IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Prosecutors seek 6-year jail term for Berlusconi in sex trial

    {{Italian prosecutors called on Monday for a six-year jail sentence and a lifetime ban on holding public office for centre-right leader and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is charged with abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor.}}

    The 76-year-old billionaire media tycoon and senator is accused of paying for sex with Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name “Ruby the Heartstealer”, when she was under 18, during the now notorious “bunga bunga” parties at his villa at Arcore near Milan in 2010.

    However, prosecutors considered by far the more serious charge was that he abused the powers of his office during a separate incident by arranging for her to be released from police custody where she was being held on theft charges.

    They requested five years imprisonment for that and a year for paying for sex with a minor. The verdict is expected on June 24.

    But no final verdict will be enforced in either case until the appeals process, which can last for years, is exhausted.

    Still, Berlusconi’s legal difficulties have created growing tension within Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s governing coalition, which includes the ex-premier’s center-right party.

    “At Arcore there was a system of organized prostitution aimed at the satisfaction of the sexual pleasure of Silvio Berlusconi,” Milan chief prosecutor Ilda Boccassini said in a more than six-hour closing argument.

    Boccassini said a small army of young women, many of them aspiring starlets, took part in the sex parties at Berlusconi’s residence, hoping to make it big on one of his television channels.

    Those who stayed on after dinner were rewarded with cash, cars or free apartments, she said.

    The prosecutor said mobile phone records showed that Ruby, a Moroccan runaway, had spent the night at Berlusconi’s home on at least seven occasions between February and May 2010.

    “There is no doubt that Ruby had sex with the defendant, from whom she received benefits,” Boccassini said, adding that Berlusconi was well aware she was a minor.

    {agencies}

  • UK Fugitive Won’t Fight Extradition

    {{A Spanish court says a British fugitive who was arrested while sunbathing at a luxury villa has told a judge he will not fight his extradition.}}

    Andrew Terence Moran was taken into custody on Friday in Spain’s eastern town of Calpe.

    Moran is accused of taking part in the armed robbery of 25,000 pounds from a mail van in England in 2005, then escaping from security guards during his UK trial four years ago.

    On Monday, the National Court spokesman said Moran told Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez he will not fight his extradition.

    But the court also said Moran has an unspecified legal issue pending in Spain and the judge must decide if this will delay extradition.

    The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with court rules.

    {agencies}

  • Serena Williams Wins Madrid Open Final Tennis Match

    {{Serena Williams of the U.S. poses with the Ion Tiriac’s trophy after winning the Madrid Open final tennis match over Maria Sharapova of Russia in Madrid May 12, 2013.

    World number one and top seed Williams racked up the 50th title of her 18-year career when she thumped Sharapova 6-1 6-4 to defend her Madrid Open crown on Sunday.}}

    {Serena celebrating after winning the Madrid Open final tennis match}

    {reuters}

  • ‘Carlos the Jackal’, to Appeal Against Conviction

    {{Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the Venezuelan better known to the world as Carlos the Jackal, is returning to court to appeal against his conviction for a series of deadly bombings in France 30 years ago.}}

    The 63-year-old, who has been imprisoned in France since being captured in Sudan in 1994, was found guilty in 2011 of masterminding attacks in 1982 and 1983 on two French passenger trains, a train station in Marseille and a Libyan magazine office in Paris.

    Already serving life for murder at the time, Carlos was given another life sentence for his role in the attacks that left 11 people dead and nearly 150 injured, earning him the mantle of the world’s most wanted fugitive.

    The 1982 to 83 bombings were widely believed to have been carried out in retaliation for France’s detention of two fellow members of a group Carlos ran with the support of East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi.

    {{Evidence questioned}}

    Prosecutors in France were struggling to secure the evidence they needed to secure a conviction until the release of secret Stasi files in the years that followed the collapse of communism and German reunification.

    At the heart of Carlos’ appeal will be a claim that the evidence garnered from these files is fundamentally unreliable.

    The panel of judges that will hear the appeal will also review the acquittal of Christa Frohlich, a 70-year-old German, of charges of involvement in one of the attacks.

    Frohlich was tried in absentia in 2011 and has informed the court that she will not be attending the appeal, which is scheduled to run until the end of June.

    At his first trial, Carlos denied any involvement in the 1982 to 83 bombings while issuing a series of ambiguous pronouncements about his role as a “professional revolutionary” waging a war for the liberation of Palestine and other causes.

    In numerous interviews he has given over the years, he has claimed responsibility or involvement in dozens of attacks in which hundreds of people have died.

    {{Capture in Sudan}}

    After years on the run from Western security services, Carlos was finally arrested in Sudan in 1994 and transferred to France, where he was convicted three years later of the 1975 murder in Paris of two members of the French security services and an alleged informer.

    He could yet face a third trial in France as an examining magistrate is still investigating the 1974 bombing of the Drugstore Saint-Germain in the centre of Paris, which left two people dead and 34 injured.

    Against that background, he is seen as unlikely to be released any time soon.

    Carlos has not given up hope of securing a transfer to custody in his native Venezuela but it is hard to envisage France sanctioning such a move, given the outrage it would inevitably trigger.

    Venezuela’s late leader Hugo Chavez was a strong supporter of Carlos, describing him as a revolutionary who had been wrongly convicted.

    {{‘Life of a monk’}}

    Carlos has spent several years in solitary confinement but his prison conditions in France have, of late, been much more comfortable.

    At the Centrale de Poissy in the western suburbs of Paris, he spends his time reading, taking philosophy and literature classes and talking with his many visitors, according to one of his lawyers, Francis Vuillemin.

    “It is similar to the life of a monk in an abbey,” Vuillemin said.

    According to Aude Simeon, a former teacher in the prison, Carlos’ life also includes access to cigars and Venezuelan coffee served in his cell.

    In a memoir entitled “Teacher to the convicts”, Simeon describes Carlos as a very polite and courteous man who could also appear as a “slightly childish know-it-all”.

    {reuters}

  • China April Factory Output Disappointing

    {{China’s factory output growth was surprisingly muted in April, darkening the outlook for the Chinese economic recovery and feeding expectations that the government may take policy action to support activity.}}

    Annual industrial output grew 9.3% in April, up from a seven-month low of 8.9% hit in March but still missing market expectations for a 9.5% expansion, data showed on Monday.

    “Economic activity is weaker than expected. This could reinforce the case for the central bank to cut interest rates,” said Zhou Hao, an economist from ANZ Bank in Shanghai.

    Fixed-asset investment, an important driver of China’s economy, also missed market forecasts, growing 20.6% in the first four months of 2013 compared with the same period a year ago. Economists had expected growth of 21%.

    Retail sales was the only piece of data that met market expectations, growing 12.8% in April from a year ago.

    For investors, the big question now is whether China’s growth recovery is still on track.

    Just a few months ago, investors had lauded the world’s second-biggest economy as being in a sweet spot of benign inflation and rebounding growth.

    But hopes that China’s economy is recovering from last year’s slump, its worst in 13 years, took a beating after growth unexpectedly cooled in the first quarter.

    April’s output figures follow surprisingly buoyant trade numbers for the month, which many economists suspect are inflated by firms’ attempts to sneak funds into China past its capital controls. They say true export growth was likely more moderate.

    On the other hand, a slightly quicker-than-expected pick-up in consumer inflation in April suggested Beijing does not have quite as much room as it might desire to relax monetary policy should growth swoon.

    The mixed bag of economic figures from China this month should encourage investors to look at data from the real economy for clues on the state of growth.

    The country’s power output numbers for April, for instance, are due on Tuesday.

    Analysts have struggled to track the turns in China’s economy in the past year, often proving to be too upbeat.

    Predictions that a mild economic recovery was under way this year proved overly optimistic after growth sputtered between January and March.

    Calls in 2012 for a growth rebound were also nine months too early, materializing only in the fourth quarter.

    {reuters}

  • Israeli PM Criticized for Adding Bed on Plane

    {{Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will seek alternate sleeping arrangements when traveling after receiving a sky-high bill for installing a customized bed on a recent flight to London, officials close to the Israeli leader said.}}

    Netanyahu found himself facing a public uproar on Sunday after media reported over the weekend that he had spent $127,000 in public funds on a special sleeping cabin for the five-hour flight to attend Margaret Thatcher’s funeral last month.

    Netanyahu’s office initially defended the decision, saying the prime minister had a busy schedule ahead of the flight and needed to be fresh for important meetings in Britain.

    But following public criticism, officials close to Netanyahu said late Saturday that he had been unaware of the cost, and once informed, he ordered the bed be canceled on all future flights.

    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

    The Israeli prime minister’s office does not have its own plane, such as the U.S. presidential aircraft Air Force One.

    Instead, Israeli leaders must charter a plane when traveling abroad. Some commentators claim it would be cheaper in the long run to purchase and maintain a special plane reserved for official travel of the prime minister and other officials.

    {wirestory}

  • Sharif Claims Victory in Pakistan Elections

    {{Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif has declared victory in the country’s general elections as preliminary results showed a clear lead for his party, making it almost certain that he will become prime minister for a third time.}}

    Turnout in Saturday’s vote was nearly 60 percent, the election commission said, which according to official statistics is the highest since 1977.

    The election will bring the first transition between civilian governments in a country that has been ruled by the military for more than half of its turbulent history.

    Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), thanked his supporters as he addressed a crowd of about 300 people at his campaign headquarters in Lahore.

    “Through this vote and campaign I have felt how much love Pakistan has for me. And I have twice as much love for you,” he told his supporters.

    “Thank God that he has given us the chance to help you, to help Pakistan, to help the young people. We will fulfil all the promises that we have made.”

    {Agencies}

  • Man Offers Police Officer $650 to Kill Ex-Wife

    {{In Russia, a resident of Yegoryevsk, a town in the Moscow region, has been charged with conspiring to kill his ex-wife by offering 20,000 rubles ($650) to an undercover police officer, the Investigative Committee said Wednesday.}}

    The suspect, whose name has not been disclosed, decided to hire a hitman out of deep personal hatred for his former spouse caused by the divorce process and the prospect of separation from his child, investigators said.

    His search for a hitman became known to the criminal police, who set up a sting operation with one of their officers posing as the potential killer.

    During an initial meeting Monday, the suspect offered the undercover officer 20,000 rubles to kill his ex-wife, the Investigative Committee spokesperson Irina Gumennaya said.

    The suspect paid the undercover police officer 3,000 rubles in advance and promised to pay the rest when the job was done.

    On Tuesday, the police officer presented the disgruntled ex-husband with photos allegedly proving the death of his wife and was paid another 5,000 rubles, at which point he was taken into custody.

    It was not clear when the suspect planned to pay the remaining 12,000 rubles.

    A criminal case has been opened on charges of soliciting a contract murder, which may carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

    Investigators will ask the court to place the suspect under arrest for the duration of their inquiry

    The Moscow Times

  • Senior China Planner Investigated in Corruption Crackdown

    {{A deputy chairman of China’s top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is under investigation for suspected “serious discipline violations”, state media said on Sunday, as China’s new leaders tackle deep-rooted corruption.}}

    Liu Tienan, 59, who until March was also head of the energy regulatory body, the National Energy Administration, was under investigation by the Communist Party’s disciplinary commission.

    Last month, China formally charged a former railways minister, Liu Zhijun, with corruption and abuse of power, setting up the first test of newly installed President Xi Jinping’s resolve to crack down on pervasive graft.

    In January, Xi, who officially took office in March, said anti-corruption efforts should target both low-ranking “flies” and powerful “tigers”.

    The NDRC is a super ministry that sets broad economic policies and approves major investments.

    China’s biggest political scandal in decades was the downfall last year of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai.

    Bo’s fall from grace amid lurid accusations of murder and diplomatic intrigue caused division and uncertainty as the party prepared a transfer of power to a new generation of leaders.

    The government has yet to announce a trial date for Bo, or what charges he will face.

    {reuters}

  • Syria rebels free U.N. peacekeepers held in Golan

    {{Syrian rebels have freed four Filipino U.N. peacekeepers who they had captured on the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last week, the Philippines’ foreign minister said on Sunday.}}

    Sources told media in Dubai that the four had been transferred to Israel.

    Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario confirmed in Manila that the four had been released. The ministry will issue a statement later in the day, he said.

    The rebel Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade had said they were holding the peacekeepers for their own safety after clashes in the area had put them in danger. There was no immediate word from the rebel group itself on Sunday.

    The four had been detained as they were patrolling close to an area where 21 Filipino observers were held for three days in March by the same group.

    An Israeli official in Jerusalem said: “From what I understand, they were returned to the U.N. position they were abducted from.”

    {agencies}