Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi Dies At 86

Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul and former Italian prime minister who transformed the nation’s politics with polarizing policies and often alarmed his allies with his brazen remarks, died on Monday aged 86.

Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving premier who counted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a friend and gained notoriety for his “bunga bunga” sex parties, had suffered from leukaemia and recently developed a lung infection.

He died at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, where he had been since Friday, at around 0730 GMT.

Four of his five children and his brother Paolo had been at his bedside, ANSA reported shortly before his death was announced.