RESET

The way has been cleared for early elections in Italy, after the speaker of the Italian senate was unable to raise enough support to change voting rules blamed for much of Italy's political instability.
The political crisis followed the collapse of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left government last month. It is now up to the president to dissolve parliament and call early elections, likely to be held by mid-April.
While many leaders had expressed support for a change in voting rules, senate speaker Franco Marini said he could not rally "a significant majority on a precise project for an electoral reform," which would have required the forming of an interim government to push through the changes.
After days of talks with parties, conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi and his allies firmly rejected the possibility of any transitional government before a return to the polls.
Berlusconi is hoping for a new stint in power. He last served as Italy's premier from 2001-2006, and polls suggest the center-right would win an early vote.
Berlusconi said he was willing to open talks on reform with the center-left -- but after the elections.
"I think this is a truly irresponsible act, this is not what the country needed," Emma Bonino, EU affairs minister under Prodi, said, citing the risk of paralysis during the electoral campaign.
Italy's current proportional-representation system is blamed for fostering instability by giving small parties what critics say is excessive weight.
Prodi resigned Jan. 24 after a small centrist party yanked support,