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Silvio Berlusconi: The man who seduced an entire country

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

In the mid-1990s, Silvio Berlusconi started planning for the afterlife. On the grounds of his multi-million euro villa in Arcore, near Milan, he began building a giant underground mausoleum where he planned to be laid surrounded by more than 30 other tombs made ready for close friends, family members and romantic partners.The project was typically Berlusconi — lavish, flamboyant, treading the line between the imperious and the absurd. Visitors were escorted past a 100-ton abstract sculpture representing the vault of heaven, down an imposing stairway modeled on pre-Roman burial sites, through a narrow corridor decorated with the things he might need in the afterlife — fruit, bread, keys, a mobile phone — and into an imposing burial chamber at whose center stood a pink marble and granite sarcophagus.Asked by a journalist what instructions Berlusconi had given him, the Italian sculptor Pietro Cascella who built the mausoleum answered: “He told me not to make it look too sad.”Nearly 30 ...

Silvio Berlusconi dies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

ROME — Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, has died aged 86, his office confirmed. Berlusconi, who was a senator and leader of the right-wing Forza Italia party — a junior partner in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition government — was admitted to a Milan hospital last week.A billionaire media and property tycoon-turned-politician, Berlusconi rose to the top of Italian politics in the 1990s, leading the country for close to a decade during three terms as prime minister.In recent years, however, his political career was tarnished by a series of scandals, reducing his profile and influence. Italy’s latest general election, which saw his Forza Italia party join Meloni’s governing coalition, marked Berlusconi’s return to the domestic limelight — albeit in a diminished role.Berlusconi was taken to hospital on Friday for tests related to chronic leukaemia. Following a COVID-19 infection in 2020, he frequently required health assessments and ...

Ukraine says it’s liberated 5 villages as counteroffensive intensifies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

KYIV — Ukraine says it has liberated five villages in the east and south of the country, as Kyiv’s counteroffensive ramps up. Marines from the Ukrainian army on Monday raised the blue-and-yellow flag over Storozhove in the Donetsk region — a village that has been occupied by the Russian army since March 2022, the brigade said in a video statement from the scene.“As a result of the clearing of the settlement, about fifty Russians were destroyed, and four were taken prisoners,” the marine brigade said.Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar referred to the liberation of Storozhove in a Telegram statement, adding: “To be continued.”During the weekend, the Ukrainian army also claimed to have liberated Blahodante, Makarivka, and Neskuchne villages in the Donetsk region, according to the different brigades involved and Maliar. The information could not be independently verified by POLITICO.Ukrainian forces also reported resisting a Russian attempt to reclaim t...

Water warning issued after sewage overflow in East Boston

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

A water warning has been issued for some Boston residents after a sewage overflow in East Boston.Officials say there was a sewage discharge in Jeffries Point on Saturday and that it impacted water in the upper-Inner Harbor. Residents and businesses in this area are being warned to use the effected water until 10 p.m. Monday.

Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare says 2.5 million customers may have been impacted by data breach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare now says some 2.5 million customers may have been impacted by a data breach earlier this year.According to a new filing with the Department of Health and Human Services, the company says customers personal information, including social security numbers and medical history, may have been taken.

Fire crews rescue driver pinned between tanker truck, barrier in Boston

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

Boston firefighters raced to the rescue of a motorist whose vehicle became pinned between a jersey barrier and a tanker truck early Monday morning.Crews responding to a report of a person trapped in a pinned vehicle around 1:30 a.m. at Kneeland Street and Atlantic Avenue made a technical rescue and were able to safely remove the driver from the vehicle.There were no reported injuries.https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1668140051635613697

NH woman facing animal cruelty charge after dog dies in hot vehicle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

A New Hampshire woman is facing an animal cruelty charge after her dog died in a hot vehicle on Sunday.Officers responding to a report of an unresponsive dog in a vehicle in a parking lot on Durgin Lane in Portsmouth determined its owner had left it in a vehicle with its windows up for several hours and the dog had died, according to the Portsmouth Police Department.The outside temperature was in the mid-70s but the internal temperature in the car was recorded at 125 degrees.The dog was brought to a local vet hospital for a necropsy.The owner, Susan Weilbrenner, of Tamworth, was arrested on charges of animals in motor vehicles and cruelty to animals.She was released on personal recognizance bail and is expected to be arraigned July 17.

The Ravens need a strong pass rush to win the Super Bowl. Enter ‘guru’ Chuck Smith.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

The late Al Davis, the former coach and then owner of the Raiders, once said that “the other team’s quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard.” It was a simple and theatrical proclamation from the Hall of Famer and one of the game’s great innovators, but also a mantra that has spanned decades in the NFL.Case in point: Last season’s Super Bowl participants, the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, were first and second in the league in sacks with 70 and 55, respectively, as well as quarterback pressures, with 178 and 168.They were hardly outliers. In 2021, the Los Angeles Rams were third in sacks, while the Cincinnati Bengals ranked seventh in pressures. The year before, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were fourth in sacks and second in pressures. And in 2019, the San Francisco 49ers had the fifth-most sacks and sixth-most pressures. All of them reached the Super Bowl.As for the Ravens, they weren’t far behind last season with 48 sacks, go...

Silvio Berlusconi, scandal-scarred ex-Italian leader, dies at 86, according to his TV network

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

ROME (AP) — Silvio Berlusconi, the boastful billionaire media mogul who was Italy’s longest-serving premier despite scandals over his sex-fueled parties and allegations of corruption, died Monday, according to his television network. He was 86.Mediaset announced his death with a smiling photo of the man on its homepage and the headline: “Berlusconi is dead.”Berlusconi was hospitalized on Friday for the second time in months for treatment of chronic leukemia. He also suffered over the years from heart ailments, prostate cancer and was hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2020.A onetime cruise ship crooner, Berlusconi used his television networks and immense wealth to launch his long political career, inspiring both loyalty and loathing.To admirers, the three-time premier was a capable and charismatic statesman who sought to elevate Italy on the world stage. To critics, he was a populist who threatened to undermine democracy by wielding political power as a tool to enrich himself and hi...

Israeli opposition leader says Netanyahu tried to get him to back tax breaks for Hollywood mogul

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:44 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s opposition leader testified Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently tried to persuade him — twice — to back legislation that would have given a Hollywood mogul millions in tax breaks.But Yair Lapid, a former prime minister himself and a major Netanyahu rival, said he was not convinced. Lapid made the statements as he testified in Jerusalem in one of three corruption cases against Netanyahu. The indictment claims Netanyahu used his position of power to further Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan’s interests in exhange for gifts, representing a conflict between the premier’s public duties and personal friendship.Netanyahu did personal favors for Milchan, including asking U.S. officials to extend Milchan’s U.S. resident’s permit and extending Israeli regulations exempting Israeli returnees from declaring foreign income, according to the indictment.Lapid testified Monday that Milchan and his attorneys had tried first without success to pe...