Berlusconi calls call girl’s sex claims “coordinated mission to malign him”

September 26th, 2009 LONDON - Michelle Obama appeared to be keeping her distance from controversy-hit Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the opening reception for the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. The US First Lady was said to have met the politician with a classic US-European impasse with President Barack Obama in the middle.

September 10th, 2009 LONDON - After Silvio Berlusconi's recent comments that "all Italians want to be like me," a columnist has said that the premiere casts an impression of being an "angry, defeated and depressed man who is at odds with everyone". The columnist claimed Berlusconi has based his 15-year political career on image-making through his television and advertising empire, but the image is wearing thin - thanks to the controversies, reports The Times.

July 29th, 2009 LONDON - A TV actress, who is known as the 'Queen Bee' and has a tattoo dedicated to "SB" on her ankle, has become the latest star of the 'Silvio Berlusconi saga'. Sabina Began, 35, is said to have introduced Berlusconi, 72, to Giampaolo Tarantini - the man who hired girls, including escorts, for parties at the Premier's official residences, reports The Telegraph.

July 23rd, 2009 LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has laughed off juicy allegations surrounding his private life by simply saying "I am no saint". The business tycoon's comments follow the release of audiotapes on the net, which purportedly reveal conversations between him and a prostitute, reports The Telegraph.

July 23rd, 2009 LONDON - Silvio Berlusconi has been issued with a writ following his attacks on the newspaper group, which published a series of audiotapes made by a prostitute of her alleged meetings with the Italian Prime Minister at his residence. The business tycoon's personal life came under the limelight when the publishers of La Repubblica announced that it was suing him for attacking it as "subversive", reports The Times.

July 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Besides Silvio Berlusconi and his alleged sexcapades, another mysterious element which emerged from the sex tapes was his reference to Putin's bed. The audiotapes of the Italian Prime Minister's alleged encounter with an escort girl at his Rome residence were posted on the Internet.

July 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Patrizia D'Addario, the Bari prostitute who claims to have recorded footage that proves her encounters with Silvio Berlusconi, was apparently paid 1,000 euros to attend one of the Italian PM's parties and promised a gift if she stayed for a night. Berlusconi's private life came under the spotlight when fresh audiotapes of his alleged encounter with D'Addario at his Rome residence were posted on the Internet.

July 1st, 2009 ROME - Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano has appealed to the politicians and media to observe a truce to ensure a smooth G8 summit. "It would be good, from here to the G8, given the delicacy of this huge international event, to have a truce in these controversies," The Telegraph quoted Napolitano, as saying.

June 28th, 2009 LONDON - Silvio Berlusconi has blasted an escort girl's claims that he slept with her. Italy's billionaire prime minister was accused by Patrizia D'Addario, 42, a former actress from Bari in southern Italy, who claimed that the 72-year-old had sex with her on the night of November 4, when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, at Palazzo Grazioli, Berlusconi's Rome residence, reports The Times.

June 25th, 2009 LONDON - While blasting Silvio Berlusconi's claims that he has never paid for sex, escort girl Patrizia D'Addario has said that the Italian premiere promised her help to push through a stalled construction project in return for her services. D'Addario, a mother of one, yesterday hit back at the Italian Prime Minister's claims that she was part of an organized "mission" to malign him, reports The Times.

June 23rd, 2009 LONDON - Up to 30 young women are to be questioned by Italian prosecutors in connection with parties thrown by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, it has been reported.rosecutors will begin questioning the girls later this week. La Repubblica newspaper had claimed that the women, including Eastern European models, were recruited to attend at least five parties thrown by Berlusconi at his mansion in central Rome and his villa on Sardinia's exclusive Costa Smeralda, reports The Telegraph.

June 19th, 2009 LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi doesn't need to pay for female company - he can get plenty of women free, his lawyer said. Following fresh revelations about the premier dominated Italian newspapers, Niccolo Ghedini, Berlusconi's chief legal adviser, made the comments.

June 13th, 2009 LONDON - Antonello Zappadu, the photographer whose controversial photos of topless young women bathing in Silvio Berlusconi's Sardinian villa appeared in a Spanish newspaper, has hinted that there are more pictures to come. In his first interview with a British newspaper, Zappadu has revealed that the unseen pictures show guests at Berlusconi's private paradise of Villa Certosa, and some snaps include a "mock marriage" between the Italian Prime Minister and a woman in her twenties.

May 26th, 2009 LONDON - The ex-boyfriend of Noemi Letizia, the 18-year-old aspiring model at the heart of Silvio Berlusconi's divorce row, has blamed the Italian Prime Minister for the breakdown of his relationship. Berlusconi's ties with Letizia have already angered his wife Veronica Lario, 52.

May 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - After calling himself the Jesus Christ of Italian politics, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi boasted yesterday that he's the world's most popular leader. The 72-year-old said opinion poll findings in his possession showed his popularity at just over 75 per cent, making him far more popular than the American president, Barack Obama, or any other head of government.