Milan court officials have defended the impartiality of their judges after ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi blamed “feminist, communist” magistrates for a €200,000-a-day divorce settlement.

The Vatican has defended its transfer of a top official to Washington after he exposed alleged corruption in the awarding of Holy See contracts.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi rang a TV show discussing his alleged prostitution scandal, exchanged insults with the host and said the programme was like a “brothel”.

POLAND and Ukraine will host the European soccer championship in 2012 after UEFA awarded them the tournament ahead of Italy and another joint bid from Hungary and Croatia yesterday.