Controversies surrounding Silvio Berlusconi being added to our list of Predators of Press Freedom", which would be a first for a European leader. He also added that Italy will probably be ranked last in the European Union in the upcoming edition of the RWB press freedom index. One of Berlusconi's strongest critics in the media outside Italy is the British weekly "The Economist" (nicknamed by Berlusconi ""The Ecommunist""), which in its issue of 26 April 2001 carried a title on its front cover, 'Why Silvio Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy'. The war of words between Berlusconi and "The Economist" has gained notoriety, with
Death and funeral of Helmut Kohl and was honoured with an unprecedented European Act of State in his honour in Strasbourg, France, attended by the leaders of the EU's nations and other current and former world leaders. Subsequently, a Catholic requiem mass was celebrated in the Speyer Cathedral in Speyer, Germany, before Kohl was interred in the nearby Old Cemetery. Helmut Kohl was survived by his two sons Walter Kohl and Peter Kohl, and by his grandchildren Johannes and Leyla Kohl. No member of the Kohl family—Kohl's children and grandchildren—participated in any of the ceremonies, owing to a feud with Kohl's controversial new wife Maike Kohl-Richter,