Prosecutors in Milan are investigating Silvio Berlusconi for alleged witness corruption following two high-profile trials relating to parties held at his luxurious villa.

Though widely expected, the new investigation will nonetheless come as a blow to the former Italian prime minister as he seeks to shore up his political influence in the wake of his conviction for tax fraud and expulsion from parliament last year.

A total of 45 people, including Berlusconi, his two chief defence lawyers and several young women, are reported to be under investigation in the new inquiry, which was announced by chief prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati.

Prosecutors will be investigating allegations that witnesses who testified on behalf of the 77-year-old in the so-called "Ruby" trial - in which he was accused of paying for sex with an underage sex worker and then abusing his office to cover it up - and a related trial were corrupted.

Lawyers for Berlusconi have previously denied the allegations, and on Thursday the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party issued a statement reiterating his belief that he is being hounded by a leftwing judiciary bent on his destruction.

"I am here, and am staying here, strongly conscious of the responsibility that comes from the trust and the votes of the people," he said in a statement. "I am staying on the field, more convinced than ever that I must fight on to the end to see the triumph of what I deeply believe in."

Full name: John Francis Leso
Health Profession: Psychologist
Branch/Rank: Army Major
Site: Guantanamo Bay
[B6, B4, B1, C1, D3]

Dates: June 2002 - mid-January 2003
[B1, C1, D3]

Position: Behavioral Science Consultation Team (BSCT) psychologist with the Interrogation Control Element (ICE) of JTF-GTMO.
[B6, B4, B1, C1, D3]

Reported Involvement: Dr. John Leso was the first BSCT psychologist at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (GTMO), and while in this role, he participated in the torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment [A1, B4, D2, B13] of Mohammed al Qahtani. [A1, B1, B5] A DoD log of the interrogation of Mr. al Qahtani shows that Dr. Leso observed at least two abusive interrogation sessions and, on at least one occasion, advised the interrogators on how to increase Mr. al Qahtani's suffering.[B4]

It is not yet publicly known whether he participated in other sessions in which Mr. al Qahtani was abused, but draft BSCT policies and statements by his colleagues suggest that the question warrants further investigation. [B7, D5, D6]

Also worthy of further investigation is the question of whether, as a BSCT charged with supporting the GTMO task force's interrogation mission, Dr. Leso participated in the interrogation of other detainees during his time at GTMO. [B7, D1, C1] This question is vital to determine whether he was involved in the abusive treatment of other men and boys interrogated at GTMO between June 2002 and January 2003. [D5, A2, B12]

Additionally, Dr. Leso - a clinical psychologist with no training in interrogation prior to arriving at GTMO - helped craft a policy of torture at GTMO by designing psychologically and physically abusive interrogation techniques and detention conditions. Together with psychiatrist Dr. Paul Burney, Dr. Leso co-wrote a draft interrogation policy memo for GTMO that incorporated illegal techniques adapted from methods used by the Chinese and North Korean governments against American prisoners of war. Their memo eventually formed the basis for a memo signed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in December 2, 2002, in which the Secretary authorized at least eleven abusive interrogation techniques that were similar or identical to the ones presented by Drs. Leso and Burney. [B1, B6, B8, B9, B10, B11, B6] Many of the techniques and conditions that Dr. Leso helped put in place were applied to Mr. al Qahtani [B4, B1] and many of the men and boys held at GTMO. [B1, D5] Eventually, similar techniques were also used on prisoners held in Department of Defense custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. [B1]

This time, the Federal Reserve has created a truly global problem. A big chunk of the trillions of dollars that it pumped into the financial system over the past several years has flowed into emerging markets. But now that the Fed has decided to begin "the taper", investors see it as a sign to pull the "hot money" out of emerging markets as rapidly as possible.

This is causing currencies to collapse and interest rates to soar all over the planet. Argentina, Turkey, South Africa, Ukraine, Chile, Indonesia, Venezuela, India, Brazil, Taiwan and Malaysia are just some of the emerging markets that have been hit hard so far.

In fact, last week emerging market currencies experienced the biggest decline that we have seen since the financial crisis of 2008. And all of this chaos in emerging markets is seriously spooking Wall Street as well.

The Dow has fallen nearly 500 points over the last two trading sessions alone. If the Federal Reserve opts to taper even more in the coming days, this currency crisis could rapidly turn into a complete and total currency collapse.

A lot of Americans have always assumed that the U.S. dollar would be the first currency to collapse when the next great financial crisis happens. But actually, right now just the opposite is happening and it is causing chaos all over the planet.

A Republican candidate for the Florida House of Representatives is in hot water after he agreed Monday that President Barack Obama should be hanged for treason.

Joshua Black, an African-American, agreed to the idea of hanging the president after a Twitter user sent him the following public message: "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high."

"Agreed," Black tweeted in response.

A Republican candidate for the Florida House in a nearby district, Chris Latvala, was quick to denounce Black.

"[Y]ou aren't seriously calling for the killing of Obama are you?" Latvala asked, adding that Black is an "embarrassment."

All blood relatives of North Korea's erstwhile number two, who was executed a month ago, have apparently suffered the same fate, says the S. Korean Yonhap news agency.

Once all powerful, Jang Song-thaek was the 'regent' while Kim was still too young to govern after Kim Jong-il's death. He was executed on December 12, 2013 at the age of 67, after making an alleged attempt to stage a military coup and dethrone his nephew.

Now Kim Jong-un is believed to have ordered the total elimination of his uncle's biological relatives to demonstrate decisiveness and to clamp down on mutiny with an iron fist, "multiple" sources in Pyongyang told the Seoul-based Yonhap news agency.

The turtle wearing a hat backward, baggy jeans and purple sunglasses looks just like other cartoon characters that marketers use to make products like cereal and toys appealing to children.

But the reptile, known as T. Top, who says creating and breaking codes is really "kewl," is pushing something far weightier: the benefits of the National Security Agency.

"In the world of diplomacy, knowing what your enemy is planning helps you to prepare," the turtle says. "But it is also important that your enemies do not know what you have planned. It is the mission of the National Security Agency and the Central Security Service to learn what it can about its potential enemies to protect America's government communications."

Such an enthusiastic endorsement of the N.S.A.'s mission might seem particularly timely given the criticism directed at the agency since one of its former contractors, Edward J. Snowden, began leaking documents he had stolen from it. But T. Top and a troupe of eight other smiley-faced cartoon characters have been busy promoting the N.S.A.'s mission for the past nine years as part of a governmentwide attempt to make agencies more understandable to the public. With cartoon characters, interactive games and puzzles, the N.S.A.'s CryptoKids website for "future codemakers and codebreakers" tries to educate children about spying duties and recruit them to work for the agency.

A Thai anti-government protest leader has been shot in the head while delivering a speech in Bangkok, as demonstrators blocked advance voting for a controversial general election.

Piya Utayo, a spokesman for Thailand's national police, on Sunday identified the dead man as Suthin Tharathin. "At least five other people were injured," he said.

"Suthin Tharathin was shot in the head while giving a speech from the back of a truck," protest spokesman Akanat Promphan told AFP.

Mayor Bill de Blasio says 'there is no greater ally on earth' than Israel, in speech to Israel lobby that did not appear on public schedule.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a heartfelt speech praising Israel at a private gala event hosted by AIPAC at the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan Thursday night, the local website Capital New York reported.

According to an edited audio recording obtained by the site (below), de Blasio said that "part of his job description is to defend Israel" and that it is "elemental to being an American, because there is no greater ally on earth, and that's something we can say proudly."

The Israel lobby's event was closed to journalists and the speech did not appear on the mayor's public schedule, arousing suspicion and making the event all the more intriguing. A reporter with Capital who tried to get into the event was escorted out by security.

De Blasio said in his speech that he had visited Israel three times, most recently with his wife and son, and that he was especially moved by visiting Sderot, on the border with the Gaza Strip and often the target of rocket attacks.

"You can't have an experience like that and not feel solidarity with the people of Israel and know that they're on the front line of fighting against so many challenges."

He closed the speech by announcing that "City Hall will always be open to AIPAC," adding that it is his job to stand by the lobby in Washington.

Today has been a bounty of riches of idiots: first there were the idiots who subway surfed just to feel something, then there were the more creative idiots who took to Brooklyn for the Idiotarod. But the 'idiot of the day' award surely must be awarded to Tom Perkins, a venture capitalist who wrote a letter to the WSJ comparing criticism of the 1% to the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust. If you've ever wanted to hear what the world's most expensive miniature violin sounded like, here's your chance.

You can read the full letter to the editor below, so you don't have to give any hate clicks to the WSJ:

Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?

Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."

From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these "techno geeks" can pay. We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a "snob" despite the millions she has spent on our city's homeless and mentally ill over the past decades.

This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?

Tom Perkins

It was only a year ago that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was getting his pay docked by millions of dollars. Now, though, the company is giving their chief executive a raise.

Despite the fact that JPMorgan was hit with $20 billion worth of fines during 2013, Dimon will receive $1.5 million for the year. That base salary is virtually unchanged from the year before, but the company will also pay him an additional $18.5 million in restricted stock, according to a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to CNBC, some board members were divided over the possibility of raising Dimon's compensation levels. Those opposed cited the record levels of fines the company was ordered to pay out as a reason to keep his salary where it was, while others believed Dimon deserved a raise due to the difficult landscape he was operating in.

Just last year, Dimon had his pay slashed from $23 million to $11.5 million following revelations in the 'London Whale' scandal that showed the company's traders manipulated bank records in order to cover up $6.2 billion in losses. As a result, JPMorgan agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in fines to settle the case against it.