ROME - Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is facing his first tests in parliament following two recent stinging electoral defeats and demands by his key coalition partner for an end to Italy's involvement in the military campaign against Libya.

Expedia has started a new advertising campaign in Europe which is the start of it rolling out its Expedia Everywhere strategy. The idea behind it is that it gives more personalised travel services and expands the brand so that it is just not associated with being a place where things can be booked, which is how many people tend to view it at the moment.

NATO says it has lost radar contact with a helicopter drone conducting a reconnaissance flight over Libya, denying that one of its attack helicopters crashed. The military alliance's command centre in Naples, Italy, lost track of the unmanned autonomous helicopter drone at 0720 GMT (1720 AEST), NATO military spokesman Mike Bracken said in a statement.

(ANSA) - Milan, May 20 - A former close aide of Premier Silvio Berlusconi, Marcello Dell'Utri, was acquitted Friday on charges of attempted extortion aggravated by Mafia conspiracy.

(ANSA) - Milan, May 20 - Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini openly "thanked" United States President Barack Obama for his effort to capture the moment of deep political change in North Africa and the Mideast by calling for renewed peace negotiations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

(ANSA) - Rome, May 20 - Al Qaeda has been weakened by the loss of Osama Bin Laden but its threat remains, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said Friday.

(ANSA) - Rome, May 20 - NATO on Friday thanked Italy for its contribution to the international mission in Libya.

(ANSA) - Rome, May 20 - Industrial orders were 8.1% up in March over February and turnover 2% up, Istat said Friday. The order boom was the best result since January 2006. On a year-to-year basis, orders were 21.2% up and turnover 12.2% up.

(ANSA) - Rome, May 19 - Italian youngsters rely on the Web mainly for checking email and keeping up social-network contacts but "are not Web-addicted," according to a survey published Thursday.

(ANSA) - Rome, May 19 - Rumours that George Clooney and Elisabetta Canalis are on the verge of splitting are untrue, friends of the couple told ANSA Thursday. "They're always together. When he's working she follows him onto the set, always surrounded by very tight security, sources very close to the couple said.

     

(ANSA) - Maranello, May 19 - As love affairs go, Ferrari's with Fernando Alonso has already lasted longer than many marriages.  But despite some ups and downs, the passion is as strong as it was when Spain's two-time world champion joined the team in 2010, and both sides have agreed to a five-year contract extension that is sport's equivalent of ''till death us do part''.

An Italian tourist kidnapped in southern Algeria in February is "alive and in good health," Algerian Tourism Minister Smail Mimoune said Thursday.

The minister told a local daily he had received the information on Maria Sandra Mariani "a few days ago".

Mariani, 53, was taken hostage on February 2 by an Al Qaeda-affiliated group.

Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo confirmed Wednesday that his glorious 10-year stint at AC Milan is coming to an end, amid reports Juventus are set to sign him for next season as a free agent.

''I'd already thought about going. It was a mutual decision,'' said Pirlo, whose contract with the newly crowned Serie A champions runs out at the end of this season.

There is still much to do, but after a painful start to the MotoGP season, Ducati can look forward to unleashing their potential with Valentino Rossi finally approaching full fitness.

The nine-time world champion's lack of fitness after shoulder surgery in November has by no means been the Italian team's only problem.

The number of weddings in Italy fell 6% in the two years from 2009 to 2010, Istat said Wednesday.

The decline was a marked increase on the 1.2% average drop seen over the last 20 years, the statistics agency noted.

Lazio, the region around Rome, saw a 9.4% fall while Lombardy, the region around Milan, had an 8% decrease.

 A Lazio regional administrative court (TAR) on Wednesday rejected a suit filed by a consumers rights group aimed at blocking a French bid to take over Italian dairy foods multinational Parmalat.

The court's decision came a day after Parmalat's board unanimously said that the offer being made by Groupe Lactalis SA was "inadequate" and did not reflect the multinational's value.

An Italian police operation on Wednesday exposed the "vast" interests of Mafia clans from the central Sicilian city of Gela in various parts of northern Italy, judicial sources said.

Prosecutors issued 63 arrest warrants in a sweep across Sicily and the northern regions of Lombardy and Liguria.

The alleged mafiosi are suspected of extortion, international drug trafficking, arson and illegal arms possession, judicial sources said.

Italy's top bishop visited Lampedusa Wednesday and praised the Sicilian island's inhabitants for how they had coped with an unprecedented influx of migrants from North Africa.

"Let Italy and Europe not forget Lampedusa," Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said after touching down on this stepping stone between Africa and Europe.

The Morgantina goddess, the Hellenistic statue that was stolen thirty years ago, returns to its home and is receiving visitors. The statue was bought by the Paul Getty Museum in Malibù and returned a month and a half ago to Sicily. It is owned by the Region and is exhibited as of today in the museum of Aidone, a small village in the inlands of the island in the Enna Province.

A Bologna university dedicated to gelato has found a new way to export the much-loved Italian icecream to the world.

Carpigiani Gelato University is offering scholarships to foreigners who take part in Gelato Pioneers, a course that teaches aspiring chefs how to make icecream as well as business skills.

At the end of the four-week course, the ten most talented and motivated students will be reimbursed for

Napoli fans can look forward to taking part in Europe's premier club competition next season for the first time since Diego Maradona graced the southern club.

The only fly in the team physio's ointment is that it is uncertain who will lead the side and their passionate fans in their debut Champions League after a spat between chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis and coach Walter Mazzarri.

Italy's four main mafias "eat up" the equivalent of "15-20%" of the GDP of the southern regions they infest, ex-interior minister Beppe Pisanu said Tuesday.

Pisanu, a top Senator for Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, said "mafia investments and speculation have spread to every economic sector in the Mezzogiorno and

A surprising electoral setback for Premier Silvio Berlusconi's party in its Milan stronghold will not affect the party leadership, national coordinator Denis Verdini told a press conference in Rome Tuesday.

Berlusconi staked a lot of his credibility and vote-catching charisma on the Milan mayoral race for his People of Freedom (PdL) party, turning the contest into a vote on his policies and against the Milan prosecutors he says are hounding him, pundits said.

For the first time in living memory, cherries are maturing at the same time up and down the Italian peninsula, a phenomenon some observers see as a further consequence of climate change.

Italy usually enjoys a two-month cherry season with the harvest gradually moving from the south to the north to traditionally end on June 24, the Feast of St John.

Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi has emeged as the single candidate to replace Jean-Claude Trichet as president of the European Centeral Bank (ECB) later this year.

Finance ministers from the 17-nation euro area unanimously nominated Draghi for the ECB post late Monday at a meeting in Brussels.

AS Roma's France defender Philippe Mexes has said he has signed a deal to play for newly crowned Serie A champions AC Milan for four years starting next season. ''I can make it official,'' the 28-year-old, who has missed the end of the Serie A season because of a knee injury, told France Football.

''I'll be a Milan player for the next four seasons. I'm happy to go to one of the greatest sides in Italy and the world.