Meeting of the Minds

Qaddafi, Berlusconi Team Up in Italy

Libyan leader demands meetings with 700 women.

Finally, a foreign leader Silvio Berlusconi can relate to: Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi is making his first visit to Italy, his country's former colonial master, since he took power in 1969. A man after Berlusconi’s heart, Qaddafi has asked to meet with 700 Italian women from "politics, industry, and culture" because he considers himself "an emancipator of women," The Times of London reports. Of course, Qaddafi will meet Mara Carfagna, the former topless model who serves as Berlusconi's Equal Opportunities Minister, and who landed the Prime Minister in hot water two years ago after the his wife demanded a public apology for Berlusconi's public praising of Carfagna's beauty. Qaddafi is traveling in style, with an entourage of 300, including 40 female bodyguards, and a tent that he's setting up to receive visitors in. Between Qaddafi's eccentricities and Berlusconi's penchant for gaffes, Italy is expecting an entertaining 72 hours.