ITALY: Ciao, Silvio! Berlusconi Says No To 2013 Run; FinMin Tremonti May Step Down Over Corruption.

                                  BBC
Good news for Italians and women, perhaps.
PM Silvio Berlusconi,74, wants former justice minister Sicilian Angelino Alfano, 40, to run instead in the 2013 election.
When asked if he would run for re-election again...Berlusconi said: "absolutely not".

"I will campaign and I will help Angelino. I will act as 'patron'," he said.


AND: Italy's economy minster Giulio Tremonti (below), critical to Italy's financial condition because of his fiscal discipline, may be linked to a corruption scandal.
A judge issued an arrest warrant for a close associate, Marco Milanese.

 Reports also say he is isolated in Silvio's cabinet.
"He is the only minister who is not a team player," Berlusconi said of Tremonti. "He thinks he's a genius and everyone else is stupid," he added. Which, analysts say, bodes ill for Italy's bonds. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/08/us-italy-tremonti-idUSTRE7674CR20110708

ITALY: 14 June UPDATE: Electorate Shouts"Niente"...For Silvio's Laws; Rejects All 4 Proposals...In Humiliating Defeat.

LINK CHANGE/ GUARDIAN / J. HOOPER

In what the media are calling " a political earthquake"...4 legislative proposals were soundly rejected by Italians...humiliating PM Silvio Berlusconi.

Berlusconi wanted voters to boycott the polls...but 57% of the electorate turned out for the referendums.

Almost 95% voted against the four pieces of legislation...including a personal one concerning a recent law that permits Berlusconi and others to avoid attending court hearings by claiming "legitimate impediment", such as overseas duties or cabinet meetings.

Also dead...Berlusconi's desire to restart Italy's atomic energy program...and ambitious water privatisation plans.

ITALY: 31 May UPDATE: A "Slap In The Face" For Silvio...As He Loses Naples And Milano Elections.

  

LINK CHANGE/ REUTERS


   PM Silvio Berlusconi's coalition lost local elections in four major cities...including Milano and Naples.
   His party was also ousted in Trieste, Novara and Gallarate.
   The center-left even won in Arcore, the tiny town where Berlusconi’s huge estate is located and site of many sex parties, so-called "bunga bungas"...were held.
    But especially painful was the loss of Milano...a Berlusconi stronghold...for 18 years.
    Minister Roberto Maroni called the vote was a "slap in the face" to the government.
    Previously, Berlusconi said to lose in Milan was "unthinkable" and called the city election a referendum on his leadership.
    The business newspaper Il Sole 24 wrote: "What happened in Milan, Naples, Trieste, Cagliari, Novara and other centers resembles a revolution." 
------------------------------------------------
 How humiliating for the ever randy anciano Silvio!
 But then he must be getting used to embarrassment.

ITALY: Berlusconi Plays The Race Card In Milano's Mayoral; Warns Of "Gypsytown."

BBC/

   PM Silvio Berlusconi hates to lose.
   He apparently will do anything to ensure his candidate's victory in Milano's mayoral run-off.
   So he has trotted out the race card...warning that Milano would be turned into "Gypsytown" if his candidate, incumbent Mayor Letizia Moratti, is defeated.
   "Milan cannot turn into an Islamic city, a zingaropoli [Gypsytown] full of Roma camps, besieged by foreigners to whom the left wants to give the right to vote," Berlusconi posted on his website.
   Immigration is a big issue in Italy now as thousands of migrants arrive from upheavals in North Africa.
   Moratti must win another round after being beaten in the first vote last week.

ITALY: Silvio Suffers Electoral Setbacks.

BBC/

   The allies of Italy's much ridiculed aged lothario PM Silvio Berlusconi suffered serious setbacks in local elections.
    His PDL party came in second in his supposed stronghold Milano, forced for the 1st time in 20 years...into a run-off.
    Aides reported that Berlusconi was "surprised and saddened" by the results.
    "The run-off in Milan is humiliating for Silvio Berlusconi, who turned the result into a referendum on both him and his government and has received a slap in the face both personally and politically," said columnist Massimo Franco.

ITALY: In Milano's Mayoral Race...Berlusconi Acts Like It Is...All About Silvio.

NYTIMES / ELISABETTA POVOLEDO/ Thursday Re-post

     "In her campaign posters, Letizia Moratti, the mayor of Milan and the candidate backed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in an election this weekend, clearly has top billing. Yet she has been regularly, and intentionally, upstaged every time he has come here to campaign for her.
     Weakened by scandals and a wobbly coalition cobbled together from politicians of various stripes, Mr. Berlusconi has been trying to turn the mayoral campaign into a personal referendum on his popularity and legitimacy. The vote in Milan “will be the biggest boost to our government and our majority,” he recently told supporters. “This vote has meaning for Milan, but also for Italy.”

ITALY: Berlusconi's "Bunga-Bunga" Inquiry Continues; Pimping Charges Sought For 3.

GUARDIAN/ J.HOOPER

    The Berlusconi sex soap opera never stops.
    Prosecutors in Milano now want former dancer turned dental hygienist Nicole Minetti ( pictured) and two others to be put on trial...charged with pimping 33 young women...for the notorious bunga-bunga parties at PM  Berlusconi's home.
   Minetti denies any wrongdoing.
    As do the two others accused: Emilio Fede, a news presenter on Berlusconi's TV channels and show business talent scout Lele Mora.
   A judge will set a date for proceedings to decide whether the 3 accused should be sent for trial.

ITALY: Berlusconi Back In Milano Court...For Media Corruption Case.

BBC/

    PM Silvio Berlusconi returned to court in Milano over corruption charges in a Mediatrade case.
    Outside the courthouse, he called charges against him "pure invention"...and attacked prosecutors.
   "There is something which is not going in the right direction for a democracy to have government leaders humiliated by having to spend hours in court while these important international events are taking place", he said.
    Prosecutors claim Berlusconi inflated TV rights prices...skimming the difference to fund political activities.
    Berlusconi is also charged in three other cases.

ITALY: More Belusconi "Bunga-Bunga" Details Emerge.

TELEGRAPH/ N.Squires

  Isn't the internet grand?
  It's so easy to quickly link to the latest gossip about Italy's Silvio Berlusconi.
  And...there always seems to be something new revealed.
  Now...new claims that ever-randy aged lothario Berlusconi pressured two 18-year-old models, Chiara Danese and Ambra Battilana (pictured above), to take part in an "indecent" game with a statue of the fertility god Priapus...or their careers would suffer.
   "If you want to go, fine, but you can forget about entering Miss Italy or becoming TV weather girls," a Berlusconi associate allegedly warned them.

ITALY: Berlusconi Shows Up In Court And Defends $87,000 Gift To Ruby The Heart Stealer.

DAILY MAIL.UK/ CAUTION:
  Typical D.Mail FOTO rich coverage...with saucy images.

   Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi claimed that he gave nearly $87,000 usd to Moroccan belly dancer Karima El Mahroug, aka "Ruby the Heart Stealer," to help to help her set up a beauty salon andprevent her from turning to prostitution.
   Outside court In Milan, Berlusconi defended his actions where he was called as a witness in a nearly six-year-old tax fraud trial.

ITALY: New Details Emerge About "Ruby" And Berlusconi's Bunga Bunga Parties.

GUARDIAN

    Milano's prosecutors have released salacious new details about PM Silvio Berlusconi's sexual relations with Karima El Mahroug, aka Ruby, when she was still 17 or perhaps...even 16.
    They charge that Berlusconi paid Ruby 13 times and also allege that 33 women took part in the PM's erotic parties at his villa near Milan.
   Berlusconi denies the charges.
   "I am 75 years old", he told La Repubblica.
   "And even if I am a rascal, 33 girls in two months seems to me to be too many, even for a 30-year-old. It's too many for anyone."
     The prosecutors also want indictments against three Berlusconi associates: TV presenter Emilio Fede, celebrity agent Lele Mora and former show girl Nicole Minetti.

ITALY / LIBYA : 24 Feb UPDATE: Berlusconi's Close Friendship With Gadhafi Tarnishes Rome's Image; Are Italian Arms Slaying Libyans?

BLOOMBERG / Flavia Krause-Jackson /

   Italy and PM Silvio Berlusconi's tattered reputations really don't need more challenges.
    But it appears that Berlusconi often went out of his way to court brutal dictator Gadhafi even agreeing to pay $5 billion usd over 25 years for reparations and treat his visits like royalty.
     In return, Libya invested in Italian companies including Fiat SpA, UniCredit SpA and the Juventus soccer team, while oil company Eni SpA got free rein there leaving Italy reliant on Libya for a quarter of its crude oil.
“With hindsight, the more slavish manifestations of deference could have been avoided,” said Italian professor Franco Pavoncello. “He(Berlusconi) went out of his way, more than others, to be best friends with Qaddafi. He can’t exactly take it all back now.”
        ----------------------------------------------------------
  Now, apparently, the pigeons are coming home to roost...and poop... on Silvio and Italy.
     -------------------------------------------------------------
LATEST UPDATE: On the booming arms trade between Italy and Libya. Some believe that Italy is the main supplier of military products to the Libyan regime and those weapons and equipment are now being used to kill citizens. "We can conclude that the Gadhafi government has been using helicopters to suppress the protests. And we know that since 2006 Italy has been selling dozens of military helicopters to Libya. Arguably, it's those that are being used.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/italy/110223/libya-protests-weapons?page=full

ITALY: Milan Judge Orders Trial For Belusconi On Prostitution Cover-up; Ruby The Heart Stealer Steals Some Limelight... In Lingerie.

LATIMES/ H. Chu/

   In a major setback and the biggest challenge in 17 years for PM Silvio Berlusconi, Milano Judge Cristina Di Censo ordered him to stand trial in April for paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl and using his influence to get her released from police custody after a robbery arrest.
   Berlusconi has denied any wrongdoing and blames left-wing judges and his political foes for his woes.
A Berlusconi attorney said of the judge's decision in Milan: "We expected nothing different" -- apparently alluding to the fact that the judge, Di Censo, is a woman.
      All three judges scheduled to hear the trial are women.
      Berlusconi could face up to 15 years in prison. He reportedly has at least 80 lawyers working on his case.
 The trial could last two months but does not require that he attend.

ALSO: Cashing In On Celebrity: Ruby's Not Shy!  Ruby the Heart Stealer, the girl connected with Berlusconi's alleged minor sexual relation charge, stars in an ad campaign for a book--- in her underwear.

    The book is “Il Labirinto Femminile”, written by Alfonso Luigi Marra, a lawyer and former MEP for Forza Italia.

AND: A Long Profile of Karima El Mahroug, aka stage name Ruby Rubacuori, or Ruby Heartstealer -  who claims she was a child victim of rape and abuse, in and out of care since running away from home at either 12 or 14 years old.
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12473645

ITALY: 14 Feb. UPDATE: Thousands Of Women March, Shouting Down Silvio Berlusconi And Sleaze.

LINK CHANGE/ NYTIMES/

   Rome's Piazza del Popolo filled with 50,000 women and some men protesting against PM Silvio Berlusconi, the aging lothario caught up in a sex scandal, and the accepted general sleaze of current Italian culture.
    There were banners reading "Italy is not a brothel."
   Sunday's protests were titled - Se non ora, quando?/ If not now, when?
    Similar protests were also held in Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Lyon and Toulouse in France, and  Tokyo and throughout Italy..
    The Guardian reported: "There are lots of us," said one protester. "But we're not visible. The privately-owned TV channels, which belong to [Silvio] Berlusconi, and all but one of the [state-owned] RAI channels, manipulate the news. So people know nothing, or only half, of what is happening."
     Another said she had come to the demonstration to protest at "the spread of a warped idea of relations between men and women. I want a society in which women are judged on merit and not on their degree of availability to men." Other protesters had a simpler agenda, namely being fed up with the present government.
   Bloomberg reveals that a recent poll showed that 61% want Berlusconi to resign.
  One protestor said: “People have been anesthetized by this man.”

ITALY: 09 Feb UPDATE: Berlusconi Lashes Out; Q And A : Silvio's Criminal Jeopardy; Fotos Of A Nude PM Berlusconi With Girls Starts Media Bidding Frenzy.

BLOOMBERG/

     PM Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers are trying to quash the publication of photos allegedly showing the 74-year-old nude with young women.
    The Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper noted a bidding war among “several weeklies and specialized agencies” for the rights to publish “a scoop that may change the country’s political history.”

LATEST UPDATE:
   Berlusconi lashed out at the Milan prosecutors who want him to be put on trial immediately for sex-related offences.
   "It's a disgrace. It's disgusting," said Berlusconi. "I'm sorry that we have offended the dignity of, and thrown mud at, the country. I wonder who is going to pay for this activity whose only aim is subversive."
   He said it would be the taxpayer who paid because "I shall attempt to sue the state."
   ALSO: The BBC posts some questions and answers about beleagured aging lothario PM Berlusconi's legal jeopardy in the Milano bribery case.
" Milan prosecutors have asked a judge to bring Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to trial. So does this mean that Italy's longest-serving post-war leader will stand in the dock accused of abuse of power and paying for sex with an underage girl?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12403119

ITALY: Another Under Age Teen Disclosed In Berlusconi Sex Scandal; Drug Evidence Also Revealed.

TELEGRAPH/

    Another underage female, a then 17-year-old Brasilera Iris Berardi (pictured), has been revealed as a participant in PM Silvio Berlusconi's alleged sex parties by Milano prosecutors.
   Berardi was said to have attended a party at Porto Rotondo, in Sardinia, on 21 November 2009 - just a few days before her 18th birthday.

ALSO: Josephine McKenna describes some of the salacious revelations in the nearly 400 page dossier compiled by Milano prosecutors.
“The girls would take their clothes off and leave their breasts exposed,” one unidentified guest told prosecutors. “Once undressed, they would take turns going up to Berlusconi who was seated on the sofa and rub themselves up against him or let him touch them.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/italy/110126/silvio-berlusconi-sex-parties

AND:  There was also new evidence that almost 3kg of cocaine were found last year in the cellar of a flat allegedly provided free of charge to one of Berlusconi's guests, Marysthell García Polanco, at his villa outside Milan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/27/silvio-berlusconi-drug-allegations-scandal

ITALY: Berlusconi Berates TV Host, Calling Program A "Brothel."

TELEGRAPH/ With  :49 Video In Ital./

   PM Silvio Berlusconi called a live TV talk show and traded insults with its host Gad Lerner, calling the program a "brothel".
   "I've been watching a disgusting show, conducted in a despicable, vile and repugnant way," Berlusconi said.
   "The reality that has been represented here is the opposite of the truth and I feel insulted," Berlusconi said. "I know what I'm saying, you don't," he told Lerner. He also urged his ally in the studio of independent channel La7 to leave this "incredible TV brothel".
    Berlusconi, 74, has so far refused a summons by Milan prosecutors in an investigation for allegedly paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl and covering it up.

ITALY: 19 Jan UPDATE: President Says Italy "In Turmoil" Over Berlusconi Probe; Wiretap Transcripts Leaked.

LINK CHANGE/ BBC/

    More revelations about P.M. Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media lothario that we love to loathe, as Italy's president says his nation is "in turmoil" over recent accusations.
    Transcripts of wiretaps have quoted the then 17-year-old Karima El Mahroug, aka Rubi Rubicouri (pictured right), as saying she asked Berlusconi for hush money, perhaps $6 million usd, and was told by him that she would receive "as much money as you want" if she kept quiet.
    Milan prosecutors allege in a 385 page report that Berlusconi had sex with a "significant" number of women, some underage, for money at his residence near Milan.
    Also that Berlusconi provided free apartments for women at a Milan housing complex that he built in the 1970s before he entered politics.
    "You can't even imagine what goes on there," said one woman after a party at Berlusconi's residence. "The papers say a lot less than the truth, even when they massacre him."
     Another woman was reported as saying: "You are either ready for everything or you get a taxi and leave."
     The P.M. denied having ever paid for sex and said his parties were "tranquil".

    Also, current Lombardy official, Nicole Minetti (pictured above), formerly Berlusconi's dental hygienist, is alleged to have recruited "a significant number of young women, who prostituted themselves with Berlusconi". Minetti denies the allegations.

ITALY: Berlusconi Under Scrutiny In Teen Prostitution Ring Probe.

GUARDIAN/

   An Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reports that prosecutors in Milan will investigate whether P.M. Silvio Berlusconi called police to help a then 17-year old dancer be released from jail -- to hide his own use of underage prostitutes.
   The Moroccan girl - stage name Ruby Rubacuori (pictured) - was being questioned over theft allegations when Berlusconi called the police on her behalf.

 OPINION/COMMENTARY/ ANNALISA PIRAS: "...all likelihood Silvio Berlusconi has nothing to fear from what he describes as his "platonic" friendship with Ruby Rubacuori.
 AND:  "The Italian justice system is shamefully slow and renowned for its inefficiency. For those with money and political influence, there are infinite delaying tactics to reach the statute of limitations."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/silvio-berlusconi-scandals 

ALSO SEE/HEAR : Italian singer Carmen Consoli's song about Berlusconi and child sexual abuse called  “Mio Zio,” / my uncle ...in a live performance last summer with Patti Smith ( 6:36).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY7WjWcPNYo&feature=player_embedded

ITALY: Tweet Revenge As EU Screens Display Berlusconi Attacks.

GUARDIAN/
   The EU's huge TV screens in Brussels were taken over for two hours by thousands of negative tweets trashing Italy's PM Silvio Berlusconi as Europe's 27 leaders were meeting there over the eurozone debt crisis.
    Among the angry tweets were charges of pedophilia and : "Berlusconi pays for sex, for votes, for mafia protection, for everything he can buy. What he cannot buy will be stolen;" and "Berlusconi is a mafioso but he make laws for be not judged."