Italy

 

Berlusconi Calls Obama's BS: Says He's World's Most Popular Leader

Well, he does have a better tan.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has compared himself to Jesus Christ and Napoleon, boasted on Friday that he was the world's most popular leader.

The conservative premier, in his third term in office, said opinion poll findings in his possession showed his popularity at just over 75 percent, making him far more popular than U.S. President Barack Obama -- or any other head of government.

"The opinion polls I know say that he (Obama) is at 59 percent. Only (Brazilian President Luiz Inacio) Lula tops 60 percent -- he is at 64 percent. So mine is a record high," he told reporters in Naples where he attended a May Day concert.

On his way out of the concert hall, the 72-year-old Berlusconi -- who has proclaimed himself the Jesus Christ of Italian politics and once said he was second only to Napoleon, except taller -- was heckled by protesters who shouted "Go Away!."

Italy Contemplating a Moratorium on the Building of Mosques

Italy leads the way:

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni met with protests on Thursday after proposing a moratorium on the building of mosques in the wake of arrests on Tuesday of two Moroccans suspected of plotting terrorist attacks. The left-wing opposition and Italian Muslim leaders criticized the proposed legislation, which would halt the building of mosques without state oversight. A high-ranking Vatican official, Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said he was in favor of allowing new mosques provided the state could ensure they would be used for religious purposes, Italian news media reported.

No, No...Really Obama Has a Nice Tan

You gotta love Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He's like Chris Rock, only not as tan.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi brushed aside international outrage from earlier this month on Sunday to make reference once again to US president-elect Barack Obama's "suntan."

He told ANSA news agency his initial remark was intended as a "compliment," adding that he is equally "envious" of black supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Italian-born French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was so outraged at Berlusconi's initial comment about Obama being "young, handsome and even tanned," she said she was "happy" to have "become French."

Fantastic. This is the change the world wanted? World leaders exchanging barbs over the internet? It's like watching a global episode of a teen Facebook fight.

AHMADINEJAD TARGET OF MURDER PLOT

OK, who dropped the ball on this one?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of an assassination plot at the UN food summit in Rome earlier this month as well as during a trip to Iraq in March, an aide said on Monday.

Ahmadinejad last week himself revealed the purported Iraq murder plot -- an announcement greeted with astonishment in some sections of the local press -- but this is the first time a conspiracy has been linked to his Italy trip.

Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their travel plans.

According to Zabihi, the plots were "in line with the order given by (US President George W.) Bush to kill Iranian leaders." He did not give further details.

Ahmadinejad faces a battle for re-election in summer 2009 against a background of popular discontent over rising prices and exasperation amongst some conservatives over his repeatedly provocative statements.

But some moderate newspapers have already started questioning the validity of the president's allegations of an attempt on his life during the trip to Iraq, the first ever by an Iranian president.

The Iranian people won't buy this story, but the American media will.

UNICORN FOUND IN ITALY

Sure...Why not?...It's the Year of Obama...Anything can happen.

An animal expert in Italy is claiming to have found proof of the existence of unicorns after he stumbled upon a young roe deer with a single horn growing from the centre of its forehead.

''It's proof that the mythical unicorn celebrated in iconography and legends was probably not just a fantastic creature but a real animal: a deer or other species with an anomaly similar to that of our deer,'' said the centre's director Gilberto Tozzi.

Marco Polo claimed to have spotted a unicorn on his travels, but from his description of an "ugly" animal wallowing in mud, it is believed he had stumbled upon a rhino.

Another toker from the hope bong.

ITALIAN FAT CATS WAFFLING ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION DEPORTATION

God, country and a clean house.

Italians have belatedly realized that Silvio Berlusconi's crackdown on illegal immigrants could deprive them of hundreds of thousands of foreigners who clean their homes and look after their children and elderly relatives.

Having elected the conservative media mogul to a third term as prime minister in April, thanks partly to his vows to crack down on illegal immigrants, they are now pleading for foreign cleaners, nannies and care-workers to be exempted.

Gypsies, tramps and thieves.

ITALY CRACKS DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: THE WEST'S LAST STAND BEGINS

Italy is cracking down hard on illegal immigrants. How the West reacts to this will, in my opinion, determine our fate. Italy has made the decision to preserve its culture at all costs. The question is, will they succeed in the face of self-defeating liberal "compassion" and condemnation? The time is now as the state of the world economy is making it all the more difficult to be irrationally intolerant towards subversive cultural influences. Carpe Diem my ravioli eating brothers. Carpe Diem.

Italian police announced on Thursday the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in a sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp down.

Police arrested 383 people including 268 foreigners, with 53 immediately taken to the border for expulsion, in a week-long operation stretching from northern Italy to the Naples area.

Those arrested came from Eastern Europe, Albania, Greece, North Africa and China and face charges ranging from illegal entry into Italy to prostitution, drug trafficking and robbery.

The focus of Italian concern about immigrant crime are the Roma, known here as "nomads", who come mainly from Romania and other Eastern European countries. In Rome, police raided the biggest Roma camp and took away about 50 men for questioning.

Illegal Roma camps in Naples had to be evacuated by police this week after local people, angry at an alleged baby-snatching incident involving a 17-year-old Roma girl, set fire to their shacks repeatedly during the night. Nobody was injured.