Briefs, December 29, 2012
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi must pay his second wife, Veronica Lario, €3 million (HK$30.8 million) a month in alimony but gets to keep their estate.
ROME - Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi must pay his second wife, Veronica Lario, €3 million (HK$30.8 million) a month in alimony but gets to keep their estate. Lario said she was divorcing the media mogul in 2009, citing his presence at the 18th birthday party of a Naples girl and his fondness for younger women. Berlusconi, 76, has just become engaged to a woman nearly 50 years his junior. AP
LONDON - England has had its wettest year on record in 2012, the Met Office said. About 1,096 millimetres of rain fell in England from January 1 to December 26, the most for any year since records began in 1910. Records were broken in northern and eastern England, the Midlands and east Anglia. Overall, the UK had 1,291.2 millimetres of rain on average, just 46 millimetres below the record set in 2000. Bloomberg
WASHINGTON - Outgoing US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who fell ill in early December and hasn't been seen in public since, will be back at her desk on Monday, a close aide said. Clinton, 65, has been off work sick since her return from her last trip on December 7, although her staff says she has been working from home. AFP
CAIRO - Ousted president Hosni Mubarak, who has been transferred from prison to a military hospital, has a build-up of fluid in his lungs and cracked ribs. The state prosecutor ordered Mubarak's transfer after his health deteriorated a week after he was admitted to hospital after slipping in a bathroom. AFP
NEW YORK - A woman pushed a man to his death under a train at the 40th Street-Lowery Street subway station in Queens. The woman walked behind the man along the platform, mumbling to herself, witnesses told the police, before shoving him on to the track. NYT
LOS ANGELES - Elvis Presley and The Beatles top the list of most-forged celebrity signatures in 2012, with fewer than half of those for sale certified as genuine, says memorabilia authenticators PSA/DNA. They joined figures such as former US president John Kennedy and late pop star Michael Jackson on the list of most-forged celebrity signatures. Reuters
