Eric J. Lyman

Tapped to fix Berlusconi’s mess, the PM spars with Italy’s endemic rot.

Today, as debt costs soar, the new Italian Prime Minister puts his job on the line for change.

For those who chronicled Berlusconi's colorful career, his exit from office Saturday was tinged with regret.

Analysis: Amid debt crisis, Berlusconi's departure leaves a big mess for his successor.

Craxi, also mired in scandal, was the most polarizing figure in Italian politics, until Berlusconi.

The defection of a key ally. New sex scandals. Charges of tax fraud. The collapse of Pompeii. A new trash crisis in Naples. Has Silvio Berlusconi used up the last of his political nine lives? Italy’s central bank warns end of country's economic malaise is still far away. Hollywood star calls the prime minister “idiotic.”

The Italian prime minister, wracked by a new set of scandals, calls for new elections. Berlusconi helps push a law that would fine bloggers for "incorrect facts." A weekly Italian news magazine threatens to publish a list of openly gay priest. And a distraught mother, apparently worried about her two teenage sons, called the cops on a nude 26-year-old female sunbather.

Berlusconi controls many outlets, but Italian law also contributes to restrictions on press freedom.

Delegates to the Copenhagen conference say they live energy efficient lives — at home, anyway.

The American former exchange student and her family sob as she is found guilty of murdering her roommate.