Berlusconi's Bubble About to Burst

You will, of course, be astonished to learn that for the past two months Italian newspapers have been dominated by tales of corruption, sex, abuse of power, Mafia connections and transcripts of intercepted telephone calls — often, in fact, stories involving all five. Some, though by no means all, have involved a certain Silvio Berlusconi, the media magnate who has been Prime Minister for seven of the past nine years.