ITALY’S most wanted man, the Mafia’s “boss of bosses” Bernardo Provenzano, has been arrested in Sicily after 43 years on the run.

Italy’s parliamentary election hung in the balance today as the country counted ballots cast for six new senate seats by Italians living abroad.

POPE Benedict XVI made an official visit to the Italian president yesterday, just two weeks after the Roman Catholic Church was accused by some of interfering in an Italian referendum on assisted fertility.

Pope Benedict XVI made an official visit to the Italian president today, just two weeks after the Roman Catholic Church was accused by some of interfering in an Italian referendum on assisted fertility.

Italian voters today faced an intensely debated decision on assisted fertility in the second day of a referendum on proposals that would end a ban on embryo research and on donation of eggs and sperm.

ITALIANS started voting yesterday on whether to loosen assisted fertility legislation, after weeks of intense campaigning that has pitted the Vatican against those who say the law hurts scientific research and infringes on reproductive freedom.

Italy’s emotional battle over whether to relax restrictions on assisted fertility treatment went to the ballot box today.

Pope Benedict XVI met with the Italian president today in the first formal audience for a head of state since he was elected pontiff.

Silvio Berlusconi was sworn in as premier of Italy’s 60th government in as many years today, after naming a team of ministers that closely resembles the one he led until stepping down days earlier during a power struggle with allies.

Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi formed a new government today, presenting a list of ministers to Italy’s president.

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’s president today began a second day of talks with party leaders on a future government, after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi as Italy’s premier.

ITALY’S president began a round of crisis talks between the country’s leading political figures yesterday aimed at averting early elections after the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The Italian president began talks with party leaders today on a future government, a day after Silvio Berlusconi resigned as Italy’s premier.

Alessandra Rizzo, Rome

Premier Silvio Berlusconi handed the president his resignation today and pledged to form a new government to strengthen a coalition weakened by a sluggish economy and opposition to Italian involvement in Iraq.

POLITICAL confusion deepened in Rome last night when Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi contradicted earlier expectations that he was about to resign and form a new government by saying he had not stepped down.

Political confusion deepened in Rome tonight when Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi contradicted earlier expectations that he was about to resign and form a new government by saying he had not stepped down.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi held last-minute talks today with the leader of a rebel centrist party in hopes of patching up divisions that have brought his four-year government to the brink of collapse.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi was expected to meet Italy’s president today to discuss his government’s future after a key allied party bolted his centre-right coalition, plunging it into crisis.

Hundreds of people packed a Rome church today to pay their last respects to an Italian intelligence officer shot and killed by American troops in Iraq while escorting a former hostage to freedom.

Thousands of mourners, from Italy’s president to ordinary citizens, streamed past the caskets of 19 Italians killed in Iraq, paying their respects today to the victims of Italy’s worst military disaster since the Second World War.

A state funeral for 18 Italians killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq will be held on Tuesday in a Rome basilica, officials said.

THOUSANDS gathered in the square outside Turin’s 15th century cathedral yesterday for the funeral of Fiat king Gianni Agnelli, many having waited overnight to catch a glimpse of the billionaire tycoon’s coffin.

Authorities in Italy working through seismic aftershocks today made final preparations for a mass funeral for 29 victims of Thursday's earthquake.

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.