Italy, Silvio Berlusconi | featured news

Silvio Berlusconi's corruption trial ended Saturday with a court ruling that the statute of limitations had run out, handing the former premier another victory in a long string of judicial challenges.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi resigned today after parliament's lower chamber passed European-demanded reforms, ending a 17-year political era and setting in motion a transition aimed at bringing the country back from the brink of economic crisis.

Italy's Senate approved economic reforms intended to reverse a collapse of market confidence on Friday, kicking off a rapid transition that will end the era of Silvio Berlusconi and clear the way for an emergency government within days.

Italian borrowing costs reached breaking point on Wednesday after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's insistence on elections instead of an interim government opened the way to prolonged instability and delays to long-promised economic reforms.

It is up to Silvio Berlusconi to keep Italy from becoming another Greece and plunging the world into an even more devastating financial crisis.

As markets continued to hammer Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi rebutted calls for his resignation, saying Italy’s economic fundamentals were strong.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tried on Tuesday to calm fears that Italy could be swept into a full-scale financial crisis and the opposition pledged to smooth the passage through parliament of tough debt-cutting measures.

Silvio Berlusconi's defense lawyers on Tuesday named George Clooney, the Italian foreign minister and a bevy of showgirls as witnesses at the premier's upcoming prostitution trial, an attorney and news reports said.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, his popularity plummeting as he faces a string of legal cases, appeared in court for the first time in eight years on Monday.

Italian prosecutors say that the Italian leader paid for sex with an under-age Moroccan teen 13 times.