BBC: Italy PM Silvio Berlusconi wins confidence vote

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has won a key confidence vote in parliament, sparked by questions over his handling of the economy and personal scandals.

Mr Berlusconi won the vote in the lower house by 316 vote to 301.

Italy's government credit rating was recently downgraded and parliament failed to back a key part of the budget this week, triggering the vote.

Mr Berlusconi also faces trial on sex, bribery and abuse of power charges.

The outcome of the vote was in doubt until the last minute - even some of Mr Berlusconi's own MPs were expressing uncertainty.

Most of the opposition boycotted the first round of the vote, raising questions about whether there were enough MPs to form a quorum.

Berlusconi in numbers

·         At least 51 votes of confidence (including 14 October vote) in his government since it took power in 2008

·         Three election victories - 1994, 2001 and 2008

·         Two election defeats - 1996 and 2006

·         Four ongoing trials

·         $9bn - net worth of Berlusconi and his family (Forbes, 2010)

·         2,500 court appearances at 106 trials over 20 years

On Saturday, he also faces a mass demonstration of some 200,000 people in Rome - similar to recent ones in New York and Madrid - against austerity measures and financial mismanagement.

Italy is considered vulnerable in the current eurozone crisis, with the highest public debt among countries using the European single currency.

The country approved an austerity package last month to balance the budget by 2013 but its central bank chief this week urged the government to introduce more measures to stimulate growth.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15302695

US to continue pressure on Pakistan for positive role: Clinton

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has reiterated that US would continue to mount heavy pressure on Pakistan for positive role in war on terror, Geo News reported.

In an interview with an American news agency, Clinton said war against terrorists would persist, adding that efforts would continue to kill, arrest or dilute the influence of militants belong to Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban or Haqqani network.

She further said several countries are in contact with Taliban and interfering in Afghanistan. 

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=24555&title=US-to-continue-pressure-on-Pakistan-for-positive-role:-Clinton

Reuters: US not sincere about Afghan peace: Haqqanis

ISLAMABAD: The United States was not sincere about peace in Afghanistan when it signalled it would remain open to exploring a settlement that includes the Haqqani network, one of the group’s senior commanders said on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested in comments this week that Washington would not shut the door to the Haqqanis — blamed for high-profile attacks in Afghanistan — in any peace arrangement.

The Haqqanis saw the remarks as an attempt to divide Afghan militant groups and believed only the top leaders of the Taliban should negotiate, said the commander.

“We had rejected many such offers from the United States in the past and reject this new offer as we are not authorised to decide the future of Afghanistan,” he told Reuters.

The senior Haqqani commander denied that Jamil Haqqani, who was killed in a drone attack on Thursday, had links with the group.

However, an intelligence officer said that Jamil was a highly trusted companion of Sirajuddin. He had been with the Haqqani group for a long time and was tasked with handling communications.

Jamil was Sirajuddin’s cousin, he added.—Reuters

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/14/us-not-sincere-about-afghan-peace-haqqanis.html

UK’s Liam Fox faces fresh questions on Sri Lanka links

Defence secretary, UK,  accused of running 'maverick foreign policy' in Sri Lankan Development Trust dealings involving Adam Werritty

By: Polly Curtis, Jason Burke and Rupert Neate

 faced fresh accusations of running a shadow foreign policyafter it emerged he was involved in setting up a private investment firm to operate in Sri Lanka in apparent contravention of UK government policy, with his controversial friend Adam Werritty as its key contact.

The defence secretary was intimately involved in negotiations with the Sri Lankan regime as recently as last summer, according to Lord Bell, his friend of 30 years, agreeing a deal that allows the Sri Lankan Development Trust to operate in the country in the same period in which he now says he withdrew his involvement. The trust was a venture designed to rebuild the country's infrastructure using private finance with a sideline in charitable projects for Tamil communities.

Labour urged the government to come clean on Fox's work in Sri Lanka and whether it might have contravened the government's official policy, while a senior Whitehall source said the minister had been operating a "maverick foreign policy" and it is this that will ultimately decide his political fate.

The government has adopted an arm's-length policy on Sri Lanka, calling for an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes. Since 2006 it has also had a policy to limit development work to urgent humanitarian assistance and "de-mining" areas affected by the civil war.

Fox told the Commons on Monday he had worked with "a number" of business, banking and political contacts to establish the trust in Sri Lanka.

He named only Werritty, his close friend who is at the heart of the scandal over his unofficial role as Fox's adviser. "Neither myself, Mr Werritty nor others sought to receive any share of the profits for assisting the trust," he said.

In June 2010, he met the Sri Lankan foreign minister in Singapore, along with Werritty and MoD officials. "The purpose of the meeting was to make it clear that although I would no longer be able to participate in the project, the others involved would continue to do so," he said on Monday. But Bell told the Guardian on Thursday that discussions took place last summer in which Fox agreed with the governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka that the trust would invest in roadbuilding and other infrastructure projects using private investment.

Bell, whose PR firm Bell Pottinger was employed by the Sri Lankan government until last year to improve the country's reputation abroad, said the deal had been struck between Fox and the head of the Sri Lankan bank: "In order for these funds to operate they would need an agreement with the country. The financial interests of Sri Lanka come under the governor of the Central Bank. My understanding is that the infrastructure development fund would be set up and have an agreement with the Sri Lankan government to invest in Tamil communities in Sri Lanka. It's a fine idea with a good sense of purpose."

He added that "of course" part of the strategy was to improve the regime's reputation abroad.

Kevan Jones, shadow defence minister, said: "Liam Fox told the house about the trust on Monday. It's clearly not a full explanation. If he was still striking deals with the Sri Lankans last summer, how does that fit with official UK foreign policy? He has to explain these negotiations. You can't have a situation where a government minister is appearing to run a completely separate foreign policy from that of the government."

Fox's parliamentary and private offices both said last night that Fox ceased to have any involvement with the trust on entering government.

The only activity the Sri Lanka Development Trust appears to have engaged in has been the payment of up to £7,500 of Fox's travel expenses, incurred on three trips to the country in 2009 and 2010.

The trust was originally registered to an address close to the Houses of Parliament in London, 40 George Street, which is also the offices of 3G, the "Good Governance Group", which is chaired by Chester Crocker, a former US politician. He also sits on the board of Bell Pottinger LLC, the US wing of Bell's publicity firm. Bell denied that there was any connection between his firm or its US subsidiary and Fox's Sri Lankan operation.

The trust has since transferred to the Lothian Road in Edinburgh, giving its address as No 50, a substantial granite and glass-fronted office block where a number of firms including the HQ of the Scottish oil exploration firm Cairn Energy and corporate offices for Clydesdale Bank are based. When the Guardian visited the building there was no sign of any physical presence of the organisation.

Two legal firms also based in the building are not believed to be connected. As a legal trust, it does not have to register either with the Charities Commission or on the register of businesses at Companies House. It does not have to publish the names of its trustees, it purpose or its beneficiaries.

Bell said that the trust consisted of two bodies, the Sri Lanka Infrastructure Development Fund, which was intended to raise money abroad from investors who would then share in the profit of ventures on the country, and the Sri Lanka Charitable Fund which would undertake charitable projects in Tamil areas in the north and east.

Inquiries in Colombo could not establish any activity the trust or its subsidiaries have so far carried out. Aid experts, senior politicians and officials in Sri Lanka said they had no knowledge of the trust. Nether the trust nor its subsidiaries are registered by the National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organisations, a prerequisite for any such project.

On a trip in March 2009, shortly before the end of the bloody but successful government offensive, Fox called for the creation of "a special fund with the help of international partners ... to help the Sri Lankan government in handling the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war ravaged areas in the north and east [of the country]."

Fox told local journalists he was suggesting "a new, independent, Sri Lanka construction fund". One aim of the fund, he said, would be to divert cash that had been flowing from ethnic Tamils overseas to the LTTE into reconstruction.

No activity on the ground appears to have occurred. "I have my ear pretty close to the ground and I doubt a major new reconstruction project in the north [of Sri Lanka] could get going without my knowledge and I have never heard of this trust," said one senior aid official in Colombo, the commercial capital.

The source of the trust's money for the transport to Sri Lanka for Fox is unknown. Contributions to the cost of the trips were also received from the Sri Lankan government via its London embassy.

Human rights groups have been critical of Fox's outspoken support for the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is now in his second term of office and has been accused by campaigners of repressing the press and opposition.

WikiLeaks cables revealed American diplomats' concerns at alleged government complicity in human rights abuses committed by troops and paramilitaries during the latter stages of the civil war. The United Nations has repeatedly pressed Sri Lanka for greater accountability and transparency.

Additional reporting: Severin Carrell

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/13/liam-fox-fresh-questions-over-sri-lanka?CMP=twt_gu

Ban on fissile material production opposed

UNITED NATIONS: Some powerful states had changed the strategic environment of the South Asian region, Pakistan complained to the world body on Tuesday and said it opposed banning production of fissile material used as fuel for nuclear weapons.

Fissile Production Ban and Pakistan - FMCT 

“Clearly it is not through choice but necessity that Pakistan is opposed to negotiations on Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), as no country can be expected to compromise on its fundamental security interests,” Pakistan`s delegate told the UN.

Over the past few years, some powerful countries, in pursuit of their commercial interests as well as dubious notions of balance of power, have embarked upon an unfettered and discriminatory nuclear cooperation arrangement in gross violation of their international commitments. “They have no moral authority in calling for strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime when they are themselves responsible for undermining it,” the deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, Mr Raza Bashir Tarar, told the first committee of UN General Assembly`s Disarmament and International Security.

“This has accentuated our security concerns as such nuclear cooperation shall further widen the asymmetry in stockpiles in our region,” he said.

Thus, FMCT that purported only to ban future production of fissile material would permanently freeze a strategic disadvantage for Pakistan and was therefore, unacceptable, the Pakistani diplomat said.

With the introduction of the treaty into the agenda of the conference, Mr Tarar said Pakistan had called attention to the fact that a treaty to cut off future production of fissile material will freeze the existing asymmetries in fissile material stockpiles, which will be detrimental for its national security.

Accordingly, Pakistan has been advocating a treaty that not only bans future production, but also aims at reducing existing stockpiles of fissile material.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/13/ban-on-fissile-material-production-opposed.html

Syria: threat of armed uprising grows

BEIRUT/WASHINGTON: An armed insurrection inside Syria looks set to gather momentum after the failure to pass a UN resolution against president Bashar al-Assad’s regime, according to dissidents in two key Syrian cities.

Activists from Homs and Hama, where mostly peaceful protests over the past six months have lately become more aggressive and armed, say the failure of the US effort to threaten sanctions against Syria has convinced some that diplomacy cannot protect them.

“There’s no way out of this except to fight,” said an activist from Homs. “For the people of Homs the international community are not with us and we know that for sure. Russia and China will continue to protect Assad and as long as that happens, he will hunt us down.”

Britain, France and the US are expected to seek a fresh resolution on Syria before the UN Security Council after Russia and China on Tuesday night vetoed a draft that threatened sanctions, a Security Council source said on Wednesday.

The veto by Russia, supported by China, provoked the biggest verbal explosion from the US at the UN for years, with its ambassador Susan Rice expressing outrage over the Moscow and Beijing move.

Rice also walked out of the Security Council, the first such demonstration in recent years.

While walkouts are common at the UN general assembly, they are rare in the Security Council.

“It will not go away,” the source said. “It will not be next week. We don’t have a date. But there are a number of ways the Security Council can get back to this.”

The vote was 9-2 in favour, with four abstentions: South Africa, India, Brazil and Lebanon. The draft resolution on Tuesday only said the Security Council would “consider its options” in 30 days’ time if Assad failed to stop the violence and seek a peaceful settlement of the crisis.

It said the options would include sanctions. To further water down the resolution in an attempt to make it more acceptable to Russia and China, there was no hint of military intervention.

In Homs, where government forces are routinely clashing with armed members of the opposition — many of them former soldiers who defected with their weapons — outgunned protesters are now openly seeking weapons from outside the country

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/07/syria-threat-of-armed-uprising-grows.html