Italian president scrambles for new gov't as premier quits

Italian president scrambles for new gov't as premier quits

ROME -- Italian President Giorgio Napolitano embarked on frenzied negotiations for a new government Thursday after the shock resignation of Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

Prodi resigned Wednesday after his center-left coalition lost a Senate vote on foreign policy, including Italy's military deployment in Afghanistan, forcing the president to scramble to save the situation in a drama reminiscent of Italian politics of the 1980s and 1990s, when governments sometimes changed every few weeks.