Berlusconi offered sex tape scandal escort seat in European Parliament

September 12th, 2009 LONDON - Responding to the sex scandal engulfing Silvio Berlusconi, Umberto Bossi, the key coalition partner in the Italian PM's government, said he believed Mafia had orchestrated all the dirty activities. "I think everything has been put in place by the Mafia," Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, said as he arrived at an event in Pian del Re in the north of the country.

July 26th, 2009 LONDON - After weeks of excruciating disclosures about Silvio Berlusconi's private life, the Italian leader is apparently trying to restore his dignity by planning a "sober summer". Berlusconi, whose reputation was tainted when an alleged postcoital conversation of him was captured on tape by escort girl Patrizia D'Addario, wants to put the sex scandal behind him.

July 24th, 2009 LONDON - A tape, which purportedly shows a sexually explicit conversation between Silvio Berlusconi and a prostitute, has been released on the net. In the explicit conversation, Patrizia D'Addario, 42, a high-class escort girl, can be heard lavishing praise on the business tycoon for his 'performance' and he appears to reply that she should have "sex with yourself more often", reports The Telegraph.

July 24th, 2009 LONDON - The editor of a leading Italian newspaper dubbed subversive by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has defended its series of exposures about alleged sex scandals involving the Italian leader, saying it had become a political issue. You can imagine in your country, what would happened if [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown met some escorts in his house and one of those escorts used a tape recorder and took pictures, Ezio Mauro, Editor of La Repubblica, told The Times in an interview published Friday.

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 - Silvio Berlusconi spurns a condom - at least that's what new tapes of a hooker's alleged dealings with the Italian PM which hit the internet suggest. The Sun reports, in one of the tapes, Patrizia D'Addario, 42, recoils as a business tycoon linked to Berlusconi's parties tells her: "He will give you a present.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - Silvio Berlusconi's private life is again in the spotlight after audiotapes of the Italian Prime Minister's alleged encounter with an escort girl at his Rome residence were posted on the internet. The Italian daily La Repubblica and its sister weekly, L'Espresso, published bits and bobs of the alleged bedroom conversation between Berlusconi and Patrizia D'Addario, the woman whom his aides describe as a prostitute, reports The Times.

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.

July 16th, 2009 LONDON - The never-ending saga of sex and the Government of Silvio Berlusconi just got a new twist with a woman claiming that she had an affair with an Italian minister and was offered a seat in Parliament. However as she decided to step on the political stage her lover dumped her and arranged for the seat to be given to another of his mistresses.

July 5th, 2009 LONDON - The reputation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to receive a further blow after the release of new photographs showing the Italian Prime Minister grinning while two young women kiss in front of him. After two months of battling the allegations about his private life, the new photographs clicked at his Sardinian estate threaten to defame Berlusconi ahead of G8 summit of leading industrialised nations this week, reports Times Online.

June 29th, 2009 LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi might be questioned regarding the sleazy allegations swirling around him. The 72-year-old media tycoon-turned-politician, though not under investigation, might be quizzed as part of the inquiry into Giampaolo Tarantini, a local businessman at the centre of a scandal involving women sent to parties hosted by the Prime Minister.

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 26th, 2009 LONDON - The sex scandal plaguing Silvio Berlusconi took a fresh turn yesterday after a Bari escort girl gave more details of her first meeting with the Italian PM, saying: "It felt like a harem. And there was only one sheikh.

June 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Silvio Berlusconi has been dragged into further controversy after another woman claimed that she was paid to attend the Italian Prime Minister's parties. Model Barbara Montereale said that Berlusconi gave her 10,000 euros "as a present" after attending one of his parties at Villa Certosa.

June 21st, 2009 LONDON - Back in November last year, when Barack Obama was making history as US president, Italian premiere Silvio Berlusconi was enjoying a candlelit dinner party with three beautiful women at Palazzo Grazioli, his luxurious residence in Rome, reveals one of the guests. Patrizia D'Addario, 42, a former actress and escort girl said that the 72-year-old then asked her to stay for the night.