 News Makers
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-25 07:31 Berlusconi 'freed' by immunity law
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi thanked Italian lawmakers for granting him immunity from prosecution in a law approved by parliament this week, saying, "You've freed me." "Finally the magistrates can't persecute me anymore," the 71-year-old billionaire was quoted as saying by senators at the closed-door meeting on Wednesday. "Now on Saturdays I can work calmly and won't have to meet with my attorneys," he joked in comments carried by Italian media yesterday. Signed into law by President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday, the law suspends criminal cases against the prime minister, president and the heads of both chambers of parliament while they are in office. It was a victory for the conservative leader, who says politically motivated prosecutors have been out to get him since he entered politics 14 years ago. But critics say the law is designed to free him from legal headaches. Berlusconi is charged in Milan with paying British lawyer David Mills $600,000 in 1997 from alleged "secret funds" held by his Mediaset SpA - Italy's largest private broadcaster - to withhold incriminating details of his business dealings. Both men deny any wrongdoing. Berlusconi could opt to renounce the immunity and fight the charges in court. Berlusconi has counted 2,500 hearings, 587 visits by the police and $272.9 million in legal fees during his political career. He has won all the cases against him, either by acquittal or because time ran out under Italy's statute of limitations.
Chelsea owner seeks election Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has decided to run for election to the local council of a desolate Arctic region just weeks after resigning as governor. Abramovich, the 41-year-old owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer club, quit as governor of Far Eastern region of Chukotka earlier this month after lavishing millions on the impoverished province, where reindeer herding is the main source of income. But locals in the icy expanses near to Alaska have implored Abramovich not to abandon them with the current council speaker even stepping aside to make way for him. Abramovich yesterday told council members he had accepted their proposal to run, Chukotka's local administration said in a statement. The election will take place in October. Why Abramovich, a jet-setting Russian with a penchant for luxury yachts, is so interested in a region 15-hours flight from Moscow has been the source of constant speculation since he was elected governor in 2000. Some analysts have said it was part of a deal with former President Vladimir Putin to give some of his billions back to society. Others hint Abramovichfound an affinity with the forgotten region, which is bigger than France and thought to hold large reserves of oil, gas, gold and coal.
Brad Pitt vows action over photos Lawyers for Brad Pitt yesterday threatened legal action against anyone publishing recent photographs they say were taken by paparazzi of the actor and his newly enlarged family at their French estate. Pictures of Pitt and his family in France were "surreptitiously" snapped using a powerful telephoto lens and sold to an unidentified buyer, the Los Angeles lawyers said in a letter published by the US Web site The Smoking Gun (www.thesmokinggun.com). The lawyers did not say which family members were in the pictures. Pitt and actress Angelina Jolie, the mother of his children, have reportedly sold exclusive picture rights to the first photographs of their newborn twins to a US publication for $11 million. The money would go to charity. Agencies (China Daily 07/25/2008 page11) |
