Palermo, Sicily - A Sicilian mafia boss caught in a massive police sweep against "Cosa Nostra" has been found hanged in a prison cell just hours after his arrest.

The 52-year-old Gaetano Lo Presti was among more than 90 mafiosi nabbed during police raids in Sicily and Tuscany on Tuesday.

An investigation was underway Wednesday on how Lo Presti managed to commit what appears to have been a suicide in Palermo's Pagliarelli prison late on Tueday night, officials said.

Rome - Italy's main opposition centre-left Democratic Party was reeling Wednesday following the arrest of several prominent local politicians linked to alleged cases of corruption.

The Corriere della Sera daily reported that police in Naples served house arrest orders to Ferdinando Di Mezza and Felice Laudadio, two councillors in the city's centre-left local government. They are respectively responsible for urban heritage and housing in the southern city's municipality.

The orders stem from a probe into the awarding of a 400 million euro (548 million dollars) maintenance and catering contract to a local firm, Global Services.

Turin, Italy  - Fiat is set to revive another old name, the Topolino or "Little Mouse," which it is planning to launch as a new mini car in 2010, Germany's auto-motor-sport magazine reports.

The Topolino, built between 1936-1955, is considered the predecessor to the Fiat 500 - another name which the Italian company has revived with the new retro-look Fiat
500.

Rome  - Roma's Montenegro striker Mirko Vucinic was sanctioned with a simple yellow card Tuesday for taking off his shorts as he celebrated his winning goal in his side's 3-2 win over Cagliari.

Vucinic, 25, scored the winner after a series of mistakes and raced in his underwear toward Roma's fans stronghold in the south curve of Rome's Stadio Olimpico.

His act triggered criticism from many commentators, including Sergio Campana, the president of the Italian footballers association (AIC).

Rome - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday it needs some 5.2 billion dollars in donor funding to provide aid to some 98 million hungry people in 2009.

"As we take care of Wall Street and Main Street, we can't forget the places that have no streets," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement from the Rome-based agency.

She was referring to the appeal which WFP says is a "fraction" of what is being proposed in financial rescue packages to address the global economic downturn.

Munich - An Italian restaurant operator won a lawsuit Tuesday against a German book author who claimed he was a mid-level boss in the 'Ndrangheta organized-crime network in Calabria.

Journalist Petra Reski said she was told by a senior Rome policeman that the Italian, who used to run a pizza bar in the central German city of Erfurt, was under suspicion as a mobster.

But the court in Munich said this could not be proved.