Italy on Saturday commemorated the fourth anniversary of a devastating earthquake in and around the city of L'Aquila which killed 309 people and forced tens of thousands to abandon their homes.
Pope Francis marked his first Good Friday with a traditional torch-lit ceremony around the Colosseum in Rome and prayers for a Middle East "torn apart by injustice and conflicts".
Italy was left struggling to form a government after leftist leader Pier Luigi Bersani on Thursday lost his bid to end an impasse created by elections with no clear winner in the eurozone's third-largest economy.
A Muslim-born journalist whose 2008 baptism by Pope Benedict XVI made him Italy's most famous convert announced Monday he was leaving the Catholic Church over the new pontiff's overtures to Islam.
Nibali from Kazakhstan's Astana is 34 seconds ahead of Chris Froome, 37 seconds ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez and 48 seconds ahead of Alberto Contador in the overall ranking.
Britain, Italy and Greece on Sunday said that a claim by a Nigerian Islamist group that it had killed seven foreign hostages appeared to be true, while London denied it had sought to stage a rescue.
Italian leftist leader Pier Luigi Bersani admitted Tuesday he had "come first but not won" key elections and asked parties to help him push through reforms amid a political deadlock that sent markets tumbling.
Italy headed for gridlock and financial markets tumbled with a stalemate in parliament between right and left after critical elections in which the real winner might be a new protest party calling for a referendum on the euro.
Italy on Monday holds a second day of voting in a critical election for the future of the eurozone in which the centre-left Democratic Party is expected to win but fall short of a governing majority.