Corruption in Italy

Here is my report:

• The Italian branch of the Lockheed scandal involved the bribery of Christian Democrat politicians to favor the purchase by the Italian Air Force of C-130 Hercules transport planes. The allegations of bribery were supported by political magazine L'Espresso, and targeted former Cabinet ministers Luigi and Mario Tanassi , the former Prime Minister Mariano Rumor and notably then-President Giovanni Leone , forcing him to resign his post on June 15, 1978.
• Silvio Berlusconi was tonight under withering fire from opposition leaders in Italy after a court declared that he had bribed his ‍, David Mills, so that he could avoid conviction on corruption charges and hang on to "huge profits made from the conclusion of illicit corporate and financial operations".
• The Italian elections have been hit by allegations of vote-rigging on the final day of the campaign.
• Italian prosecutors said that 50,000 ballot papers among those sent out to Italians living overseas had been marked in favour Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom movement, and offered for sale to the party. Mr Berlusconi lost the last election, in 2006, by just 24,000 votes.
• Italian prosecutors have launched an inquiry into claims that the government of ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tried to rig April's general elections. The allegation is made in a documentary entitled Kill Democracy being given out on Friday with a left-wing magazine.
  The authors say blank ballots were fraudulently counted in favour of Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition.
  Former Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, who oversaw the vote, said the claims were "false and libellous".
• Magistrates have opened an investigation into possible vote rigging by a mafia clan, suspected of tampering with ballots for this weekend's election cast by Italians living abroad, investigators said on Friday. Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said he had been alerted by investigators in Reggio Calabria, capital of the southern Calabria region which is home to one of Italy's three crime syndicates. He added that controls had been tightened.
• It is alleged that Mr Mills was paid $600,000 (£316,000) for not revealing details of the offshore companies during two previous trials in 1997 and 1998, in which he gave evidence as an ‍.
  Mr Mills initially admitted receiving money from Mr Berlusconi "in recognition" of the evidence he gave, but later recanted, saying the money was paid to him by an Italian shipping magnate, Diego Attanasio.
• A Taliban commander and two senior Afghan officials have allegedly confirmed that Italian forces paid protection money to prevent attacks on their troops – despite strenuous denials from the country.

• ‍Italian magistrates and the opposition have complained after a TV channel owned by Silvio Berlusconi secretly filmed a judge who ruled against him in a bribery case.