Newspapers : 10th November

Silvio Berlusconi's top 10 gaffes. Nick Squires , The Telegraph (en)
" ... On business: "Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries – superb girls." ... On plans to base an EU food standards agency in Finland instead of Parma: "Parma is synonymous with good cuisine. The Finns don't even know what prosciutto is." ... On his career: "I don't need to go into office for the power. I have houses all over the world, stupendous boats, beautiful aeroplanes, a beautiful wife, a beautiful family. I am making a sacrifice." ..."

Carla Bruni angry at Berlusconi's 'suntanned' Obama jibe. Peter Allen, The Telegraph (en)
"My husband is not Obama. But the French voted for the son of a Hungarian immigrant, whose father had an accent, whose mother was of Jewish origin, and his stance has always been to say that he's French although he comes from somewhere else.
"He doesn't look like the traditional French elite but that didn't stop him. And, personally, I don't correspond to the profile of a first lady! I'm an artist, born Italian ..."

Ségolène Royal in shock political comeback. Henry Samuel, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Miss Royal was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy in presidential polls last year and faded from the frontline of politics in France. But at a meeting of her Socialist party on Thursday night, her "motion" - a list of priorities for the Socialist party and seen as a gauge of her popularity - won the greatest support of a shortlist of six candidates to lead the Left in a poll of party members ..."

Tests for priests to screen out homosexuals. Andy McSmith, The Independent (en)
" ... After being hit by a series of sex scandals, the Vatican has given the seal of approval to the psychological screening to test for evidence of personality disorders or serious doubts about aptitude for the priesthood.
Controversially, the head of the Vatican committee that made the recommendations has made it clear they should be used to screen out homosexuals, even if they are celibate, because homosexuality is "a type of deviation" that disqualifies a priest from exercising "spiritual paternity" ...
... "The candidate does not necessarily have to practise homosexuality. He can even be without sin," the Cardinal said. "But if he has this deep-seated tendency, he cannot be admitted to priestly ministry precisely because of the nature of the priesthood, in which a spiritual paternity is carried out. Here we are not talking about whether he commits sins, but whether this deeply rooted tendency remains." ..."

Georgia fired first shot, say UK monitors . Jon Swain, The Times (en)
" ... On the night war broke out, Grist was the senior OSCE official in Georgia. He was in charge of unarmed monitors who became trapped by the fighting. Based on their observations, Grist briefed European Union diplomats in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, with his assessment of the conflict. Grist, who resigned from the OSCE shortly afterwards, has told The New York Times it was Georgia that launched the first military strikes against Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. “It was clear to me that the [Georgian] attack was completely indiscriminate and disproportionate to any, if indeed there had been any, provocation,” he said. “The attack was clearly, in my mind, an indiscriminate attack on the town, as a town.” ...