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Silvio Berlusconi's jibe at Spanish women By Fiona Govan in Madrid Last Updated: 1:26am BST 17/04/2008 Spain and Italy were embroiled in a war of words on Wednesday after Silvio Berlusconi criticised his Spanish counterpart for appointing so many women to his cabinet. In one of the first interviews after being elected Italy's prime minister for the third time, Mr Berlusconi attacked Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government, describing it as "too pink". Speaking about Mr Zapatero's decision to give nine out of 17 cabinet positions to women, he said: "Now he's asked for it. He'll have problems leading them." advertisement...

ITALY'S prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, finally handed in his resignation yesterday, ending weeks of political uncertainty and opening the way for centre-left leader Romano Prodi to form a new government. Mr Berlusconi had contested his rival's wafer-thin victory in the polls three weeks ago but was forced to concede after MPs elected centre-left speakers for parliament, allowing Mr Prodi to control the assembly with his slim majority. To rub salt into his wounds, Mr Berlusconi had to personally give notice of his resignation to the Communist who is the new leader of the lower house. "They'll miss us - we...

ROME, July 1 - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi demanded to day that the United States show "full respect" for Italian sovereignty, after summoning the American ambassador to explain the reported abduction of a Muslim cleric by officers and operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency . . . There have been growing calls from the opposition, as well as some members of the governing majority, for clarification of the relationship between the United States and Italy.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, on Friday told the US to respect Italian sovereignty, as a diplomatic row with the US over an alleged CIA operation inside Italy escalated. Last week, an Italian magistrate issued arrest warrants for 13 Central Intelligence Agency operatives for allegedly kidnapping Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian cleric, in connection with an anti-terrorism investigation. Mr Berlusconi on Friday summoned Mel Sembler, the US ambassador to Rome, to a meeting over the incident. Mr Nasr also known as Abu Omar who was kidnapped in Milan in 2003 was allegedly flown to Egypt for interrogation, under...

INTERNATIONAL furor over Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian Communist writer who claims American troops in Iraq may have deliberately shot at her car after she was released by kidnappers, misses the bigger scandal. The scandal is not that an anti-war propagandist has accused the U.S. of targeting journalists. That’s par for the course. (Yes, hello again, Eason Jordan.) The scandal is not that mainstream media sympathizers are blaming our military and dredging up every last shooting accident along the treacherous routes to Baghdad Airport. Again, no surprise here. The scandal is that Italy — our reputed ally in the global War...

ROME Mar 10, 2005 — Disputing Washington's version of events, Italy's premier said that an Italian intelligence agent who was shot to death by U.S. troops in Baghdad had informed the proper authorities that he was heading to the airport with a freed hostage. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also told lawmakers that the car carrying agent Nicola Calipari and a just-liberated hostage was traveling slowly and stopped immediately when a light was flashed at a checkpoint, before U.S. troops fired on the car. Though the U.S. and Italian versions of what happened Friday do not match up, "I'm sure that...

ROME - Premier Silvio Berlusconi reaffirmed Thursday that Italy would keep its troops in Iraq (news - web sites) for as long as the government there wanted them. After a meeting with interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Berlusconi said, "Italy will stay in Iraq according to the requests that will come from a legitimate Iraqi government." His comments came a day after Hungary said it would withdraw its 300 non-combat troops from Iraq by the end of March, undercutting President Bush (news - web sites)'s effort to hold the multinational force together. Also Thursday, the Czech parliament voted to extend...