Italy: 'After Mubarak, Berlusconi'

Tens of thousands women and men took to the streets of towns and cities across Italy to demand that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi step down over allegations that he paid for sex with teenagers, including one who was underage at the time.

Some five thousand trade unionists, actresses, politicians and other prominent citizens gathered in Rome's Piazza del Popolo, while smaller rallies turned out in Naples, Bari and Palermo chanting: "After Mubarak, Silvio Berlusconi."

They hoisted banners reading: "Unworthy Berlusconi, this is not my head of government," and "Italy is not a brothel."

A banner dominating the square from the Women of the South group read: "Don't call me an escort, I'm a whore. Don't call me a whore, I'm a slave."

The protest was launched after prosecutors filed a formal request for Mr Berlusconi to stand trial for alleged abuse of power and for paying a minor for sex.

Over 50,000 women have signed the Purple People manifesto "If not now, when?" which denounces "the indecent, repetitive representation of women as a naked object of sexual exchange" in corporate media.

Protest organiser Ida Poletto said: "Women in this country are denigrated by the repeated, indecent and ostentatious representation of women as a naked sexual object on offer in newspapers, on television and in advertising - it's intolerable."