Italy's public administration, struggling to curb costs to try to balance the budget, is notoriously slow in settling its bills to private companies that provide it with goods and services and has accumulated a debt of more than 80 billion euros.

Vice President Joe Biden is in Rome, where he is leading the U.S. delegation that is attending Pope Francis' inaugural mass on Tuesday.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised a wave of protests if a center-left candidate was elected to succeed President Giorgio Napolitano, as the stalemate after last month's deadlocked elections deepened on Monday.

The economic crisis and the desire for change are the two factors that inspired the Cardinals to choose Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Now more than ever before, the Catholic church has demonstrated that it is in step with the times. Far more in step than Italian political parties and institutions, as the most recent elections so unfortunately demonstrated.

Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers are seeking to have trials where he is charged with tax fraud and having sex with a minor moved to the city of Brescia from Milan, where they say he cannot get a fair hearing, legal sources said on Friday.

Italy's newly elected Parliament was heading toward political gridlock as it convened Friday for the first time after elections gave no party a clear victory.The normally routine inaugural duty of electing leaders of both houses was locked in a stalemate — auguring badly for the establishment of the stable government needed to keep the eurozone's third-largest economy on a straight fiscal path while introducing growth measures to bring Italy out of recession and get more Italians back to work.