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Silvio Berlusconi bloodied but unbowed by attack

Gianluigi — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:18:33 +0000

Like any true heavyweight, Silvio Berlusconi is a bruiser who likes a rumble in the political jungle.

Well now he’s got the scars to prove it.

On his nose, his lips and his teeth, or what’s left of them.

It wasn’t quite a knock-out blow, but his assailant, armed with the most unlikely of coshes, in the form of a miniature replica of Milan’s gothic cathedral, had the upper hand.

Down went the 73-year-old prime minister, floored with one blow that sent him reeling and his not-quick-enough-off-the-mark security staff into a panic.

Silvio Berlusconi was effectively mugged in front of his own bodyguards and supporters.

Berlusconi in propaganda push to sway foreign press

Gianluigi — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:55:07 +0000

The beleaguered Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has ordered a special propaganda unit to “bombard” the foreign press with good news in an attempt to stem the tide of critical headlines overseas.

The media mogul has been infuriated by international coverage of the sex scandals that have beset him.

The Tourism Minister, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, announced yesterday that a group of “young journalists and communications experts” would “monitor all the foreign press, dailies, periodicals and TV, in every latitude from Japan to Peru” and “bombard it with accurate and positive news”.

“The unit will be ready by the end of the month. There’s no time to lose,” she told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “There’s an anti-Italian alliance in this country working against Italy, with the unique aim of discrediting and destroying the Prime Minister.”

Giovanna Melandri, from the opposition Democratic Party, said: “Not content with controlling most of the Italian media [Mr Berlusconi] now wants to run the foreign press, too.”

Alleged Berlusconi tapes released

Gianluigi — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:14:23 +0000

The daily La Repubblica and its sister magazine L’Espresso said the recordings posted on their Web sites Monday were of Berlusconi and Patrizia D’Addario. She has said that an Italian businessman hired her and other women to attend parties at Berlusconi’s homes.

In June, D’Addario told CNN that she had turned the tapes over to a prosecutor in Bari, on the Italian island of Sardinia. Through her attorney, she refused to comment on the authenticity of the excerpts released Monday.

But in a statement carried by the Italian news agency ANSA, Berlusconi lawyer Nicolo Ghedini said the prime minister is challenging the “truthfulness and legality” of the recordings.

“We can only regard the material as worthless, completely false and the result of invention,” Ghedini said. “In any case, the act of its publication is an illegal act in itself, which will need to be pursued, and all legal actions will be taken against any body who publishes such material.”