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ROME — Italy ’s confused election campaign took another twist Friday with the country ’s respected national anti-Mafia prosecutor joining ranks with the center-left Democratic Party , a big-name boost for a party that is already leading in the polls ahead of the February vote . A day earlier, Premier Mario Monti got an even bigger endorsement for his potential candidacy from the Vatican newspaper after winning a not-so-subtle thumbs up from the pope himself on Christmas Day . Almost left behind in the jockeying was Italy ’s most colorful politician , Silvio Berlusconi , who was on the front pages of Italy ’s leading daily Friday for an entirely other reason. Corriere della Sera revealed details of his divorce settlement with his second wife Veronica Lario , showing that he must pay her €3 million ($4 million) a month. He gets to keep the house, however. Italians vote Feb. 24-25 in general elections after a yearlong experiment with Monti ’s technocratic governmen...

NOIDA : Even though Noida Authority on Thursday cleared nearly 90 acres of encroached land from three major sectors in Noida , they have failed to take action against land mafia who have encroached upon at least 100 acres of green belt at a prime location near Sector 74 where thousands of housing units are being developed. Authority officials had claimed that they would soon raze the encroachments, but so far no action has been taken. The Noida Authority on Thursday had flattened nearly 90 acres of encroached government land valued at about Rs 10,000 crore from three major sectors in Noida , but it appears officials are less bothered about the green belt in the city. A TOI team had recently visited Sector 74 and found that the green belt was heavily encroached on. Even construction work was being undertaken on some of the plots. When the issue was raised before the Noida Authority OSD Manoj Rai , he had said that a team would be sent to conduct a probe and demolish illegal...

Skulduggery amid the gently sloping vineyards of Tuscany sent an estimated £10 million worth of one of Italy’s most celebrated red wines gurgling down the drain A Tuscan vineyard between Castellina and Poggibonsi in Italy   Saboteurs broke into the cellars of the Case Basse winery in the middle of the night, turned on the taps of the giant wooden casks in which the wine was maturing, and let more than 62,000 litres of prized Brunello di Montalcino drain onto the ground. The resulting virtual lake of wine represented 80,000 bottles, each of which can sell for 170 euros or more — a total estimated value of more than 13 million euros. The nocturnal raiders did no other damage to the estate’s “ cantina ”, nor did they steal anything, deepening the mystery and suggesting that it was less a random episode of vandalism and more a deliberate act of spite. The raid wiped out the last six vintages of the 6.5 he...

Italy 's highest court on Tuesday ruled that a court in Palermo had wrongly dragged President Giorgio Napolitano into a probe on alleged negotiations between the mafia and the state following deadly gangland bombings two decades ago. The constitutional court said it had accepted Napolitano's argument that wiretaps of him speaking to a former interior minister about the mafia investigation could not be used in the case and should have been destroyed immediately. The ruling takes pressure off Napolitano, seen as the guarantor of Mario Monti's technocrat government , who is likely to play an important role in the formation of a new government after elections expected in March. The 87-year-old president risked being weakened by the case which drew negative coverage of him in some domestic newspapers . A ruling against Napolitano would have marred his mandate, which ends early next year, by linking him with one of the most notorious epis...