Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has scrapped a planned appearance at a conference on family values in Milan next week, amid reports of encounters with a prostitute and his ties to an under-age Moroccan girl.

As cardinals prepare to elect a new pope, one Catholic community in particular has much at stake – Opus Dei, the ultraconservative movement at the centre of the furore generated by The Da Vinci Code book.

Those in the running to succeed Pope John Paul II are known as the “papabili” – those worthy of becoming Pontiff. Prominent among them are:

POPE John Paul has nominated a new cardinal to oversee the powerful Milan archdiocese, making him the leading candidate to succeed the ailing pontiff.