Rome - Italian parliamentarians gave Wednesday final approval to a package of security laws including harsher penalties for illegal immigrants who commit crimes and speedier expulsion procedures for people entering the country illegally.

With 161 votes for to 120 against, parliament's upper house, the Senate, passed the legislation which had been tabled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition. There were eight abstentions.

Berlusconi won elections in April promising a tougher stance on law and order issues and on illegal immigrants, who many Italians blame for an increase in crime.

Rome  - Italy's upper house of parliament, the Senate, passed Tuesday a bill which protects the country's top officials from prosecution, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The bill, propounded by Berlusconi's conservative coalition, was approved by 171 votes for to 128 against with six abstentions.

It is now set to become law having won approval in both houses of parliament. The lower house Chamber of Deputies passed it on July 11.

Rome  - Italy's top appeals court upheld Monday a sexual assault conviction by ruling that "jeans cannot be compared to any type of chastity belt."

The Court of Cassation contradicted its own controversial decision of almost a decade ago, when, in a similar case, it ruled that a woman wearing jeans could not claim to be raped.

Monday's ruling dealt with an appeal by a 37-year-old man convicted in 2005 of sexually molesting his girlfriend's teenage daughter by inserting his hands in her trousers.

The man claimed his alleged victim had consented to his sexual advances by unbuttoning her jeans to allow him to fondle her.

Rome  - Italian parliamentarians approved Wednesday a provision to include on all

Rome - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is "deeply optimistic" on ch