Brother, Where Art Thou?

To their detractors, Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra (left) and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (right) are crony capitalists who bully their opposition and the media. To their supporters, they're men of action, a welcome contrast to ineffective leaders of the past. Now, however, both have problems: Thaksin faces street protests demanding he resign over the $1.87 billion sale of his family's Shin Corp. media empire, while Fininvest media mogul Berlusconi, trailing in the polls before Italy's April 9-10 election, is accused of conspiring to give false testimony in a corruption case against him. They have other things in common,...

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