Quotes of the Day

When the lower house of the Italian legislature passed an immunity bill last week to shelve Silvio Berlusconi's corruption trial, the Prime Minister finally got what he'd been after for two years — a way to escape the judicial hot seat for as long as he's in office. Berlusconi's center-right majority secured immunity from prosecution for Italy's five highest office holders.

The bill resembles other immunity laws in Europe, but critics say it was made to order for Berlusconi, the latest of several attempts to protect him from a possible guilty verdict in a Milan trial where he stands accused of bribing judges in 1985. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi quickly signed the bill into law to be sure the case was off the table before Italy takes up the rotating European Union presidency next month. But the Prime Minister's Forza Italia party was not able to extend immunity to co-defendant Cesare Previti, a Parliament member (and longtime confidant of the billionaire media mogul), who's already been sentenced to 11 years for a related bribery charge.

If he goes down, it's still bad news for the Prime Minister. As Forza Italia hard-line Parliament member Carlo Taormina told Time: "You know what they say — when they write 'Previti' the people read 'Berlusconi.'"

• JEFF ISRAELY | Rome