It could be the cast for a remake of one of those 1960s classical epics: George Clooney as one of the stars, together with a former belly dancer and 32 assorted starlets, dancers and showgirls.
In fact, it is just part of the witness list agreed on Wednesday for the trial in which former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is accused of paying an underage prostitute. Others with walk-on parts in the courtroom drama include the Real Madrid soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, the former Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore and three ministers in Berlusconi’s last Cabinet — including the former topless model who was his equal opportunities minister, Mara Carfagna.
The judges in Milan agreed that 214 witnesses be called. They will start giving evidence on Friday next week.
The prosecution wants to hear from Karima El Mahroug — stage name Ruby the Heartstealer — the Moroccan runaway-turned-nightclub belly dancer who is alleged to have attended parties at Berlusconi’s mansion outside Milan that ended in so-called “bunga bunga” sessions other witnesses have claimed were near-orgies. The prosecution has called 32 other young women said to have been present.
Berlusconi, who is also accused of abusing his position to cover up his alleged offense, denies all wrongdoing. He risks up to three years in jail on the vice charge and up to 12 years for abuse of office.
The then-prime minister is alleged to have pressed police into releasing El Mahroug after she was arrested on suspicion of theft in May last year. She has since denied having sex with the 75-year-old Berlusconi.
According to leaks of the case against him, El Mahroug said in statements that she spent a night in a hotel with Ronaldo and — a claim he has vehemently denied — dined at Berlusconi’s home with Clooney. The former prime minister’s lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, has said he wants the two men to “dismantle” El Mahroug’s accounts to undermine her credibility as a witness.
In the case of the Hollywood star, that might be a gamble. In an interview last month, Clooney said he had indeed dined with Berlusconi and that it was “one of the more astonishing evenings of my life.”
He went to see him at his palazzo in Rome to lobby him about the situation in Darfur. However, Clooney said cryptically, it “became a very different evening than anyone thought.”
As for Berlusconi, he protested on Tuesday that the prosecutors had “ruined the reputations” of women whose “only fault was that of having accepted a dinner invitation from the prime minister.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not