ITALY’S embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a vote of confidence in parliament yesterday, saving his centre-right government from collapse.

Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has split with a key political partner but insists his government is not at risk.

PREMIER Silvio Berlusconi faces a significant test in regional voting to be held across Italy tomorrow and on Monday — and danger is all around him.

HE has emerged from the fringes of a neo-Fascist party to position himself as the heir apparent to Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Politicians supporting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hope to bring in new laws that could cut short his pending trials on tax fraud and corruption, it emerged today.

A COMBATIVE Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed yesterday to govern with “even more grit” after Italy’s top court lifted his immunity and he dismissed corruption charges against him as “laughable”.

Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi urged the country to close its borders to Romanian workers and a conservative ally called for the expulsion of tens of thousands of immigrants as the nation grappled today with public outrage over a wave of violent crimes blamed on foreigners.

Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini will ask the government to grant asylum to an Afghan man who had faced the death penalty in his home country for converting from Islam to Christianity, the Foreign Ministry said today.

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.

World leaders have today welcomed the adoption of Iraq’s new constitution, but some observers cautioned that the country still faces major obstacles on its path to stability.

Italy’s foreign minister said today that an Italian hostage in Afghanistan is all right, and that contact had been initiated by her kidnappers.

Italy’s president has asked Silvio Berlusconi to form a new government, two days after the conservative media mogul stepped down as Italy’s premier following a crushing defeat in a regional election.

Italy is unhappy with American investigators’ plans to clear US troops of any responsibility in the killing of an Italian security agent in Iraq last month, Italian newspapers reported today.

The US military decided to speed up its inquiry into why American troops opened fire on a car carrying an Italian journalist rescued from insurgents in Iraq, killing the Italian intelligence agent who had helped save her.

Italy’s foreign minister today accepted that US troops killed an Italian intelligence officer by accident, but disputed Washington’s version of events and demanded a comprehensive investigation.

Gianfranco Fini, a right-wing leader who has turned his party from Neo-Fascist to mainstream conservative, was appointed Italy’s new foreign minister today.

FIRST she left her right- wing party, furious about its leader’s denunciation of Italy’s fascist past.

THINK local, act global could be the motto of some politicians when it comes to the European Union.

ITALIAN prime minister Silvio Berlusconi desperately fought to save his coalition government last night.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi appears headed for victory in a confrontation with his EU partners over his appointment to a key panel of a man who once called Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini ‘‘the greatest statesman’’ of the 20th century.

Seven years after his first, stormy tenure, media baron and conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi was tonight poised to get his chance to govern Italy again.