ROME – It wasn't the charges of tax evasion, bribery, influence peddling or even paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl that brought down Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
On Tuesday, Europe's fast-growing debt crisis claimed its latest victim in Berlusconi, who has led Italy for 11 of the past 17 years. He vowed to resign after shepherding the country's economic austerity package through Parliament, creating at least some short-term relief for Europe's fourth-largest economy.
