Sarkozy and Berlusconi are demanding European deportation pacts with the countries of revolutionary north Africa to send migrants home. Sarkozy and Berlusconi want passport-free travel within the EU suspended as north African migrants flee north. France and Italy have thrown down the gauntlet over Europe’s system of passport-free travel, saying a crisis of immigration sparked by the Arab spring... 

Large numbers of north African migrants have been landing on Italian shores. Authorities in France temporarily blocked trains from Italy in an attempt to stop north African migrants from entering the country. Trains were stopped at the border for hours – prompting Italy to launch an official complaint with France. Services were later resumed. Italy has angered France by giving temporary resident... 

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini on Tuesday said comments made by a fellow minister about dropping out of the European Union were made during the heat of the moment amid a spat over illegal immigration. “I don’t think he said anything about leaving Europe. He expressed strong disappointment , irritation and anger. Europe is and will be an extraordinary opportunity for us,”... 

Ms Mussonlini's stinging comments will cause further controversy around EU immigration policy. Mussolini’s granddaughter has lashed out at France’s ‘socialist’ First Lady Carla Bruni for not doing enough for illegal immigrants. Alessandra Mussolini, an Italian MP and granddaughter of the country’s Second World War fascist leader, said Ms Bruni should welcome Africans displaced... 

The wave of immigration follows the January revolution in Tunisia. Nearly 350 Tunisians have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, after a week in which poor weather had interrupted the flow of people fleeing the country. “Overnight, we escorted a boat with 347 people on board, including four women,” said the island’s coast guard. The last landing from Tunisia was on February 23, when around... 

Tunisian immigrants are guarded by policemen upon arrival on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Italy faced criticism in the European Union on Thursday (24 February) for raising the alarm about a potential wave of refugees from Libya, with several governments saying Rome’s calls for help in dealing with migrants were exaggerated. EU justice ministers were meeting in Brussels yesterday to weigh... 

A Tunisian woman crosses into Tunisia at the Ras Jdir border crossing, after fleeing unrest in Libya. Up to 1.5 million refugees from North Africa could try to flee across the Mediterranean, Italy warned on Thursday as the government begged for help from the EU in dealing with the potential exodus. Roberto Maroni, Italy’s interior minister, said the worst case scenario could see 1.5 million migrants... 

Tunisian immigrants are guarded by policemen upon arrival on the Italian island of Lampedusa. A state of emergency has been declared by the Italian government after 5,000 illegal immigrants fleeing riot-torn Tunisia arrived in just five days. Coastguard officials said that in just one 12-hour period 977 had arrived, with many more boats seen on radar screens approaching from north Africa. The vessels... 

The lobby of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia. Osama Mustafa Hassan, a radical Islamist opposition figure better known as Abu Omar, was snatched from a street in Milan in 2003 in an operation coordinated by the CIA and the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI. An Italian court upped the sentences for 23 CIA agents convicted in absentia of abducting an Egyptian imam in... 

Demonstrators fight with police officers during anti-government clashes in Rome today. Protesters set fire to cars, threw paint and smoke bombs at the Italian parliament and clashed with riot police today in Rome’s worst violence for years after prime minister Silvio Berlusconi survived a confidence vote. Via del Corso, the main street stretching through the historic centre, near Mr Berlusconi’s... 

Mr Berlusconi, whose comments in support of Mr Sarkozy follow his stated opposition to a multi-ethnic Italy. Italy’s conservative premier Silvio Berlusconi has given his full support to France’s controversial decision to forcibly repatriate thousands of Roma people to Eastern Europe. And in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, he appeared keen to exploit the row by calling... 

Mosques in Italy will not receive a share of income tax revenue the Italian government allocates to religious faiths each year. Hindu and Buddhist temples, Greek Orthodox churches and Jehovah’s Witnesses will be eligible for the funds, according to a bill approved by the Italian cabinet in May and still must be approved by parliament. Until now, the government had earmarked 8 percent of income... 

A beggar on the streets of Venice. The Italian remarks come hot on the heels of Roma expulsions in France. Italy has said it intends to expel citizens from other EU states if they are not able to support themselves, in a move apparently inspired by France’s current crackdown on Roma. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told daily newspaper Corriere della Sera on Saturday (21 August) that French... 

Free Speech? A Rome court has sentenced a man to six months in jail for having posted a list of 162 academics on his blog and describing them as members of an alleged “Jewish lobby.” In a verdict handed down Thursday, Paolo Munzi, 42, was convicted of defamation. But he was acquitted of having violated privacy laws and a law against instigating racial hatred. In February 2008 Munzi posted... 

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was punched in the face at the end of a rally on Sunday by a man holding a small statue in his hand, leaving the 73-year-old media mogul with a bloodied mouth and looking stunned, police said. The 42-year-old man accused of attacking Berlusconi in Milan as he signed autographs was immediately taken into custody. TV showed the leader with blood under his nose, on...