Italians cast ballots in final day of voting

Italians had a final day of voting today to deliver a verdict on conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul who failed to jump-start a flat economy in his tenure as the nation’s longest-serving premier since the Second World War.

Trying to end the flamboyant Berlusconi’s tenancy in the premier’s office was Romano Prodi, an economics professor and former European Commission president who defeated him for the premiership in 1996.