The Serbian tennis player, Jelena Jankovic, surprised even herself last Sunday after she clinched the winner?s title of the Italian Open tennis championships. Jankovic beat the Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, ranked number three in the world, in an impressive match consisting of two sets.

The death of a police office in riots during a Seria A league game between Italian football clubs Palermo and Catania Calcio in Catania has halted all soccer games in the country

The legendary composer, Ennio Morricone, made famous by his works in Spaghetti Westerns, such as, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Fist Full of Dollars, will receive an honorary Oscar in the Academy Award ceremony that will take place in February

Fabio Cannavaro has become the first defender in 10 years, and the third in 30 years, to win the Golden Ball award, the prize for the best European soccer player of the year

Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister, collapsed on the stage while giving a speech at the Montecatini Terme spa resort in the Northern Italy region

Andrea Bargnani is beginning to payoff for the Toronto Raptors who took a chance on the Italian forward with the top pick in the draft

Mario Scaramella, who is most notably known for his work at the Mitrokhin Commission set up by Italian Parliament to study Soviet espionage in Italy during the Cold war, has been allegedly poisoned in a sushi bar in London recently

Italian politicians have been criticized lately. Some opinions state that the Italian Parliament reminds more and more of the circus. There is some truth to the matter and the subject has been treated to its share of sarcastic comments and political cartoons.

As judges continued counting contested ballots, center-left leader Romani Prodi reiterated his confidence in victory, while Silvio Berlusconi still refused to concede. the Interior Ministry said only 5,000 votes were being recounted, instead of 80,000 as was at first thought.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in his final television debate before weekend elections, branded the center-left leader Romano Prodi a "useful idiot" who "speaks like a drunkard". He then complained that opposition had insulted him in every way possible.

An Italian parliamentary commission released a draft report last week which concluded that "beyond any reasonable doubt", the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the main backer of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

The Italian prime minister was one of Bush`s strongest supporters in the run-up to the Iraq war. Italy now has about 2,900 troops in Iraq. He said he tried to contact Middle Eastern Arab leaders to try and get them to help prevent the war by convincing Iraq to cooperate.

The Italian government rallied Sunday to the defense of the head of Sismi, Italy`s military intelligence agency, which is accused of passing bad intelligence to the United States. President George W. Bush cited the claim that Iraq attempted to purchase uranium in Africa during his 2003 State of the Union speech as part of an effort to build support for war.

His case is bringing awareness to the larger problem of how to care for Italy`s aging population.