The prosecution argues that Mr Dell'Utri had contacts with members of leading Mafia families in Palermo. Several important pentiti mafiosi turned state witness have backed this up. Mr Dell'Utri, a Sicilian, has reaffirmed his innocence and his supporters say it is "judicial persecution" of Mr Berlusconi and his allies by left-wing magistrates. Mr Dell'Utri was elected in a safe Milan constituency.Even more damaging for Mr Berlusconi is that the prosecution may have the right to question him about the 22 holding companies of his Fininvest company. The obscure origins of his first millions and the complicated nature of financial transactions has led to conjecture that the foundations of his building empire were laid by the Mafia.
Under Italian law a defendant can refuse to attend his trial but a witness can be forced to attend.The euphoria of Mr Berlusconi's sweeping victory his centre-right coalition secured majorities in both houses of parliament and his own party took 30 per cent of the vote has been short-lived and the past week has provided a brutal reality check. After a discreet reminder from President Ciampi that resolving his huge conflict of interest was a priority, an irritated Mr Berlusconi told journalists on Friday that he "would not be rushed" on disentangling himself from his £8bn empire but that it would be settled in his first 100 days.The more immediate hurdle is the formation of his new government, which should be sworn in at the start of June, and maintaining his promise of reducing the ministers to 12, half the present number. While the negligible result of Umberto Bossi's xenophobic Northern League 4 per cent of the vote should mean Mr Berlusconi can dispense with it, in reality the poor showing could encourage the unpredictable Mr Bossi to extremist positions to win back his electoral base.Mr Bossi is now saying he not only wants a Northern League member as Speaker of one of the houses of parliament, the highest institutional roles after the President but also the interior ministry, which would give it control over immigration.Even before agreement is reached there are signs of a swerve in Euro-politics. Mr Berlusconi's trusted economist, Giulio Tremonti, said on a television talk show that the enlargement of the EU to the East "must not be at the expense of the Mezzogiorno" Italy's poor south.As Mr Berlusconi tries to satisfy his allies in putting together a balanced cabinet, other lobbies are making themselves heard. Even the Vatican has apparently handed in its invoice for what is widely seen as support for Mr Berlusconi's coalition. The Pope said on Thursday that he hoped for state funding for Catholic schools and for laws that respect the right to life from conception to the grave and marriage as a sacrament, not to be confused with other forms of cohabitation..
It was not so much the view that used to bring Les Jones up to Berlin's highest peak during the Cold War, but the sounds. It was not so much the view that used to bring Les Jones up to Berlin's highest peak during the Cold War, but the sounds. Sitting, headphones on, in a windowless room in the bowels of Nato's most important listening post, he would scan the air waves for crackles in the Soviet military band. The frequencies used by the top brass were often the most rewarding, because officers tended to be more careless than the average Russian squaddy. "If you got two colonels together, you knew you were in for some good listening," says Mr Jones, a former snoop for Britain's Military Intelligence. Now the enemy has retreated, and with them the spies, leaving five giant golf balls in Berlin's sky shrouded in silence, besieged from every side by the city's biggest forest, the Grunewald.On Sundays ramblers and mountain-bikers scale the twin peaks of Teufelsberg "Devil's Mountain" and nudists dash past en route to their favourite beach along the Teufelssee.
