Polls open for Italian election

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Italians began voting Sunday in parliamentary elections pitting media mogul and conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi against center-left leader Romano Prodi in what has been a close race and a rancorous campaign. Skies were sunny across much of Italy as polls opened for the first of two days of voting. The first exit poll results are expected after polling stations close at three p.m. Monday, with first partial results hours later. During the night, three Molotov cocktails were thrown against a school that houses a polling station in the northeastern town of Vittorio Veneto, and fliers found at the scene denounced both coalitions, the news agency ANSA reported. No one was hurt and the polling stations opened as planned in the morning, ANSA said. Calls to police were not immediately returned.