Mother and Daughter (Governments) in fiscal trouble

Is this by design or just a fluke?

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Roman ruins

Italy’s government is on the brink of collapse—so what else is new?

By Jason Karaian @jkaraian October 1, 2013


Not going down without a fight. Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi




In Italy, the government is teetering. A credit ratings downgrade looms. Two of the country’s three largest banks are in turmoil, as is the main telecoms operator. Given the headlines, it’s surprising how subdued the market reaction has been; bond yields have barely budged and stocks are down by less than 1% so far this week. Has dysfunction in Italy’s parliament and boardrooms finally lost its capacity to surprise?


Uncertainty stalks the government…

Prime minister Enrico Letta faces a crucial test in the Italian parliament tomorrow (Oct. 2), when he will address both houses before facing a vote of confidence in his leadership. Silvio Berlusconi, convicted of tax fraud and facing expulsion from the Senate, called for his party’s ministers to quit Letta’s cabinet and force a new election. There are signs of dissent within the ranks of Berlusconi’s party, but even if Letta survives the confidence vote he will not be left with much of a mandate to pass meaningful reforms—including a crucial budget for 2014.

It took months to cobble together the current government after an election in February, with Letta’s center-left and Berlusconi’s center-right parties grudgingly agreeing to form a coalition (Italy’s 62nd government since the post-war republic was founded 67 years ago). The outcome of tomorrow’s showdown is difficult to predict, with think tank Open Europe walking through a few of the possible scenarios, none of them particularly encouraging for the fragile Italian economy.
…and companies are flailing…

Meanwhile, the head of Italy’s second-largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, quit over the weekend after a clash with the foundations that own a big chunk of the bank’s shares. The third-largest lender, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, is still struggling to convince the European Commission that its restructuring plan is tough enough to justify the billions of euros that the government has pumped into the bank. The CEO of Telecom Italia is also reportedly on the way out later this week, following his own run-in with key investors.
…but markets hope what Berlusconi breaks, Draghi can fix

In previous years, a shaky government and wobbly banks pushed Italy to the brink of an international bailout. As it happens, the relative calm that is greeting the latest ructions is thanks to another Italian: Mario Draghi. The president of the European Central Bank pledged to do “whatever it takes“ to preserve the euro zone during a particularly nasty bout of investor jitters last year. Although this pledge has never been tested, the markets seem to be taking Draghi at his word. Traders were further comforted by Draghi’s hints last week that the ECB might offer another round of emergency liquidity for banks, which would be especially welcome for hard-up Italian lenders.

If Italy soon slips back into a full-blown political crisis, it will be the sternest test yet of Draghi’s promise to ride to the rescue. Is the ECB president willing, quite literally, to put his money where his mouth is? Investors seem to think so, but this particular Italian drama is far from over.

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Top lawmakers to meet Obama for US shutdown talks

(AFP) – 7 minutes ago

The White House is seen behind a stop sign in Washington on October 1, 2013 (AFP, Karen Bleier)


Washington — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday called congressional leaders to a White House meeting, providing a glimmer of hope for movement on day two of a crippling government shutdown.

The White House is squaring off with Republican rivals in Congress over how to fund federal agencies, many of which are now closed, leaving some 800,000 furloughed workers in the lurch and a fragile economy at risk.

Obama wants a straightforward temporary spending bill to end the first shutdown in 17 years, while Republicans have sought to tie the measure to a dismantling or delay of his signature health care law.

Neither side has blinked, and Americans are exasperated with the inability of their elected officials to break the impasse.

"Most of the time you can see an end game," Republican Senator Johnny Isakson told MSNBC. "Right now there's no end game in sight."

An hour after those comments aired, the White House announced an early evening meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to address the standoff.

The office of House Speaker John Boehner, Obama's primary political foe, said it represented a potential "start to serious talks between the two parties."

It was not immediately clear if the talks amounted to a possible breakthrough or were merely for appearances.

Meanwhile, furious tourists are locked out of Washington museums and monuments, as well as national parks and landmarks like the Statue of Liberty in New York. Cancer research and treatment at the world-class National Institutes of Health has ground to a halt.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in scolding Republicans whom he blamed for the shutdown, said some 200 patients -- including 30 children mostly needing cancer treatment -- were denied access to NIH on Tuesday.

"They were turned away," Reid said.

The roiling political and fiscal drama threatens to affect the global economy as well, with European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi warning Wednesday that a US shutdown "is a risk if it is protracted."

"It would be a risk not only for the US, but also the world economy," Draghi said.

The fallout has already caused Obama to shorten his long-planned Asia trip, scrapping stops in Malaysia and the Philippines that were due to begin this weekend, so he could attend to the crisis at home.

The president's attendance at summits in Indonesia and Brunei was also in doubt.

Complicating the budget gridlock, Congress has just over two weeks to strike a deal on raising the country's debt ceiling and avoid a painful default.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has warned that US borrowing authority will reach its cap by October 17, and he informed Congress that Treasury "has begun using the final extraordinary measures" available to pay US bills.

Without a raising of the debt ceiling, Treasury's money ceases to flow, triggering a default.

With stakes critically high, Republican lawmakers were scrambling to at least get parts of government up and running.

The Republican-led House of Representatives was to vote Wednesday on five measures that would fund popular operations, including services for veterans, opening national parks and museums, and keeping key health research going.

Boehner insists they are good-faith efforts to keep crucial government operations running, but Democrats swatted them away as incremental funding bids ultimately aimed at leaving the health care law known as "Obamacare" high and dry.

"These piecemeal bills, they're not a way out," Reid said, sneering that Republicans were offering "one 'cockamamie' can't-pass idea after another."

"It's time for my Republican colleagues to do a gut check," Reid said.

Obama on Tuesday accused conservatives in the House of waging an "ideological crusade" by making government funding conditional on gutting his health care law.

Boehner has chosen to side with the renegade Tea Party faction of his party rather than risk his job by attempting to pass a straight funding resolution stripped of political poison pills.

Boehner's tactic has left him on precarious political ground.

A Quinnipiac University poll Tuesday found voters, by a margin of 72 percent to 22 percent, oppose the shutdown of government as a way to derail Obamacare.

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Berlusconi Gets 4-Year Sentence for Tax Evasion

By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: October 26, 2012

ROME — Two days after former Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi announced that he would not lead his party in Italy’s next elections, a court in Milan sentenced him on Friday to nearly four years in prison on charges of tax fraud in a case involving television rights.

Tony Gentile/Reuters
Silvio Berlusconi

Although the ruling was Mr. Berlusconi’s fourth lower-court conviction, it was his first since he stepped down as prime minister in November 2011, after years in which his personal legal battles often eclipsed the work of his government.

The symbolism of ruling — a clear blow against Mr. Berlusconi — also comes at a time when his center-right party is unraveling and Italy is in the throes of the most dramatic political transition since the one in the early 1990s in which he first came to power.

A lawyer for Mr. Berusconi said the former prime minister would appeal the ruling, which must go through two more rounds of appeal before becoming definitive. It is unlikely that he will ever serve jail time. Even if a definitive ruling were reached before the statute of limitations in the case runs out next year, Mr. Berlusconi would most likely still have parliamentary immunity.

On Wednesday, Mr. Berlusconi, 76, called for the first primaries of his People of Liberty party, or P.D.L., and said that he would not lead it in Italy’s national elections next spring to replace the unelected technocratic government of Prime Minister Mario Monti, who has been guiding Italy through a perilous economic crisis. But he said that he would stay involved in politics, and that he would most likely remain a member of Parliament.

The investigation at the heart of Friday’s ruling centered on television and movie rights that Mr. Berlusconi’s Fininvest holding company bought in the 1990s via offshore companies from companies in the United States.

Judges said that Mr. Berlusconi and other executives of his Mediaset business empire were accused of inflating the price of television rights for American programs via a series of offshore companies, and funneling the overflow into a series of illegal slush funds.

The court on Friday acquitted the chairman of Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, a longtime Berlusconi loyalist.

Judges also banned the former prime minister from holding public office for five years, a penalty that would be applied only if, and after, a ruling against by the highest court were reached.

On Friday, judges read not only the sentence against Mr. Berlusconi but also the reasoning behind it, a step that normally takes between 60 and 90 days after a ruling. That could speed up the appeals process, making a high court ruling possible before the statute of limitations in the case runs out next year.

“If the sentence is confirmed before the statute of limitations runs out, he has to leave Parliament,” said Marco Travaglio, a journalist who has chronicled all of Mr. Berlusconi’s trials.

A lawyer for Mr. Berusconi, Piersilvio Cipollotti, said that the former prime minister would appeal the ruling.

Mr. Berlusconi, who owns Italy’s largest private broadcaster, Mediaset, as well as major holdings in real estate, insurance, advertising and publishing, has been involved in dozens of legal cases over the years.

A trial over accusations that Mr. Berlusconi paid for sex with an underage prostitute is currently being heard in Milan. He has denied all charges against him.

Between 1997 and 1998, when Mr. Berlusconi was the opposition leader, he was convicted by lower courts on charges of tax fraud and corruption.

In one case, known as All Iberian, prosecutors said Mr. Berlusconi and his associates used offshore accounts to illegally finance Italy’s former socialist party leader, Bettino Craxi, who was Mr. Berlusconi’s former political patron.

All three previous lower court convictions were either overturned on appeal or thrown out for lack of evidence — or the statute of limitations ran out before a definitive highest court ruling was reached.

In 2009, a Milan court sentenced the British lawyer David Mills, who has helped Mr. Berlusconi’s company set up the offshore accounts, for taking almost $600,000 in exchange for providing favorable testimony in two trials against Mr. Berlusconi.

The ruling was upheld on appeal, but in 2010, Italy’s highest courtthrew out the case after the statute of limitations ran out.


Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.

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European leaders reach deal on bank recapitalisation

WORLD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2011

By KARL STAGNO-NAVARRA

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi arriving for tonights meeting in Brussels

Scheme requires big banks to have 9% of capital by June as a one-off stabilisation measure.

European Union leaders have reached agreement on a plan to recapitalise Europe's biggest banks, in a bid to contain the effects of any further shocks in the eurozone.

The plan entails that big European banks will be required to have “9% of the highest quality capital” by June 2012, measured against assets, EU President Herman Von Rompuy said, adding that the banks should raise capital from the private-sector where possible.

However, where that proves impossible, member states will be obliged to provide capital in exchange for equity.

The eurozone's rescue fund, now known to be the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), could be used as a last resort.

In a statement issued by EU leaders at the end of their meeting, it was said that guarantees were needed for banks' liabilities to ensure that they could obtain medium-term funding.

They have asked the European Commission to work with the European Banking Authority, the European Investment Bank and the European Central Bank to explore options for a co-ordinated EU approach.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who currently heads the EU’s rotating presidency, said that the plan was adopted “after a short, heated debate” among the 27 leaders, before the eurozone leaders began their own meeting.

“An emotional element during the debate was the fact that this is not a permanent element,” Tusk said, referring to the “exceptional circumstances” that had made such a move necessary. “This will not be a permanent solution for the future.”

Although neither Tusk nor Van Rompuy gave a figure for therecapitalisation needs of EU banks, the total is expected to be around €109 billion.

Regarding the prospects for a comprehensive crisis response beingfinalised by eurozone leaders tonight, Tusk said: “I think we are very close to a full political agreement. However, there are some important details that might require some more debate. We need to be patient.”

But Tusk also stressed that the bank recapitalisation plan was part of the overall crisis response. “The recapitalisation of banks will work only when the euro area approves other elements that are currently being debated,” he said. “The bank recapitalisation without the remaining elements, without the firewall, wouldn't have any chance of success.”

Tusk said that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , had submitted a letter to the group to inform them of his government's austerity measures. Tusk said that the letter included a “detailed work plan” from the government and was “very well received”.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “We've made good progress on the bank recapitalisation, it wasn't watered down. But it will only go ahead when the other parts of the full package go ahead and further progress needs to be made tonight.”

Cameron was one of the leaders of non-eurozone countries who had insisted on a full Council meeting before the summit of eurozoneleaders.

Leaders of the 17 eurozone countries – including Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi - are meanwhile holding a separate meeting tonight to try to agree ways to increase the firepower of the eurozone rescue fund and cut the size of Greece's debt as part of a package of measures to tackle the eurozone crisis.

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Top cardinal slams moral decay in Italy

September 27, 2011 - 5:44AM


AFP

A senior Catholic cardinal has condemned Italian leaders whose behaviour violates public dignity, but did not name the prime minister who is accused of paying for sex with a 17-year-old pole dancer.

Silvio Berlusconi, who is 74, faces a series of legal cases, including one related to the dancer and alleged prostitute nicknamed Ruby.

An Italian court on Monday excluded 10 witnesses who had been scheduled to testify on his behalf in a fraud case.
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Judges in this case said they blocked the witnesses because the trial had dragged on too long and statute of limitation complications were looming.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the conference of Italian bishops, meanwhile condemned "behaviour that, if proven, is difficult to reconcile with institutional decorum".

"Anyone who chooses to be active in politics must be conscious of a measure of sobriety, discipline and of the honour that (politics) entails," the cardinal said.

Bagnasco also denounced "behaviour that is contrary to public dignity".

He scolded the media for reporting on "licentious behaviour and improper relations", and said continued coverage of scandals surrounding public figures could undermine Italy's image abroad.

Berlusconi has been previously criticised by the Catholic church over the Ruby scandal, which has created a media firestorm in Italy.

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called for "an increasingly intense ethical renewal for the good of beloved Italy" in a telegram to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, sent as he set off on a four-day trip to Germany.

It is a tradition for the Pope to send a message to the Italian president when leaving on international visits.

The head of the Milan court judging the fraud charges involving Berlusconi's business empire Mediaset, Edoardo D'Avossa, said on Monday the trial risked running past the statute of limitations," and so there was no time for 10 additional witnesses.

The trial was suspended in April 2010 after the adoption by Berlusconi's government of a temporary immunity law.

It resumed on February 28 after the law was partially scrapped in January, and judicial officials said the statute of limitations could come into force in 2013.

Berlusconi is accused of artificially inflating the price of distribution rights for films bought by television companies belonging to him and then setting up slush funds abroad in order to pay less tax in Italy.

All 10 of the excluded witnesses were supposed to testify for the defence, but, according to the documents provided by Berlusconi's own lawyers, none of the prospective witnesses can be found, the judges also noted.

The billionaire tycoon turned politician has a long history of legal entanglements dating back to when he first entered politics in the early 1990s but has always either been exonerated or seen his trials expire.

Berlusconi, whose popularity ratings have dropped to a record low, also faces accusations of bribery, revealing court secrets.

AFP rs


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Silvio Berlusconi hospitalised in attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4s_hRMib30http://

itnnewsDecember 13, 2009

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hospitalised after an attack in Milan. Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news
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P.S.....Italy's greatest hits; 'Il Bomsbastico' gets one on the kisser.

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Xenophobia Threatens Italy, President Warns

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: May 14, 2009

ROME — President Giorgio Napolitano warned Thursday that intolerance and xenophobia posed a danger for Italy as the lower house of Parliament approved wide-ranging security legislation that includes measures toughening Italian immigration policies.

Speaking at a conference in Rome, Mr. Napolitano warned that there was a danger that social tensions would be inflamed by “public rhetoric that, even in Italy, does not hesitate to incorporate intolerant and xenophobic tones.”

Under the terms of the bill, which was passed Thursday by the Chamber of Deputies after three confidence votes Wednesday to approve amendments, illegal immigrants entering or residing in Italy will be fined up to 10,000 euros, or about $13,500, before being expelled.

In addition, the period of time that foreigners can be held in detention centers has been tripled to 180 days. An African woman killed herself at one such center near Rome last week.

The bill, backed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition allies in the Northern League, which has championed a legislative hard line against immigration, also sanctions the creation of neighborhood watch groups to increase security on Italian streets.

“We have the consensus of the majority of Italians,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni — who belongs to the Northern League — said Thursday shortly after the vote. “The government’s commitment on this front is appreciated by Italians.”

But critics say that because the new law criminalizes clandestine immigration, implementing it would clog up an already backlogged justice system. About a million foreigners are estimated to be living illegally in Italy.

The measure could also have a significant impact on Italian families, many of whom depend on foreign women — many of them in Italy illegally because of existing restrictions on immigration — to care for their elderly and children.

“The disorder this law will produce will be terrible,” said Christopher Hein, the director of the Italian Council for Refugees. “It’s one thing to publicly announce a law, quite another to implement something that will only create more confusion, more bureaucracy and make life more difficult for people who are legally here to work.”

The bill now goes to the Senate for a final passage before becoming law. Crossing that finish line will mark the end of a yearlong battle on the part of the Northern League, which imposed its hard-line position on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition even as some allies openly wavered in the face of criticism on the part of the Italian Catholic church.

The Northern League has been pushing its anti-immigrant line with the approach of European Parliament elections June 6 and 7. Last week, one League official in Milan suggested that subway trains in the Lombardy capital reserve seats for native Milanese.

Mr. Maroni has also taken credit for the enactment last week of a treaty between Italy and Libya that includes the forced return of migrant boats intercepted in international waters to their port of departure. The government has lauded the practice as key to fighting human trafficking.

On Thursday, Italy gave three patrol boats to Libya that will be used for joint patrolling operations.

Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/world/europe/15iht-italy.html?ref=europe

European leaders meet amid euro-zone worries

European leaders meet amid euro-zone worries

Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:33am EST

By Matt Falloon and Francesca Piscioneri

BERLIN (Reuters) - European leaders met in Berlin on Sunday to agree a common stance on overhauling global financial rules but their summit risked being overshadowed by concerns about the fragility of euro zone and eastern European states.

The host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, wants the meeting to reaffirm a commitment to free trade, stronger regulation of financial markets and coordinated action to shield the bloc from the worst downturn in the postwar era.

European countries would then take this message of unity to a broader summit of G20 nations in London on April 2, showing they are serious about delivering on an action plan agreed last November in Washington to combat the financial crisis and guard against future meltdowns.

But new tensions within the single currency bloc and the financial woes of European Union members to the east have cast a cloud over the meeting in the German capital.

Ahead of the gathering, the IMF threw its weight behind the idea of a common European bond to alleviate pressure on euro states such as Ireland and Greece that are being forced to pay hefty premiums over stronger bloc members to finance their debt.

In eastern Europe, the currencies of countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have come under severe pressure, hitting millions across the region who have borrowed in foreign currencies such as the euro.

Germany, Europe's benchmark issuer of debt, has rejected this idea of a euro-zone bond and Merkel is keen not to let the issue hijack her summit with the leaders of Britain, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Luxembourg.

All the leaders, the president of the European Commission and finance ministers and central bankers had arrived at Merkel's Chancellery by 1030 GMT (5:30 a.m. EST) and are due to hold a joint news conference at 1345 GMT (8:45 a.m. EST).

In an interview with top-selling German newspaper Bild to be published on Monday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi highlighted a problem within the 10-year old currency bloc as it works to coordinate a response to the crisis.

"Europe suffers from anachronisms -- for example the fact that it was born as a monetary union but still lacks a political dimension," Berlusconi said. "The only tools to face the crisis are monetary."

Since the G20 summit in Washington late last year, recessions in Europe and the United States have deepened, forcing governments to push through massive stimulus packages.

The Berlin meeting takes place after a week of accusations of protectionism between European nations, with some of France's partners objecting to its plans to offer 6 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in state loans to domestic carmakers.

Ahead of the meeting, German officials acknowledged that differences also existed with Britain over how strictly to regulate hedge funds.

Agreement is expected on giving the International Monetary Fund and Financial Stability Forum, a body of central bankers, regulators and finance minister, new responsibilities for overseeing financial reforms and boosting the funds of the IMF.



Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE51L01A20090222

Pope tells Nancy Pelosi life must be protected

Feb 18, 9:35 PM EST


Pope tells Nancy Pelosi life must be protected

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
Associated Press Writer


VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI received Nancy Pelosi, one of the most prominent abortion rights politicians in America, and told her Wednesday that Catholic politicians have a duty to protect life "at all stages of its development." The U.S. House speaker, a Catholic, was the first top Democrat to meet with Benedict since the election of Barack Obama, who won a majority of the U.S. Catholic vote despite differences with the Vatican on abortion.

On his fourth day in office last month, Obama ended a ban on funds for international groups that perform abortions or provide information on the option - a sharp policy change from former President George W. Bush's Republican administration.

The Vatican's attempts to keep the Pelosi visit low-profile displayed its obvious unease with the new U.S. administration. Benedict and Bush had found common ground in opposing abortion, an issue that drew them together despite their differences over the war in Iraq.

Wednesday's meeting, in a small room off a Vatican auditorium after the pope's weekly public audience, was closed to reporters and photographers.

The Vatican also said - contrary to its usual policy when the pope meets world leaders - that it was not issuing either a photo or video of the encounter, claiming the meeting was private.

A short statement from the Vatican said the pope "briefly greeted" Pelosi and did not mention any other subject they may have discussed besides abortion.

In their 15-minute meeting, the Vatican said Benedict spoke of the church's teaching "on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death." That is an expression often used by the pope when expressing opposition to abortion.

Benedict said all Catholics - especially legislators, jurists and political leaders - should work to create "a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development," the Vatican said.

Pelosi, for her part, did not even mention the pope's allusion to abortion.

In a statement issued by her office, Pelosi said it was with "great joy" that she and her husband Paul met with Benedict.

"In our conversation, I had the opportunity to praise the Church's leadership in fighting poverty, hunger and global warming, as well as the Holy Father's dedication to religious freedom and his upcoming trip and message to Israel," Pelosi said.

"I was proud to show His Holiness a photograph of my family's papal visit in the 1950s, as well as a recent picture of our children and grandchildren," said the California congresswoman, who has often expressed pride in her religious heritage.

Pelosi is the third person in line in U.S. government, after Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden.

The treatment of Pelosi echoed the Vatican's earlier treatment of Geraldine Ferraro, a Catholic who was the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984. The Vatican did not disguise its irritation at Ferraro's position that she opposed abortion but also opposed outlawing it.

Pope John Paul II's meeting with Ferraro in 1985 was never officially announced and - like the Pelosi audience - no photo was released.

While some Vatican officials under Benedict have been openly critical of the Democrats and Obama over abortion - former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has said the Democrats risk becoming a "party of death" - Benedict has cautiously welcomed Obama's new administration.

Still, a number of bishops in the United States have questioned Pelosi's stance on abortion, particularly her theological defense of her support for abortion rights.

The question of how much religion should influence American politicians came to the forefront with the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic to become U.S. president, and has continued to this day.

A number of American lawmakers who support abortion rights attended Benedict's Mass in Washington last April, including Pelosi and Sen. John Kerry, the former Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.

During the 2004 campaign, several U.S. bishops questioned whether Kerry should receive Communion because of his stand on abortion. But no American priest or bishop tried to deny Kerry Communion. At the April 2008 papal Mass, Kerry took Communion from a priest far from the papal altar.

Pelosi also had meetings with Italian leaders in the past few days, including Premier Silvio Berlusconi.


Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_VATICAN_US_PELOSI?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

P.S. Bolds and Highlights added.

Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World's Markets (Update1)

By Steve Scherer

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world's financial markets while they ``rewrite the rules of international finance.''

``The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,'' Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis ``can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.''
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much 8.1 percent in early trading and pared most of those losses after Berlusconi's remarks. The Dow was down 0.5 percent to 8540.52 at 10:10 in New York.

Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Washington today, and will stay in town for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings this weekend. European Union leaders may gather in Paris on Oct. 12, three days before a scheduled summit in Brussels, Berlusconi said today, while Group of Eight leaders may hold a meeting on the crisis ``in coming days,'' he said.

Berlusconi didn't give any details about what kind of rules leaders were looking to change, except to say that leaders are ``talking about a new Bretton Woods.''

The Bretton Woods Agreements were adopted to rebuild the international economic system after World War II in a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The aim of the agreements was to establish a monetary management system, initially by pegging currencies to gold. The IMF was set up later to help manage the international financial system.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Scherer in Rome at scherer@bloomberg.net Last

Updated: October 10, 2008 10:15 EDT

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aP5mpMUORBWM

Iraqi Prime Minister Al Maliki visits Rome

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, right, welcomes Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, on the occasion of their official meeting at the Premier's Chigi Palace, in Rome, Thursday, July 24, 2008. The Iraqi premier is scheduled to be received by Pope Benedict XVI on Friday for a private audience at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, on the outskirts of Rome. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Source: http://it.notizie.yahoo.com/foto/galleria/foto-berlusconi.html?imageUrl=/ap/20080724/r_p_ap_wl_italy/pwl-italy-iraq-1d9e676-380e077293270