiny.

Economic growth across the eurozone was stronger-than-expected at the end of 2013, according to official figures, raising hopes the recovery is gaining a foothold.

Italy, beset by yet another government crisis, cannot afford political instability at a time when it needs to make its economy more competitive, the chairman of eurozone finance ministers said yesterday.

Italian Premier Enrico Letta says he is resigning after a party rival withdrew crucial government support.

Northern eurozone countries may seek to use financial incentives to push nations in the rest of the region to adopt economic policies they say are needed to shake off the legacy of the sovereign-debt crisis.

Emergency crews were working to reach remote parts of flood-ravaged Sardinia today after a torrential rainstorm killed at least 16 people, collapsed bridges and swept cars away.

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.

Eurozone jobless numbers this week may lay bare a fault line scarring the region’s recovery, as evidence of Germany’s employment muscle contrasts with the political quagmire destroying work in Italy.

Over the past few weeks, Italy has been back at the heart of events.

Senior German officials will travel to the US “shortly” to talk to the White House and the National Security Agency about spying allegations, including how chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone was allegedly monitored by the NSA.

European leaders united in anger at a summit overshadowed by reports of widespread US spying on its allies, which German chancellor Angela Merkel said had shattered trust in the Obama administration and undermined the crucial transatlantic relationship.

HE’S the great Houdini of world politics. Buffeted by scandal, convicted of corruption, abandoned by allies, Silvio Berlusconi has been written off countless times over the two decades in which he has dominated Italian politics — and each time he made a miraculous escape from the political dead.

Silvio Berlusconi should lose his Senate seat due to his tax fraud conviction, a Senate committee has recommended.

Next year will be crucial for the EU. Citizens will elect a new European Parliament, which will vote for a new president of the EU Commission. There will be a new president of the European Council and a new high representative for foreign and security policy.

Italian centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi promised to support prime minister Enrico Letta in a confidence vote yesterday, staging a U-turn only days after he provoked a crisis by pulling his ministers out of the government.

Silvio Berlusconi has been defeated in his attempts to bring down the Italian government, announcing his party will vote to support the coalition of premier Enrico Letta, in a major U-turn.

Several of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s top aides are defying him in his bid to collapse Italy’s coalition government, a rare challenge to his authority.

Silvio Berlusconi yesterday faced dissent within his People of Freedom Party, complicating his plans to bring down prime minister Enrico Letta’s coalition government.

Italian prime minister Enrico Letta was meeting the president last night to try to chart a way out of a deep political crisis after Silvio Berlusconi pulled his ministers out of the government and called for new elections.

Italy’s fragile coalition government has been pushed into a full-fledged crisis after ministers from former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s political party announced their resignations.

Italy’s Senate president says nearly all the senators of Silvio Berlusconi’s party have vowed to resign if the former premier is ousted from Parliament for his tax fraud conviction.

Italy’s government says it is committed to reducing the budget deficit to an EU limit this year even as it faces the hurdle of a deeper economic slump.

An Italian journalist and a Belgian national who were kidnapped in Syria in April have been freed.

Italy’s fractious ruling coalition struggled to bridge differences over a housing tax that threatens to create a new crisis for a government already severely strained by the legal turmoil surrounding Silvio Berlusconi.

Silvio Berlusconi: House arrest most likely outcome.

A defiant Silvio Berlusconi has told a cheering crowd of thousands that he is innocent of tax fraud despite a ruling by Italy’s high court confirming his guilt and four-year jail term.

Top Silvio Berlusconi aides are manoeuvring to win a presidential pardon so the ex-premier can avoid a prison term and ban on holding office, with one loyalist warning of possible “civil war” unless punishment for his tax-fraud conviction is lifted.

Italy’s fragile coalition government, already struggling to contain deep divisions over tax and economic policy, woke up to a whole set of new problems yesterday after Silvio Berlusconi’s conviction for tax fraud was upheld by the supreme court.

Writer William Congreve, who died in 1729, warned us that “heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned”.

Italy’s supreme court upheld a jail sentence against Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud in a devastating blow to the former prime minister that could throw the country’s fragile coalition government into crisis.

Italy’s highest court has upheld ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s tax fraud conviction but ordered a review of a five-year ban on public office that was part of the lower court’s sentence.

Thirty-nine people were killed and around 10 injured when a bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in what Prime Minister Enrico Letta described yesterday as a huge tragedy.

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would not flee Italy and was ready to go to jail rather than face house arrest or community service if a court upholds his conviction for tax fraud next week.

Italy’s highest criminal court has defended its decision to bring forward former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s tax fraud appeal saying it had to move quickly before the statute of limitations expired.

Silvio Berlusconi’s lawyers and allies cried foul after Italy’s highest court set a remarkably quick July 30 hearing date for his tax fraud appeal

Greece has three days to reassure Europe and the International Monetary Fund it can deliver on conditions attached to its international bailout in order to receive the next tranche of aid, eurozone officials said.

David Cameron is today hoping for a show of unity over Syria from the world’s most powerful nations after a late-night showdown at the G8 summit in the North.

David Cameron is today hoping to kick off the G8 summit in Northern Ireland with progress on a free trade deal between Europe and the US which he believes could “turbo-charge the transatlantic economy”.

The Italian government has adopted a series of measures aimed at boosting the economy, including releasing €3bn for infrastructure projects projected to create 30,000 new jobs.

To listen to some European leaders, especially in France, you would think austerity was over and the eurozone was going full steam ahead to revive economic growth.

Romans went to the polls yesterday to elect a mayor of Italy’s capital in a vote which could have repercussions for the fragile national government of prime minister Enrico Letta.

Prosecutors in Italy have called for a six-year prison sentence and a lifetime ban on holding public office for Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister charged with abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor.

The ECB is expected to lower its interest rate today possibly to 0.5% in a further bid to kick-start growth and take the eurozone out of recession.