A top executive at a German steelmaker has been convicted of murder for a 2007 plant blaze that killed seven workers in Italy.

ELUANA ENGLARO, the comatose accident victim at the centre of a right-to-die drama gripping Italy, died yesterday as lawmakers debated a bill to force doctors to restore her life support.

AN Italian clinic said yesterday it would take in a woman who has been in a coma for 17 years whose family is seeking to have her life ended, as the Roman Catholic Church kept up pressure to keep her alive.

New Italian Premier Romano Prodi outlined his centre-left government’s programme today.