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The housing commissioner of Milan's regional government was arrested Wednesday on accusations he paid €200,000 ($260,000) to mobsters in exchange for an election victory — the latest in a series of scandals involving Italian public officials accused of abusing their power or profiting from their jobs.

Prince William's office says it is reviewing "all proportionate responses" to the planned publication by an Italian gossip magazine of topless photos of William's wife Kate....

An Italian gossip magazine owned by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi says it plans to publish topless photos of Prince William's wife Kate.

Some countries are hard-hit, like Portugal, Greece, and Italy in the case of textiles, but most countries actually come out ahead. So is rising Chinese productivity good? To quote Sam Shakusky, who’s to say? Portuguese workers certainly don’t seem to win from an increase in textile productivity. But most European workers actually come out ahead. What’s more, productivity growth will also almost certainly lead to rising wages in China, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and raising the standard of living considerably in the world’s largest country. That may be the most important factor here.

Scientists have found three well preserved ancient insects frozen in amber - and time - in what is Earth's oldest bug trap. The discoveries of amber-encased insects in Italy may sound like something out of "Jurassic Park" but these bugs are even older than that. They are about 230 million years old, which puts them in the Triassic time period, and about 100 million years older than what had been the previously known oldest critters trapped in fossilized tree resin, or amber.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday the end of the economic crisis in his country was in sight and that the euro zone must not let the single currency become a source of friction between the north and south in the bloc.

Credit rating agency Moody's cuts Italy's standing and warns the country is likely to see a sharp rise in borrowing costs.

Italy said on Tuesday it may want to tap euro zone aid to ease its borrowing costs as finance ministers struggled to convince markets they are getting a grip on the bloc's debt crisis, which a top European Central Banker said could escalate.

Italy and Spain, battling searing market pressure in the euro zone's widening debt crisis, blocked agreement on measures to promote growth at a European Union summit on Thursday to demand urgent action to bring down their borrowing costs.

Italy put forward a proposal at a G20 summit in Mexico on Tuesday for the euro zone's rescue funds to start buying the debt of distressed European countries, and the idea is expected to be discussed at a meeting of leaders in Rome on Friday.