Is there a link between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's hold on political power inside Italy and his hold over the wider scandal-craved collective imagination of our contemporary culture? Clues to that question may be found in a series of blurry photographs that have wound up on the front page of the respected Spanish daily El País. The five photos show scenes of poolside nudity and seminudity inside the walls of the Prime Minister's private villa on the island ...

They were taken before Marilyn Monroe became branded as the voluptuous blonde who oozed sex appeal in dozens of Hollywood films. They were taken before rumors of an affair with President John F. Kennedy swirled and her mental breakdowns became public. They were taken before the beautiful actress's mysterious overdose that resulted in her death at the age of 36. In a collection discovered by Life.com last month, unpublished photographs of Monroe reveal a softer, more innocent 24-year-old budding starlet ...

A French passenger aircraft carrying 228 people has disappeared off the coast of Brazil, airline officials say. Air France told CNN the jet was making the 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris when contact was lost. Brazil's air force launched a search near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic Ocean, 365 km (226 miles) from Brazil's coast, the country's state media said. Air France said flight AF447 was carrying ...

Releasing images of the alleged abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody could damage Pakistan's efforts to battle Islamic militants as well as increase the risks to American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the top U.S. commander in the region has told a federal judge. In court documents written Wednesday urging a judge to keep the pictures under wraps, Gen. David Petraeus argued they would have a "destabilizing effect" on Pakistan and other U.S. partners in the battle against the al ...

Across Central Asia, they are a common sight: portraits glorifying each nation's leader. Rising above the people on roadside billboards and taking pride of place on the walls of local government offices, visual tributes to the region's sitting presidents outnumber internet cafes, independent newspapers and working bank machines. But Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon aims to change all that. He has issued a decree that all portraits depicting him with local politicians are to be torn down immediately. ...

Abu Ahmed says he was there: An Iraqi held prisoner at Abu Ghraib by the American military when inmates were abused. He says he was kept naked and saw other naked inmates stacked onto a pile while photos were taken, photos that would become public and bring shame to the United States. The pain of the past few years is clearly etched on the man's face and equally obvious as he talks. It began October 1, 2003, he says, when ...

There is hardly anything in U.S.-Arab relations that screams scandal louder than the torture pictures of Abu Ghraib: Naked hooded male bodies in the fetal position, piled up on top of each other in a pyramid shape, next to them U.S. soldiers in uniform smiling and giving two thumbs up. Naked males made to touch their genitals on camera, others beaten so hard that paramedics are at hand to treat their wounds in preparation for the next round of ...

The photograph was shocking: a hooded detainee, in U.S. custody, standing on a box with electrical wires hooked up to his fingers. That photo, as well as the others depicting detainee abuse inside Abu Ghraib at the hands of U.S. troops, came to symbolize "America in the eyes of the world at that time," said CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. "Those pictures unfortunately became symbolic, emblematic of all the troubles that the U.S. faced in the last four years ...

Justifying his dramatic reversal of the decision to release photos showing abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama argued publication would "further inflame anti-American opinion and put our troops in greater danger." (CNN) -- Justifying his dramatic reversal of the decision to release photos showing abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama argued publication would "further inflame anti-American opinion and put our troops in greater danger." In fact, world opinion, ...

On a dusty pitch in the middle of the capital of Monrovia limbless young men play football as though their lives depended on it. They are members of the Liberian National Amputee Football Team and for the most part, victims of the war. Some participated in cruel acts against civilians during the fighting and face a daily struggle to live with both their disability and the past. "I was at church when armed men came in and killed hundreds of ...