Rome  - Three days after an earthquake struck central Italy the death toll on Thursday rose to 278 as preparations got under way for a state funeral planned for Friday.

Among the dead pulled from rubble overnight was a 20-year-old student trapped when a university dormitory building collapsed in the city of L'Aquila.

The body of the student, who was also the father of a 7-month-old baby girl, was taken to a police training school barracks situated in the city which is serving as an impromptu morgue.

Rome  - Efforts to find survivors of the earthquake that struck central Italy on Monday will continue through Sunday - three days beyond a previous limit announced by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Wednesday.

"The search to find survivors under the rubble will continue incessantly until Easter (Sunday)," Maroni said during a visit to an operating centre in Rome that is coordinating the rescue work.

Rome - The death toll after the Italian earthquake rose with the recovery of another 22 bodies, to 272, by late Wednesday, according to Italian rescue officials.

The new figure was released after the Italian government announced it would extend rescue efforts through Sunday, three days beyond a previous limit set by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Monday's temblor destroyed scores of buildings in the city of L'Aquila and other nearby towns in the country's central Abruzzo region and left an estimated 20,000 people homeless.

Rome  - Italian lawmakers rejected a bid Wednesday to triple the amount of time illegal immigrants can be detained in holding centres, in a rare defeat for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition.

In a narrow vote, opposition deputies - joined by some members of Berlusconi's own conservative coalition - voted against extending the period from two months to six months.

L''Aquila (Italy), Apr. 8 : Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has advised traumatised earthquake survivors to view living in emergency tent accommodation as like being on a "camping weekend".

His statement is unlikely to go down well with an estimated 17,000 people who have been made homeless by the powerful earthquake which struck the Abruzzo region of central Italy on Monday, with many of them enduring freezing temperatures in tent cities put up by the army, reports The Telegraph.

Rome  - The death count from Mond