Italian police say they have arrested five people, including the mayor of a small town, for suspected ties to the local mob.

The condition of an Italian woman at the center of a right-to-die case worsened after she suffered a massive hemorrhage, doctors said Saturday.

A U.S. official said Friday that a deal may be reached soon allowing natural gas from ex-Soviet nations to reach western Europe without crossing Russian territory.

A U.N. agency on Tuesday called for an urgent review of agriculture and biofuel subsidies and trade barriers, saying their removal would increase opportunities for developing countries to take advantage of rising biofuel demand.

Pope Benedict XVI has warned that modern culture is pushing God out of people’s lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities.

Italian troops manned checkpoints and checked vehicles as they deployed Saturday in a crime-ridden, mob-plagued southern area of the country where six Africans were gunned down last month.

Judging from the glamorous parties and store openings in Paris this week, you would be forgiven for thinking the economy is thriving _ prompting some observers to say the fashion industry is fiddling while Rome burns.

Italy’s top criminal court on Thursday upheld the conviction on international terrorism charges of an Egyptian jailed as one of the chief suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, a lawyer said.

A top Vatican official said Tuesday that the world’s financial crisis is the result of the search for short-term profits as a goal in itself _ and an example of what happens when basic rights and the common good are ignored.

Italian police made sweeping arrests against the mob Tuesday, targeting a powerful clan as well as three suspects linked to a recent gangland-style slaying of six African immigrants near Naples, authorities said.