Berlusconi sues local, foreign media for libel

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is launching legal actions against media in Italy and abroad, including Britain, France and Spain, for libel in their coverage of his private life, his lawyer said on Friday.

His lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told Reuters that he and his colleagues abroad had already filed lawsuits against newspapers in Italy, France and Spain and had instructed lawyers in Britain to study possible cases of libel there.

"We have instructed our colleagues to evaluate, according to the laws in their countries, the most serious cases of real, true defamation," Ghedini said in a telephone interview.

He said lawyers acting for Berlusconi had sued the French weekly Nouvel Observateur for a story headlined "Sex, Power and Lies" and Spain's El Pais for publishing photos of guests at the billionaire premier's Sardinian villa cavorting naked.

In Italy they have sued La Repubblica, a tireless critic of the conservative leader, for repeating the Nouvel Observateur story and for defaming Berlusconi by repeating daily its "10 Questions" about his private life and political aspirations.

Ghedini declined to list which other publications could face lawsuits, especially in Britain where papers have taken a special interest in the scandals over Berlusconi's relationship with a teenage girl, prostitutes and divorce from his second wife.

Berlusconi, owner of Italy's largest private broadcaster Mediaset, has accused his television competitor Rupert Murdoch of mounting a personal attack on him via the London newspaper The Times, owned by Murdoch's News Corp.

Ghedini said British papers "have indeed been aggressive, but I have not looked at this article by article, I have left that to my colleagues. I have enough to do here in Italy."

"INTOLERABLE"

The lawyer said the 72-year-old Italian leader, who has been elected prime minister three times and still enjoys high ratings in polls despite a deep recession and all the scandals, "expects to come in for harsh criticism like any other politician."

But he said La Repubblica had an "intolerable" campaign against the premier "which brings Italy into discredit, because all foreign papers repeat these offenses as if they were true."

"If you say to someone 'You are sick and have a sexual addiction' and ask how they intend to get cured, you are taking it for granted that this person is ill," said the lawyer, giving an example of one of the allegations made against Berlusconi.

His estranged wife, Veronica Lario, said earlier this year that she wanted a divorce because of, among other things, his relationships with young women.

Berlusconi denies anything "spicy" in his relationship with Naples teenager Noemi Letizia which angered his wife and says he did not know that an escort who slept at his Rome apartment, and secretly recorded conversations with him, was a prostitute.

These episodes have earned him reprimands from the powerful Roman Catholic church and hopes of a rapprochement were dashed when his presence at a ceremony for repentance was called off on Friday, as was a dinner with Pope Benedict's deputy.
Berlusconi's family newspaper Il Giornale fueled the spat by digging up a sex scandal involving the editor of a Catholic paper which has criticized Berlusconi for his lifestyle.

The head of Italy's main opposition Democratic Party, Dario Franceschini, called Berlusconi's attacks on his critics in the media "a sign of fear and weakness."

Democrats seek to avoid politics at Kennedy memorial

BOSTON (Reuters) - Senator Edward Kennedy's Democratic party sought to avoid turning his memorial events into a liberal political rally and to guarantee instead a solemn tribute to the fallen statesman.

Republicans and Democrats were coming together at a private memorial service on Friday to honor Kennedy, the standard-bearer for liberal Democrats who championed causes from civil rights, immigration and healthcare to the end of apartheid in South Africa, opposition to the war in Iraq and peace in Ireland.

The senator's body lay in repose in Boston where members of the extensive Irish-American Kennedy clan greeted the more than 30,000 people who came to pay their respects. Preparations were under way for a private burial on Saturday near the graves of his slain brothers President John Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.

Kennedy, a senator from Massachusetts for 47 years, died late Tuesday of brain cancer. He was 77.

President Barack Obama was to give a eulogy on Saturday during a funeral Mass at a Roman Catholic basilica in Boston, and aides promised Obama would not use the occasion to rally support for healthcare reform, Obama's top domestic priority and an issue Kennedy called "the cause of my life."

Lawmakers felt keenly the absence of Kennedy during his illness as they and Obama struggled to overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. health care system in which nearly 46 million people go uninsured. A consummate deal-maker, they said he would have been uniquely able to win the issue, now beset by fractious debate across the country.

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh, one of the most influential voices on the U.S. right wing, predicted Democrats would politicize Kennedy's death.

"They can't help themselves because this is their religion," Limbaugh said on his national radio show. "This, liberalism, is their religion, and they are burying their pope."

But the White House had already sought to end speculation that Obama would link Kennedy's death to the healthcare debate.

"Our country lost a beloved leader and the politics and implications of that are the last thing on the president's mind right now," Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told a news briefing on Thursday. "This is going to be a very personal statement that he makes on Saturday."

FORMER PRESIDENTS TO ATTEND

While Kennedy was considered an historic figure and was well-liked by his Senate colleagues, "most Republicans and conservatives still see him as the 'liberal lion,'" said Thomas Mann of The Brookings Institution.

"It's not as if he's this unifying, tremendously popular figure in the country. He's not," Mann said.

Three of the four living ex-U.S. presidents -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush -- were also expected to attend. Former President George H. W. Bush, 85, was said to be unable to travel.

The Friday service was to bring together family members and longtime close friends such as former Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, who lost in 2008 to Obama, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Democrats Vice President Joe Biden and senators Christopher Dodd and John Kerry.
Democrats worked this week to find a way to fill the senator's seat quickly, thus ensuring the votes needed to overcome Republican objections to a healthcare vote this year.

Kennedy requested Massachusetts lawmakers allow Governor Deval Patrick to name a temporary replacement to serve in his vacant Senate seat before a special election was to be held early next year.

McCain, who had worked many years with Kennedy to reach consensus on controversial legislation, said on CNN's Larry King Live on Thursday Kennedy's wife Victoria had asked him to speak. "And I told her I would move heaven and Earth, I would be there. And so I'm very honored to -- to have the opportunity to say a few words on behalf of the last lion of the Senate."