A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Investigation into bribery claim in 'Ruby' case
ROME – Italian prosecutors are investigating a suspected attempt to falsify the birth records of the teenager at the centre of the under-age sex scandal engulfing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Judicial sources said the investigation had been opened against unknown individuals who were alleged to have tried to bribe a Moroccan official to change the birth records of Karima El Mahroug, better known under her stage name “Ruby”.
Mr Berlusconi has been charged with paying for sex with Ms El Mahroug last year when she was under the legal age of 18, and with abusing the powers of his office by intervening with police in a bid to cover up his connection with her.
His trial is scheduled to begin on April 6th. He has denied having sex with Ms El Mahroug, who has said she received €7,000 from him. According to the left-wing daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, two Italian men approached a registry official in Fkih Ben Salah in Morocco last month and offered her money to change records showing Ms El Mahroug was born on November 1st, 1992. – (Reuters)
Man charged over Stockholm bomb
GLASGOW – A 30-year-old man arrested in connection with the Stockholm suicide bombing has been charged with terrorism offences.
The man was arrested at a block of flats in the Whiteinch area of Glasgow last week.
Suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly (28), who studied at the University of Luton, blew himself up and injured two people in an attack in Stockholm's shopping district in December last year.
Iraqi-born Abdulwahab apparently killed himself as he tried to set off a car bomb in a busy street. – (PA)
Toddler treated for alcoholism
LONDON – A child aged three has been treated for alcoholism by staff at an English hospital.
The toddler, thought to be Britain's youngest alcoholic, was among 13 children aged 12 and under who were diagnosed as alcoholics by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust between 2008 and 2010.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed the trust admitted more than 70 children aged 13 to 16 for emergency treatment for alcohol abuse.
The trust said a further 106 13- to 16-year-olds were treated for addiction to alcohol in the same period.
Managers declined to give details of the toddler's condition. – (PA)
Madonna's London home burgled
LONDON – A Polish national has been charged with burglary, London police said yesterday, after British newspapers reported that he broke into the home of US pop star Madonna.
According to the newspapers, Madonna and her children were in the US at the time of the break-in, after the death of her grandmother.
A police spokesman confirmed that Grzegorz Matlok (29) was arrested on Saturday in central London and charged with burglary on Sunday. – (Reuters)