Italy's justice minister said Wednesday he was resigning following a corruption probe involving his wife, putting further strain on Premier Romano Prodi's shaky government, the Associated Press reported. However, the resignation by Clemente Mastella, head of a small centrist party, was not expected to bring down the 20-month-old center-left government. Mastella told lawmakers he was «throwing in the towel,» addressing parliament hours after Italian reports said his wife had been ordered under house arrest. «I am resigning to be more free, from a political and personal point of view,» Mastella said. «I am resigning because between the love of my family and that of power, I choose the former.» Italian news reports said his wife, Sandra Lonardo Mastella, a top official for the southern Campania region, was ordered to remain under house arrest during a probe into alleged corruption in the health care system in the city of Caserta, near Naples. Lonardo Mastella denies any wrongdoing and said she had not received any formal notification of a house arrest order, according to the ANSA news agency. Her husband called it a «violent and unfair attack» and described the move as yet another attempt to discredit him for his efforts at reforming the judiciary.
