Berlusconi can get call girls for free, claims his lawyer

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 19th, 2009 LONDON - Giampaolo Tarantini, the businessman who claims to have supplied Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, with a stream of women for parties, has been arrested at Bari airport in southern Italy. Antonio Laudati, the chief prosecutor in Bari, said Tarantini had been arrested at Bari airport for "dealing in drugs" and in case he tried to flee the country.

September 16th, 2009 LONDON - Gianfranco Fini, Italy's speaker of parliament, is suing a newspaper owned by Silvio Berlusconi's brother for threatening "red light" revelations about him. Il Giornale had suggested that Fini, the 57-year-old speaker of parliament's lower house and a former foreign minister, should be kicked out of the People of Liberty (PdL) party for flirting with the left-wing opposition, reports The Times.

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 25th, 2009 LONDON - The escort girl at the centre of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sex tape scandal has threatened to sue the country's Foreign Minister. Patrizia D'Addario, a Bari prostitute, is threatening to take Franco Frattini to court for impugning her reputation as opposition MPs unleashed an attack on their PM for trying to compromise nation's security, reports The Times.

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 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 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 17th, 2009 LONDON - An ex Italian MEP has hit out at Silvio Berlusconi, claiming that he was prevented from standing again for the Italian PM's party in the European election last month because he did not fit in with the party's "revolution" of selecting attractive young women. In 2004, Marcello Vernola, 48, was elected to the European Parliament for Forza Italia, now part of the centre-right People of Liberty (Pdl) party.

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 - Silvio Berlusconi has blasted a call girl who claims she was paid to attend one of his parties, accusing her of being part of a coordinated "mission" to compromise his integrity. Responding to the claims that he slept with escort Patrizia D'Addario at a party at his Rome mansion in November, he said: "Someone gave a very precise and extremely well paid mission to this Miss D'Addario." The Italian Prime Minister gave the response in an interview with magazine, Chi, reports The Telegraph.

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 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.