"I have never had any intimate relations with her, " Mr Berlusconi said.

BBC: Berlusconi sex trial: 'No intimate ties' with Ruby

He wanted to forge more intimate relations with fewer companies.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

He brings together a tangy array of people whose place in the economy is sketched as clearly as their place in the chain of affections, and gets at the power relations that the most intimate connections depend on.

NEWYORKER: Beeswax

Their professional relations, however, have not been intimate.

NEWYORKER: The General��s Dilemma