Italy Senate expels 3-time ex-Premier Berlusconi

November 27, 2013

ROME (AP) — Three-time former Premier Silvio Berlusconi was ousted from Parliament on Wednesday after two decades as a lawmaker, defiantly calling it "a day of mourning for democracy" and pledging to continue in politics.

After weeks of maneuvering, appeals and even an attempt to bring down the government, Berlusconi's delay tactics ran their course when the Senate voted to kick him out of the chamber due to a tax fraud conviction.

Ever a populist, the 77-year-old billionaire chose the piazza over the Senate floor, addressing a crowd of cheering supporters outside his Roman palazzo as the vote was under way just a short walk away.

"We are here on a bitter day, a day of mourning for democracy," Berlusconi declared. He said his political enemies — including the judiciary he accuses of mounting a campaign against him — were "toasting" his demise.

"They are actually euphoric," he said. Berlusconi pledged to remain in politics — effectively launching a campaign in which he won't be able to stand for office — noting that other political leaders are not lawmakers.

He cited Beppe Grillo, the former comic and founder of the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement, and Matteo Renzi, the Florence mayor who is a Democratic Party star widely tipped as a future premier candidate.

The Senate vote bars Berlusconi from running or holding office for at least six years under a 2012 law applied to anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison. Berlusconi was sentenced to four years on a tax fraud conviction relating to the purchase of TV rights to U.S. films on his Mediaset network, charges he continues to deny. The sentence was automatically reduced to one year by a general amnesty, which he will serve either under house arrest or doing public service.

In the last election, Berlusconi's now-defunct and splintered People of Freedom Party garnered 7.3 million votes, or 21.5 percent of the vote. Berlusconi's charisma remains compelling to many Italians despite his ongoing judicial woes.

"I think for the time being he still controls a substantial number of voters," said Roberto D'Alimonte, a political analyst at Rome's LUISS University. "He hasn't lost the hardcore voters." But D'Alimonte said to maintain them he will have to "be aggressive, be his usual Berlusconi" and not appear to be weakening, even physically due to age.

Seeking to reinvigorate himself politically, Berlusconi has relaunched the Forza Italia party that catapulted him to power in 1994. On the eve of the Senate vote, he bolted the government and joined the opposition, a move that may ultimately free his hand in a political campaign.

But he also has suffered a defection from his one-time political heir, Angelino Alfano, who split from his mentor earlier this month and formed a new center-right party that remains loyal to Premier Enrico Letta's hybrid government. Alfano's allegiance to the government ensured that it survived a confidence vote early Wednesday to pass the annual budget, despite Berlusconi's switch.

Berlusconi's expulsion makes the government majority "slimmer but more cohesive," said Federico Santi, an analyst with the Eurasia Group. At least for the short-term, Alfano's new party will avoid triggering a crisis to build a party structure and the Democratic Party will remain committed to the government "in light of opposition of among its voters to early elections and fears of electoral stalemate." Meanwhile, Berlusconi still faces other legal problems, including a seven-year prison term and lifetime ban from holding public office for his conviction of paying an underage prostitute for sex at his infamous "bunga bunga" parties and trying to cover it up. He has professed his innocence and plans to appeal.

Colleen Barry reported from Milan. Patricia Thomas contributed to this report.

Merkel, center-left reach deal on new German gov't

November 27, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives agreed Wednesday to form a new government with their traditional center-left rivals, a coalition that will shift Germany leftward but likely mean little change in Berlin's approach to Europe's debt crisis.

Merkel's Union bloc and the Social Democrats signed their deal to form a "grand coalition" of Germany's biggest parties after a 17-hour final round of talks capped weeks of wrangling following Sept. 22 elections.

A potentially tricky hurdle still remains before Merkel can be sworn in for a third term: the Social Democrats are putting the agreement to a ballot of their roughly 470,000 members, some of whom are deeply skeptical about going into government with the chancellor. The result is expected Dec. 14.

"The spirit of this agreement is that we are a grand coalition to master grand tasks for Germany," Merkel told reporters, identifying the main priorities as "solid finances, secure prosperity and social security."

At her conservatives' insistence, the new government is pledging not to raise taxes and to stop running up new debts during its four-year term. The Social Democrats secured key demands such as the introduction of a mandatory national minimum wage, which Germany is unusual among rich industrial powers in lacking. The 8.50-euro ($11.50) hourly minimum is to be introduced in 2015, though exceptions will be possible for the first two years.

Both sides secured potentially expensive changes to the pension system. The center-left wanted to allow some workers to retire early on full pensions, and the conservatives sought higher pensions for mothers who stayed home rather than working.

In a change championed by the Social Democrats, people born in Germany who also hold a passport from a non-European Union country will no longer have to choose one citizenship — something that will apply largely to the children of Turkish immigrants.

"For them, it will be a great signal that we're saying, 'you belong to us and we don't want to build artificial obstacles,'" Social Democrat leader Sigmar Gabriel said. Merkel has pushed other European countries to get their budgets in order during the continent's debt crisis and objected to pooling Germany's debt with that of weaker countries.

On Wednesday, she made clear she was sticking to that line, declaring that "solid finances mean, for our common Europe, placing value on having not a debt union but a stability union." The Social Democrats have voted in the past for Merkel's crisis policies but, before the election, advocated a European debt-redemption fund. They dropped that demand; the coalition deal makes clear that the new government opposes pooling debt or pooling bank countries' deposit insurance funds.

Merkel's Union bloc finished first in the Sept. 22 elections but her partners in Germany's center-right government of the past four years, the pro-business Free Democrats, lost all their seats in parliament. Her conservatives, meanwhile, fell short of a majority to govern alone.

That left her reaching across the aisle for a new coalition partner, leading to lengthy negotiations with the Social Democrats, who were her junior partners in her first term from 2005 to 2009. The "grand coalition," while popular among voters, is disliked by party activists — and the Social Democrats suffered a heavy electoral defeat in 2009 after governing with Merkel. The party finished a distant second in this year's vote, and Gabriel will have to work hard to bring members on board.

"The coalition agreement is one for ... ordinary and hard-working people," he said. "A lot of things are set out here that should improve Germany's economic but also social development." The parties won't determine who gets what job in the new government until the Social Democrats have completed their membership ballot.

In the meantime, Merkel's second-term government remains in office on a caretaker basis.

France to send 1,000 troops to C. African Republic

November 26, 2013

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — France promised Tuesday to send 1,000 troops to Central African Republic amid warnings about the potential for genocide in the near-anarchic former French colony.

Whether the French forces will save lives largely depends on how far the foreign soldiers venture outside the capital, Bangui, to the lawless provinces where mostly Muslim rebels have been attacking Christian villages, and Christian militias have recently launched retaliatory attacks.

The French move comes less than a week after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned "the country is on the verge of genocide" and marks the second time this year that France has sent troops to a former colony in Africa.

In January, thousands of French soldiers launched an offensive to free northern Mali's major towns from the control of al-Qaida-linked militants. After that success, the French military is stepping up its efforts in Central African Republic, a lawless country in the heart of the continent.

No other country is expected to take action if France, the former colonial power, doesn't get involved, said Francois Heisbourg, a French analyst at the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank in Paris.

"We are a prisoner of history and geography: This is our neighborhood, and yes, we have troops in the area for historical reasons," Heisbourg said. "And given the humanitarian situation and the political pressure, there is no way we can avoid doing this."

However, it is not clear how much can be accomplished by 1,000 French troops in a country of 4.6 million people where many roads have not been repaved since independence in 1960. An international presence is needed given the limited capacity of Central African Republic's own security forces, said Christian Mukosa, a researcher with the Africa division of Amnesty International.

"It's really very important that the French don't stay only in Bangui, but go to Bouca and other hot spots where currently there are serious human rights abuses and where populations are at risk," he said.

In the northwest town of Bouca, nun Angelina Santaguiliana said she lives in fear of a rebel attack on her Catholic mission. Already some 2,400 people have sought refuge there in the past week, crowding the floors of the church at night and taking shelter under trees on the mission's yard.

"If the French come to help with disarmament in our region, it will be a good thing, but if there is fighting it would make things worse," she said by telephone Tuesday, with the sounds of children wailing in the background.

More than 35,000 other people have sought refuge at another Catholic mission in Bossangoa, according to church officials there. Central African Republic's current chaos started late last year when a number of rebel groups joined forces to form the coalition known as Seleka. In March the rebels overthrew the president of a decade and installed their leader in power. But rebel leader-turned-president Michel Djotodia now exerts little control over the renegade fighters in the provinces, most of whom are Muslim and who are accused of committing killings, torture and rape, and forcibly recruiting child soldiers.

France has warned for months about the deteriorating security in Central African Republic, and its pledge follows warnings from the U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide who called the crisis in the country "one of the worst human rights and humanitarian crises of our time."

The conflict's toll is difficult to determine as the most vicious attacks have taken place in remote villages. About 1 in 10 people have been displaced from their homes, according to international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.

Details only trickle in when survivors make their way to safety and the insecurity in the region makes it impossible for aid groups to determine how many have died. And many of the rebels accused of committing atrocities have been integrated into the national army, rendering the country's security forces unable to combat the cycle of violence.

Reports of killings of civilians and looting emerged in Bangui soon after the rebel invasion in March. The crisis deepened several months later when the rebels began targeting the area of Bossangoa, the home region of ousted President Francois Bozize and many of his perceived supporters. Some villages have been completely decimated with homes burned to the ground. The Christian self-defense militias that emerged are also accused of attacking Muslim civilians, many of whom have suffered under the Seleka rebellion already.

In one attack documented by Human Rights Watch, fearful residents only came out of their houses when a local official reassured them it was safe to talk to the Seleka rebels. Five of those who did venture out were then tied together and grouped under a tree. The fighters shot them one by one, Human Rights Watch said. When one victim did not die, his throat was slit.

A French defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the mission, has said its mandate would authorize troops to end such massacres and restore order throughout the country. France already has about 420 soldiers in the country, though they are based in the capital of Bangui and primarily provide security at the city's airport. A regional peacekeeping mission also has helped patrol the capital and has a presence in a limited number of communities across the north.

A plan to transform that regional effort into one led by the African Union went into effect in August, but not all of the expected 3,000 troops are yet on the ground. The stepped up French deployment is envisioned as a "bridging force" until an African force is fully operational and France would take a backup role.

French diplomats also circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution calling for additional support for the African Union-led mission. A copy obtained by The Associated Press indicates that they plan to deploy an African Union-led force in the Central African Republic for an initial period of six months to protect civilians and restore security.

The draft would also authorize French forces, for a temporary period, "to take all necessary measures" to support the African Union-led mission. The French draft would also impose an embargo on all types of arms and ammunition to the Central African Republic, and a travel ban on individuals who undermine peace.

France, a former colonial power in West Africa, has a greater military presence in the region than any other Western country, with thousands of troops in countries including Senegal, Chad, Ivory Coast and Gabon.

At the height of this year's operation in Mali, France had about 4,000 troops whose mission was to dislodge rebels and al-Qaida-linked militants who were advancing on the capital last winter. About 2,800 French soldiers are still there.

Le Drian dismissed any comparisons between the Mali and CAR missions. "In Mali there was an attack of jihadists, terrorists who wanted to transform Mali into a terrorist state. This is a collapse of a country with a potential for religious clashes," he said. "France has international responsibilities, is a permanent member of the Security Council, has history with Central African Republic, and the United Nations is asking us to do it."

Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Latvian prime minister resigns in wake of tragedy

November 27, 2013

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvia's prime minister resigned Wednesday in the wake of supermarket collapse that killed 54 people and provoked outrage among the Baltic country's citizens.

Valdis Dombrovskis' unexpected announcement, which automatically triggers the fall of the entire center-right government, followed his meeting with President Andris Berzins. "Considering the ... tragedy and all the related circumstances, the country needs a government that has a majority support in parliament and can solve the situation that has arisen in the country," Dombrovskis told journalists after meeting the president.

Police have opened a criminal investigation into the cause of last week's tragedy. Possible explanations for the disaster include a flawed design, substandard construction materials, and corruption. Some people have suggested that the abolition of a construction authority by Dombrovskis' budget-slashing government weakened oversight.

Many Latvians have expressed deep skepticism that the guilty parties will be bear criminal liability and have gone so far as to demand that foreign engineers be invited to help the investigation. Dombrovskis, the country's longest-serving prime minister, denied that he was pressured by the president and said that he had been mulling such a move since last week's collapse of the Maxima supermarket, the worst disaster since Latvia declared its independence from Soviet Union in 1991.

Dombrovskis told journalists that country needed a new, broad-based coalition that would enjoy the trust of Latvia's 100-seat parliament. President Berzins will appoint a new candidate based on who could form a coalition that will receive the necessary majority approval by parliament.

Dombrovskis came to power in 2009 as Latvia's economy was sinking into a deep recession and was charged with leading harsh budget cuts and tax increases while at the same time implementing tough structural reforms demanded by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund.

Dombrovskis was re-appointed twice as prime minister since then, and is widely credited with preventing the small Baltic nation from going bankrupt. Latvia's economy has returned to growth and was the fastest-growing in the European Union over the past two years.

On Jan. 1, Latvia will become the 18th member of the euro area.

Secession Movement Sweeping Maryland and Colorado

November 23, 2013

Could we soon have 52 states? The succession movements in Colorado and Maryland are at full speed. Citizens in Alleghany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett and Washington counties don’t feel that their interests are being represented in Annapolis any longer. Now they are looking to split off from the rest of the state to form Western Maryland. This effort is being called: A New State initiative.

Scott Strzelczyk, leader of the Western Maryland initiative puts it bluntly, “people are fed up with the liberal majority and want an “amicable divorce.”

The five counties make up about 11% of the entire state and lean heavily Republican.

Meanwhile, a similar effort is underway in rural Colorado where citizens in 8 counties are weighing the idea to break away to form Northern Colorado in reaction to gun control and a push for expanded renewable energy measures from the state legislature in Denver.

“The people of rural Colorado are mad, and they have the right to be,” said U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, who represents Yuma county in northern Colorado. “The Governor and his Democrat colleagues in the statehouse have assaulted our way of life, and I don’t blame these people one bit for feeling attacked and underrepresented by the leaders of our state.”

The U.S. Constitution allows for regions to split apart to form new states with the approval of the state legislature and Congress, but odds are it won’t happen anytime soon. The last time a region split away to form a new state was in the case of West Virginia; about 150 years ago.

Written by Ben Walters

Source: Mr. Conservative.
Link: http://www.mrconservative.com/2013/11/27809-secession-movement-sweeping-maryland-colorado/.

Thai protesters storm army headquarters

November 29, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Protesters in Thailand stormed onto the grounds of the national army headquarters on Friday, breaking into their latest high-profile target in a bid to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The crowd of about 1,200 people broke the padlocked gate at the Royal Thai Army compound and forced their way inside as they called on the military to join their anti-government campaign, said army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

The compound is next to the United Nation's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Bangkok. "They are now gathering in the courtyard, but they have not entered buildings," Sansern said. "We will make them understand that this is a security area and we will ask them to leave."

Yingluck has been reluctant to use force to evict the opposition-led protesters for fear of escalating the country's tense political crisis and sparking bloodshed. Security forces have done little to stop protesters who have spent the week seizing government buildings and camping out at several of them in an effort to force a government shutdown while asking civil servants to join their rally.

The demonstrations that started Sunday have raised fears of fresh political turmoil and instability in Thailand and pose the biggest threat to Yingluck's administration since she came to power in 2011.

The protesters accuse Yingluck of serving as a proxy for her billionaire brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 military coup but retains strong support from the rural majority in Thailand.

Protesters branched out to several spots on Friday, with another crowd staging a rally outside the headquarters of Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai Party, where hundreds of riot police stood guard to prevent them from entering.

A separate crowd of more than 1,000 people marched through central Bangkok to the U.S. Embassy to convey the protesters' message that Yingluck's leadership is illegitimate, in response to a statement from Washington that expressed concern about the protests.

Crowd sizes peaked Sunday at over 100,000 and have dwindled in recent days to tens of thousands, but organizers have kept each day dramatic by targeting new and different seats of power. Crowds of protesters have occupied the Finance Ministry since Monday and others have remained holed up since Wednesday at a sprawling government complex that houses the Department of Special Investigations, the country's equivalent of the FBI. On Thursday, the demonstrators cut power at Bangkok's police headquarters and asked police to join their side.

Yingluck has publicly pleaded for the protesters to stop and asked leaders of the movement to negotiate. "Please call off the protests for the country's peace," Yingluck said Thursday. "I'm begging you."

But protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who resigned as an opposition Democrat Party lawmaker to lead the protests, says he will not negotiate. He says his goal to rid the country of Thaksin's influence and to appoint a new leader chosen by an appointed "people's council."

Suthep has called for bigger crowds to join the campaign over the weekend. Thaksin, who lives in Dubai to avoid serving a jail term for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated, is a highly polarizing figure in Thailand. So much so, that an ill-advised bid to push a general amnesty law through parliament — which would have paved the way for his return — sparked the latest wave of protests earlier this month.

Before Thaksin was toppled in a coup — allegedly for corruption, abuse of power and insulting the nation's revered king — he won over Thailand's rural underclass by introducing populist policies designed to benefit the poor. His political movement grew to become the most successful in modern Thai history.

But his opponents, largely members of the urban middle class and elite, saw him as arrogant and a threat to democracy and their own privileges. The country has been gripped by alternating protests from both sides since 2006.

Leader of Thai protests says he's prepared to die

November 27, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — A few years ago, Suthep Thaugsuban was a suit-and-tie wearing deputy prime minister of Thailand and a senior executive of the country's oldest political party.

Now, the 64-year-old career politician has ditched his office attire, distanced himself from the opposition Democrat Party and found a new calling as a street fighter. Suthep is the mastermind of Thailand's latest round of street protests and has vowed to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by taking over every government ministry. After storming the Finance Ministry earlier this week and camping there two nights, Suthep led protesters for a fourth day Wednesday in what he calls a people's power uprising.

Whistle-blowing throngs massed inside or around at least six of the government's 19 ministries, although they left half of them after a few hours. One large group led by Suthep entered a sprawling government office complex that houses the Department of Special Investigations, the country's equivalent of the FBI, and prepared to camp there overnight.

"We like peaceful methods," Suthep told reporters, his voice hoarse from speaking above the crowd's roar. But he added, "If we don't succeed, then I am prepared to die in the battlefield." "The people will quit only when the state power is in their hands," he said. "There will be no negotiation."

The brash threat is the boldest challenge yet to Yingluck's embattled administration, and it has raised fears of fresh political violence in the divided Southeast Asian nation. Yingluck has repeatedly said she wants to avert violence and offered to negotiate an end to the crisis. So far, security forces have not even fired tear gas to prevent protesters from forcing the closure of multiple government offices. A warrant was issued for Suthep's arrest, but he has ignored it.

"We must not regard this as a win-or-lose situation," Yingluck told reporters at Parliament. "Today no one is winning or losing, only the country is hurting." Protesters want Yingluck to step down amid claims she is a proxy for her brother, billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup but remains central to Thailand's long-running political crisis. Thaksin lives overseas to avoid a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated.

In broad terms, Thailand's political crisis pits Thailand's elite and the educated middle-class against Thaksin's power base in the countryside, which benefited from populist policies designed to win them over. Thaksin's party is the most successful in modern Thai political history. He became the only prime minister to serve out a full term, and Thaksin or his allies have won every election since 2001. The Democrats were crushed by Yingluck's ruling party during the election that brought her to power in 2011.

On Sunday, more than 100,000 demonstrators took to Bangkok's streets for the largest rally in years, uniting against what they call the "Thaksin regime." The crowds Wednesday were far lower — in the tens of thousands — indicating that Suthep is unlikely to meet his goal of bringing down the government this week without more popular support, or judicial or military intervention.

But Suthep has proven a few things during his time in the street. Notably that he is tenacious and unpredictable. Before becoming a protest leader, Suthep was the man assigned to deal with unruly anti-government protesters when the Democrats were in power.

In 2010, when Suthep was deputy prime minister under a Democrat government, he signed an order that authorized the military to disperse Thaksin's "Red Shirt" protesters who had occupied a large section of downtown Bangkok. The eight-week protests and crackdown left more than 90 people dead and about 1,800 injured. It was Thailand's worst political violence in decades.

Now that the tables have turned, many fear that Suthep is leading Thailand back to volatility. "Have we learned our lessons? Is history going to repeat itself?" Bangkok Post editorial page editor Sanitsuda Ekachai wrote in a column Wednesday. "On one side are the protest leaders looking for blood. On the other side is the government — unrepentant for its abuse of majority power — set to fight to the end. The scenario ahead looks gloomy indeed."

For years, Suthep was the behind-the-scenes dealmaker for the Democrat Party, whose public face was the clean-cut, Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva. Abhisit was prime minister during the 2010 crackdown.

The party often relied on Suthep to do its dirty work, according to a U.S. Embassy cable from 2008 leaked by Wikileaks. "Several Democrats have privately complained to us that he engages in corrupt and unethical behavior," the cable said. "While Abhisit appears publicly as an ethical intellectual, Suthep serves as the party's backroom dealmaker."

The anti-government campaign started last month after Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai party tried to pass an amnesty law that would have enabled Thaksin to return home as a free man. The Senate rejected the bill in a bid to end the protests, but the rallies gained momentum.

Suthep seized the opportunity to step into the spotlight. He resigned as an opposition lawmaker in mid-November to lead the demonstrations, which morphed into a wider anti-government campaign with ever-shifting strategies.

After initially pledging to lead a law-abiding show of "civil disobedience," Suthep switched to the tactic of occupying government offices. At first, he called for Yingluck's resignation but now says he won't rest at that. He says his goal now is to replace the government with a non-elected council — an apparent call for less democracy, not more. He says the change is necessary to uproot the Shinawatra political machine from Thai politics.

Suthep has rejected new elections, which the opposition Democrats are certain to lose. He insists that he has no ambition to be prime minister, and on Wednesday said he is settling into his new role. "Being a member of Parliament, you wear a suit and tie, you act smart in an air-conditioned room. When you stand up and say something, people applaud," a tired and sweating Suthep told reporters, dressed in his now-regular outfit of all black.

"Here, you speak until you lose your voice," Suthep said. "But I've made up my mind, that I'd rather work here for the people."

Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone, Todd Pitman and Yves Dam Van contributed to this report.