Italy's parliament has given its final approval to a controversial immunity bill put forward by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government. 

The bill was passed by 171 votes to 128 by the Senate. The lower house backed the measure earlier last month. The bill protects top public officials, including the prime minister, from prosecution while they are in office. 

Critics say it is tailor-made for Mr Berlusconi, who faces a corruption trial. The PM says he is innocent. 

The 71-year-old media tycoon has been charged numerous times for corruption, tax fraud and illegal party funding. Mr Berlusconi - who has never been convicted - has criticised the court cases, saying they are a result of a witch-hunt against him by the judiciary. 

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported last weekend that “felons are asking bushit for pardons & commutations at historic levels, as he nears his final months in office, a time when many other presidents have granted a flurry of clemency requests. 

However the Times noted that, despite commuting Scooter Libby’s prison sentence, applicants “should expect to be disappointed” because the great phoney “has made little use of his clemency power” compared to past presidents.  Unless, perhaps, you participated in illegal criminal activity connected to his administration’s controversial counterterrorism programs?  

According to the Times, “several members of the conservative legal community” in Washington DC are urging the little war criminal to issue “pre-emptive pardons” to those involved, so as to “not be exposed even to the risk of an investigation & expensive legal bills”.