Silvio Berlusconi: Former Italian Premier sentenced to jail in wiretaps case

MILAN—A Milan court on Thursday convicted former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of breach of confidentiality for the illegal publication of wiretapped conversations related to a failed bank takeover in a newspaper owned by his media empire.

The court sentenced him to one year in jail, but issued no orders on the carrying out of the sentence. In Italy, it is rare for anyone to be put behind bars pending a possible appeal except in the case of very serious crimes like murder.

FEMEN Protest Berlusconi: Topless Activists Strip During Italian Elections At Polls

Three topless feminists lunged at Italy's Silvio Berlusconi as he arrived at a polling station in Milan to vote in a general election on Sunday, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

The young women had the slogan "Basta Berlusconi" ("Enough With Berlusconi") scrawled on their backs.

They were quickly detained by police and dragged away screaming in a chaotic scene as ordinary people also queued to vote at the school.

Police struggled to put their jackets and handcuffs on the women as they writhed in the snow.

The feminists broke through a line of journalists outside the polling station and jumped over some tables toward Berlusconi but did not reach him.

The scandal-tainted Berlusconi is leading a centre-right coalition in the election and polls indicate he will come second to the centre-left.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: Agence France Presse

Italian Elections: Nation Goes To Polls In Vote Seen As Crucial For Economic Future

ROME — Will Italy stay the course with painful economic reform? Or fall back into the old habit of profligacy and inertia? These are the stakes as Italians vote in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies.

Fellow European Union countries and investors are watching closely, as the decisions that Italy makes over the next several months promise to have a profound impact on whether Europe can decisively put out the flames of its financial crisis. Greece's troubles in recent years were enough to spark a series of market panics. With an economy almost 10 times the size of Greece's, Italy is simply too big a country for Europe, and the world, to see fail.

Berlusconi Defends Mussolini For Supporting Hitler At Holocaust Memorial

ROME — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi praised Benito Mussolini for "having done good" despite the Fascist dictator's anti-Jewish laws, immediately sparking expressions of outrage as Europe on Sunday held Holocaust remembrances.

Berlusconi also defended Mussolini for allying himself with Hitler, saying he likely reasoned that it would be better to be on the winning side.

The media mogul, whose conservative forces are polling second in voter surveys ahead of next month's election, spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony in Milan to commemorate the Holocaust.

Berlusconi’s centre-right bloc may stop supporting Monti government

ROME—Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday his centre-right bloc may withdraw its support from the government of Mario Monti, a move that could throw Italy into political chaos ahead of next April’s national elections.

“We have to recognize the fact that the initiative of this government is a continuation of a spiral of recession for our economy,” Berlusconi told a news conference in northern Italy a day after he was convicted and sentenced to four years for tax fraud related to his Mediaset media empire.