News

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has weathered corruption probes and public outrage at his tasteless quips emerging each time with his popularity intact. On Saturday, Italians can weigh in on whether the conservative leader has finally gone too far.

The country is picking its members of the European Parliament against a backdrop of accusations that Berlusconi had an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old model and used a government plane to ferry friends to his vacation villa.

Despite a deep recession and rising unemployment, the scandals have
transfixed Italians and hijacked most of the campaign for the two-day vote to select Italy''s 72 European Parliament members. Results were expected Sunday.

About 375 million voters across the 27-nation European Union are voting Thursday through Sunday, selecting candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the second-largest election in the world after India''s.

In most of the EU countries voting Saturday, the economic downturn and
national politics, rather than Europe-wide issues, were at the forefront.

Cypriots, Maltese, Slovaks and Latvians were voting for the second time for the European Parliament since the countries joined the bloc in 2004.

In Cyprus, the communist-rooted Akel, the island''s largest party, was seeking an endorsement of its negotiations to reunite the Greek Cypriots with the breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

Malta''s governing Nationalist Party was facing a challenge from the
opposition Labor Party over the handling of illegal immigration and rising cost of life.

In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico''s social democrats were expected to win and a good showing was predicted for the ultra nationalist Slovak National Party following tensions over the country''s ethnic Hungarian minority.

In Latvia, the Harmony Center, a left-wing force that represents the country''s large ethnic Russian minority, was doing well in the polls, though more than a third of voters were still undecided a week before the election.