The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Italy's Berlusconi to resign, end scandal-hit era
- Niger offers asylum to Gaddafi son - report
- Papademos sworn in to lead party-packed Greek cabinet
| Italy's Berlusconi to resign, end scandal-hit era Posted: ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to resign on Saturday, making way for an emergency government and ending one of the most scandal-plagued eras in Italy's post-war history.
The Chamber of Deputies was due to start a debate at 1130 GMT on a package of economic reforms intended to reverse a collapse of market confidence. The definitive approval of the package by the lower house will mark the final act of the Berlusconi government. He is expected to hold a last cabinet meeting and then go to the Quirinale Palace and hand his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano. His resignation will trigger a series of events over the weekend and most likely conclude on Sunday night or Monday morning with the formation of new government headed by former European Commissioner Mario Monti. Monti, currently head of the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan, is expected to head a largely technocratic government to push through reforms in an effort to head off a perilous crisis. Napolitano and Italian legislators have put the process on a fast track, prompting healthy reactions from the stock and bond markets. Italian bond yields, which shot way above sustainable levels earlier this week, fell sharply in response to acceleration of the process leading to Berlusconi's resignation and the approval of the reforms. Global markets panicked earlier this week because of the sustained political turmoil in the euro zone's third largest economy, and Italy's borrowing costs shot above a "red line" of 7 percent -- the level at which Portugal and Ireland had to seek an international bailout. EUROPEAN LEADERS SUPPORT ITALY PRESIDENT Napolitano has received encouragement from various European heads of state, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German President Christian Wulff. In telephone calls on Friday, all three agreed that the new measures must be enacted quickly because the situation in Italy was extremely worrying for all of Europe and particularly the euro zone. Monti, a highly respected international economist, has been favoured by markets for weeks to lead Italy out of the crisis. But although he would be supported by most centrists and the biggest opposition force, the Democratic Party, there is substantial opposition in Berlusconi's existing coalition. Berlusconi has dominated the Italian scene since 1994 and has led three governments in 17 years. After making a fortune in property and media, Berlusconi created his own party almost overnight to fill the void on the centre-right caused by the demise of the Christian Democratic party in the corruption scandals in the early 1990s. His third and last stint in power, which began in 2008 when his centre-right won the national elections, has been the most scandal plagued. His second wife left him 2009, accusing him of frequenting minors. He leaves office facing four separate trials for fraud and having sex with a minor. For much of this year, Italian newspapers have been filled with lurid details of "bunga-bunga" parties with young women at his luxurious residences in Rome, Milan and Sardinia. One leaked wiretap had him boasting of having sex with eight women in one night and being so occupied with starlets that he was only prime minister "in my spare time". (Reporting By Philip Pullella) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Niger offers asylum to Gaddafi son - report Posted: JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said on Friday he had granted Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi asylum on humanitarian grounds but did not know the location of another fugitive son Saif al-Islam, South African media reported. The announcement will strain already troubled relations between Niger and Libya's interim rulers, who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi after an eight month uprising and want both sons to stand trial for alleged atrocities.
Saadi, a businessman and former professional footballer, is in Niger after escaping across the border from Libya when National Transitional Council (NTC) forces captured the capital Tripoli in August. "We have agreed on granting asylum to Saadi Gaddafi for humanitarian reasons," the South African Press Association (SAPA) quoted Issoufou telling a news conference at the end of a two-day visit to South Africa. Interpol has issued a "red notice" requesting member states to arrest Saadi with a view to extradition if they find him on their territory. Libya's interim justice minister on Friday questioned Niger's grounds in granting asylum on humanitarian grounds, saying it was usually given to people facing persecution in their own country. "But al-Saadi has practiced persecution and incitement to murder. He is accused of killing Tripoli football player and national team member Bashir Al Rayan ... There is strong circumstantial evidence that he was involved in that," Mohammed al-Alagi told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. Issoufou said he did not know the location of Saif al-Islam who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity. "Saif al-Islam is not in Niger. I would have to consider what to do if he comes. We will deal with issues in terms of law and democracy and international agreements," Issoufou said. Niger is a member of the Hague-based global court and officially would have to hand over Saif al-Islam if he arrived on its territory. The ICC says it has been in indirect contact with Saif al-Islam to discuss him giving himself up. He is believed to be deep in the Libyan desert. (Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti in Cairo Editing by Andrew Heavens) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Papademos sworn in to lead party-packed Greek cabinet Posted: ATHENS (Reuters) - Technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos took office on Friday to save Greece from bankruptcy, heading a coalition cabinet filled with many of the same politicians who led the nation into crisis and pushed the euro zone to the brink of collapse.
At a colourful swearing-in ceremony, black-robed Orthodox priests, led by the Archbishop of Athens, blessed Papademos and a cabinet dominated by the two main parties which had bickered for four days before agreeing on the crisis coalition. Apart from Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice president with no political experience, the cabinet's main new face is from the LAOS party -- the first time the far right has joined a Greek government since a military junta fell in 1974. As politicians in Italy pushed through austerity measures and contemplated an emergency government to stave off the crisis creeping deeper into the euro zone, Papademos said his priority would be to meet the terms of the country's EU, IMF bailout and pull Greece out of recession. "The final result will depend much on whether we succeed in stabilising the real economy, reining in unemployment and setting the ground to revive the economy and gradually boost employment in a relatively short time," he told his governing team in its first meeting. "That's why I would like to ask everyone to do his best in the next coming days, weeks and months." The line-up includes Socialist party power broker Evangelos Venizelos, who keeps the post of finance minister that he held in Papandreou's government. Analysts said Papademos -- a quiet academic economist -- had to assert his authority over a cabinet packed with the hardened conservative and Socialist party politicians who took turns in power for decades as Greece built up a huge debt it could not manage, forcing an international bailout. "Greece has a government that is the result of political compromise among three parties. It is obvious that there was a dealing of the cards," said Costas Panagopoulos, head of ALCO pollsters. "It all now depends on how the prime minister handles them." CLEAR MANDATE, TOUGH TASK The interim government of national unity, which has a bumper 48 ministers and their deputies, plans to announce its platform on Monday evening, then conduct a debate and win a confidence vote in parliament by early next week. It has a clear mandate that may not be so simple to implement before it calls an early general election, tentatively agreed for Feb. 19. It has to push through parliament Greece's second bailout deal in as many years -- a plan that includes fighting tax evasion, selling off state companies and cutting the public sector -- to get hold of 130 billion euros in long term funds. But Athens also needs money fast from its IMF and EU lenders to meet big debt repayments due in December or face default, bankruptcy and the danger of leaving the euro zone. Finance Minister Venizelos said securing a December aid tranche Athens needs next month would be the immediate focus. "Our first priority is clear. It is the timely release of the 8 billion euro tranche before Dec. 15. There is readiness for this from our partners and the IMF for this to happen on time," he said. A source from the so-called "troika" of the EU, the IMF and the ECB said inspectors would visit Athens early next week to speak with the new government and would clear the tranche only when it pledged to meet its commitments. Both the Socialist PASOK and the conservative New Democracy parties say they will vote for the new bailout in parliament. However, the package demands policies and reforms which are likely to be highly unpopular as the parties prepared for the elections, expected in February at the earliest. It stipulates yet more of the punishing austerity that will push the country into a fourth year of recession, has sent unemployment soaring to a record 18.4 percent and brought Greeks out on to the streets in sometimes violent protests. BEST BEHAVIOUR The two main parties kept Greece in suspense for days as they argued over who should lead the coalition, with one deal to install the speaker of parliament collapsing after Papandreou announced he was handing over to a new premier. However, even after Papademos was confirmed as prime minister, manoeuvring over who got which job dragged on, with the cabinet list released only as ministers started arriving at the presidential palace to be sworn in. Conservative Opposition leader Antonis Samaras agreed to back the new cabinet but refused to bow to pressure from Greece's lenders to buckle down on reforms. "We are all well aware that our country has lost the last trace of decency in the last couple of days. Together we will restore it very quickly without accepting being humiliated or insulted," he said. Far-right LAOS won their place at table of a cabinet that was supposed to include all parties. However, left-wing groups refused to participate. On the streets of Athens, people welcomed a fresh face at least at the top, but hoped the consequences would not be too severe for a country weary of hardship. "The measures that have already been announced will be imposed," said civil servant Yiannis Papageorgiou, 57, referring to a wave of pay and pension cuts, public sector layoffs and privatisations agreed under the bailout deal. "But at least I hope that the new government will not take any further measures, because until now Greek workers have been the only ones who have been paying for the crisis." (Additional reporting by Tatiana Fragou, Angeliki Koutantou, Karolina Tagaris and Ingrid Melander; Writing by Michael Winfrey and David Stamp; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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