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Italy's government said on Wednesday it had approved new measures to beef up online security and protect critical infrastructure from increasing cyber assaults.Attacks on computer security have risen significantly in recent years, the government said, citing data from the information technology organization Assinform indicating that 40 percent of attacks take at least four days to resolve.

Mario Monti said Wednesday that sacrifices his technocrat government imposed on Italians had "improved conditions" not only in their own country but across Europe. Mr. Monti, who resigned as prime minister last month and is competing in next month's general election, said Italian politicians in the past often "promised illusions" that in practice meant "ending up with taxes, and debt, and sovereign debt crises."

 Fabrizio Corona, Italy’s most famous paparazzo, reportedly emerged in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, after a Europe-wide arrest warrant was issued for him. 

Judges hearing ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's sex-for-hire trial on Monday pushed back the verdict and the sentencing in the case until after Italy's Feb. 24-25 national election. Prosecutors, meanwhile, pressed to make sure they can give their closing arguments, which include their sentencing demands, before the vote, in which Berlusconi is heading a center-right coalition.