ITALY AND USA...

Sto osservando attentamente questo nuovo fenomeno, che riguarda noi tutti: si tratta delle letture a UNIVERSAL MOOD da parte dei 2 Paesi con n° maggiore di Lettori: Italia e USA! Gli USA hanno scalzato l'Italia dal primo posto, negli ultimi tempi.... incredibile!! da: NEW YORK TIMES HOME PAGETODAY'S PAPERVIDEOMOST POPULARTIMES TOPICS Search All NYTimes.com Thursday, June 7, 2012 Times Topics WORLDU.S.N.Y. / REGIONBUSINESSTECHNOLOGYSCIENCEHEALTHSPORTSOPINIONARTSSTYLETRAVELJOBSREAL ESTATEAUTOS Report an Error E-MAIL Silvio Berlusconi Associated Press Updated: Feb. 27, 2012 Silvio Berlusconi dominated Italian political life for 17 years as he moved in and out of office and in and out of scandal, brazen and indomitable, magnetic and divisive. He was first elected prime minister in 1994 and was forced from office in November 2011 by the European debt crisis, ending his third term and, by all appearances, his elective career. First through his television empire, Mediaset, and then through his political apparatus, Mr. Berlusconi helped shape the country’s imagination, politics and economy for a generation. With a combination of savvy media domination, old-fashioned party politics and a salesman’s preternatural charm, Mr. Berlusconi dominated Italy more than anyone since Mussolini. His resignation does not erase his presence from the political stage. He still has a powerful political party, now fighting for its future, and owns Italy’s largest private broadcaster. But it marks the symbolic end of an era in which the media baron held the country under his spell. A businessman who built a real estate and media empire, Mr. Berlusconi was first elected in 1994, casting himself as a modernizer and promising Italy a season of free-market reform. But after a career barely dented by colorful sex scandals and multiple corruption trials, it was the market that finally drove him from office. As the interest rates charged on Italy’s massive debt soared to dangerous levels, Mr. Berlusconi offered to resign if Parliament passed an austerity package demanded by the European Union. Earlier that day, he had failed to gain a majority in a test vote in Parliament. He stepped down on Nov. 12, 2011, after the package was adopted. He was replaced by a former European Commissioner, Mario Monti, who was asked to lead a cabinet of technocrats. From the start, Mr. Berlusconi entwined his fate with Italy’s. By personalizing Italian politics and turning himself into a brand — self-made, virile and wily — he transformed Italy’s political and institutional cultures in ways that will resonate for years. In recent years, it was the sex scandals that most dominated the headlines, as reports emerged from judicial investigations of tawdry parties at the prime minister’s private homes involving scores of young women and even a prostitute who went by the stage name Ruby Heartstealer. (He faces charges of paying for sex with a minor, although they both deny the sex, and abusing his office by helping release her from police custody when she was arrested for theft.) For months before his resignation, there had been a growing belief in Italy that the Berlusconi era was coming to an end. Mr. Berlusconi had responded to market fears by promising deep budget cuts and sweeping reforms. But the scandal-plagued prime minister seemed unable to deliver more than a fraction of this deeply unpopular agenda. He was unable to overcome opposition within his own coalition for measures like raising the retirement age. Facing ridicule from other European leaders, in November 2011, he was forced to take the humiliating step of “inviting’' the International Monetary Fund to look over Italy’s shoulder to ensure that it carries out reforms. Bribery Trial In late February 2012, a court in Milan threw out the bribery case against Mr. Berlusconi, saying that the statute of limitations had expired and continuing his long run of seeming invulnerability to conviction. Mr. Berlusconi, who denied wrongdoing, had been accused of bribing a British tax lawyer to withhold testimony to protect him. In the trial, which began in March 2007, his lawyers maintained Mr. Berlusconi’s innocence, even while pressing the statute-of-limitations argument. da: Il Corriere della Sera