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.

EU officials yesterday warned Italy not to let politics ruin recovery prospects and upset debt markets in a week that could signal the end of Erico Letta’s fragile five-month-old government.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

A prosecutor says Italian politicians were the intended target of a gunman who shot and wounded two policemen in a crowded square outside the premier’s office in Rome.

Italy has finally formed a new government, a coalition of Silvio Berlusconi’s forces and centre-left rivals who forged an unusual alliance to break a two-month stalemate following inconclusive elections.

Italy’s president has appointed Enrico Letta as prime minister, asking him to try to form a government to end Italy’s political paralysis and set the country back on the path of reform and economic growth.

Italy’s borrowing rates hit a new euro-era high today as a global market sell-off reignited fears that the debt crisis will engulf the eurozone’s third-largest economy.

The pope confounded sceptics who had his obituary ready to roll today when he ate a hearty breakfast and silently joked with aides only hours after undergoing surgery to ease another breathing crisis.

Pope John Paul II is recovering in hospital today after being rushed from the Vatican in an ambulance and undergoing a throat operation to ease his breathing, following a recurrence of flu-like symptoms.