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| Italy's Berlusconi says will see out his term Posted: 17 Dec 2010 07:13 AM PST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Friday he was certain he would see out his term in 2013 after narrowly surviving a confidence vote this week.
Tuesday's no-confidence motion left the government clinging on by just three votes and most political commentators predict early elections next year -- two years ahead of time -- unless Berlusconi can broaden his conservative coalition to centrists. Exuding his trademark confidence, Berlusconi said he would govern until the end of his term. "I am absolutely certain that I will complete the legislature," he told reporters after a European Union summit. "I am certain I have the numbers." The no-confidence motion was put forward by the centre-left opposition and lawmakers loyal to Gianfranco Fini, the lower house speaker who bitterly split from Berlusconi last summer. Fini suffered a humiliating blow as the 74-year-old prime minister scraped through. But most analysts have called the vote a Pyrrhic victory for Berlusconi that is unlikely to avert a fresh crisis in the next few weeks and a snap vote next spring. The Union of the Centre (UDC), heirs to the old Christian Democratic Party, have so far rejected Berlusconi's offer to join his ruling coalition, closing ranks instead with Fini's breakaway Future and Freedom (FLI) group. Berlusconi denied widespread allegations of vote-buying to secure the support of wavering rebel deputies in Tuesday's motion, with opposition lawmakers describing the atmosphere in parliament as a "cattle market" or "football transfer season". "There was no buying of players, I didn't offer jobs in government nor a reward. We only talked common sense," he said. (Writing by Silvia Aloisi; editing by Mark Heinrich) Copyright © 2010 Reuters | ||
| Kabul silent over Obama's Afghan war review Posted: 17 Dec 2010 07:13 AM PST KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's leaders, overlooked in the summary of a "brutally honest" U.S. war strategy review, did not offer any response to the long-awaited report on Friday in a sign of the often uneasy ties between Kabul and Washington.
The five-page summary of the two-month review, which did not mention Afghan President Hamid Karzai at all, was released on Thursday but has been criticised by Afghans and aid groups as overly optimistic. U.S. President Barack Obama's review found NATO-led forces were making headway against the Taliban but serious challenges remained. It said the insurgents' momentum had been arrested in much of Afghanistan and reversed in some areas. Karzai, Obama's main ally in the war, was briefed about the contents of the review before the summary was released. While other Afghan politicians, aid groups and even the Taliban have criticised the report, Karzai remained steadfastly silent. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on a visit to Afghanistan, gave his support to Obama's review. He said the review included a dissection of relations with Karzai but did not give any details. Karzai was criticised as a weak and erratic leader in U.S. government cables released on the WikiLeaks website this month. "I can tell you this, the review just conducted was thoroughly, even brutally, honest. We looked at all aspects of this struggle," Mullen told a news conference in Kabul. Before the review's release, a statement from the presidential palace said Obama had telephoned Karzai to discuss the findings and the two leaders had agreed security had been improved in many areas but needed to be consolidated in others. Karzai's spokesmen did not respond to repeated emails and telephone calls on Friday. Obama and Karzai have had a sometimes-tense relationship and critics accuse the Afghan president of failing to clamp down on corruption and improve governance. Karzai also had a rocky relationship with Richard Holbrooke, Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, who died this week. "TOO MUCH MILITARY FOCUS" The flaws in Karzai's government have been highlighted by critics as a major obstacle to ending the conflict, with a lack of justice for ordinary people eroding military gains, a report from British think tank Chatham House said. Afghan politicians and aid groups working in the country also warned Washington's review had a narrow focus on military gains and did not substantively address some of the conflict's drivers, including corruption and insurgent havens in Pakistan. "There is always more pressure or more focus on the military side, while I think we forget the human part of life in Afghanistan which is delivering of services," said Fawzia Kufi, an outspoken member of parliament The review said the United States was on track to begin a gradual withdrawal of its troops -- now numbering about 100,000 in a total foreign force of 150,000 -- from July 2011, after a big military campaign in the Taliban's southern heartland. But it comes at the end of the bloodiest year since U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted the Taliban in 2001, with almost 700 foreign soldiers killed, two-thirds of them American. Civilian casualties are also at record levels and once relatively peaceful northern and western parts of the country are seeing increasing violence. On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a rare public statement worsening violence was making it harder than at any time in the past three decades -- in during which the country saw the battle against Soviet occupation and a brutal civil war -- for aid groups to reach those in need. "We seem to be entering a more and more murky phase of the conflict," ICRC spokesman Bijan Farnoudi said in Kabul. The Taliban were also critical of the review on Friday, saying it ignored the reality of a spreading insurgency. "The review is aimed at creating baseless hope among nations," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an emailed statement, referring to countries with troops in Afghanistan. "The substance of these schemes and strategies do not coincide with the ground realities in Afghanistan." (Additional reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan) Copyright © 2010 Reuters |
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