Italian justice minister survives confidence vote

ROME (AP) Italy's justice minister survived a no-confidence vote Wednesday after insisting to lawmakers that she didn't abuse her position to win the release of a family friend from jail.

Annamaria Cancellieri has been under pressure to resign following revelations that she called court officials to tell them that the family friend was in ill health. Cancellieri also acknowledges calling the woman's companion to express sympathy after her arrest for alleged false accounting.

Cancellieri has said she regrets the phone calls, but insisted in remarks to Parliament ahead of Wednesday's vote that she had not pulled any strings to win Giulia Ligresti's release.

Cancellieri survived the vote by 405-154. She has the support of President Giorgio Napolitano and Premier Enrico Letta, who sought to ensure support for Cancellieri by linking the confidence vote to the survival of his government.

The motion was brought by the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement founded by former comic Beppe Grillo, and it had divided Letta's center-left Democratic Party.

Ligresti is the daughter of Salvatore Ligresti, an insurance magnate who is under house arrest, also on charges of false accounting and market manipulation.

Cancellieri said she called penitentiary officials on Aug. 19, about a month after Giulia Ligresti was placed in pre-trial custody, to pass along information about the woman's health. But, Cancellieri said, "the situation was already known to the judges and the penitentiary officials."

Giulia Ligresti was released to house arrest on Aug. 28 and subsequently made a plea bargain with prosecutors.

Turin prosecutors have said they won't investigate Cancellieri for wrongdoing.