Lawmakers OK Italy Berlusconi - CTV.ca spare parts Bill

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SLIDES.showHideViewT ();The PressDate associated: Thursday April 14, 2011 5: 44 AM and

ROME - Lower House of the Italy of Parliament approved legislation Wednesday that would reduce the duration of the trial in Italy and effectively put an end to a case of ongoing corruption against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The lower Chamber of Deputies approved the Bill 314-296, in protests inside and outside the House. The measure now turn to the Senate, where Berlusconi forces have a solid majority.

The Bill is the last piece of legislation Berlusconi forces were pushed by the Parliament that critics say are tailor-made according to its interests, immediately on the heels of a partial immunity to the senior Italian officials adopted Bill last year.

The bill approved Wednesday would reduce the duration of the trial for some defendants who have not been previously recognized guilty.

The measure effectively ends a trial where Berlusconi is accused of bribing lawyer British David Mills is located in the Court, in the 1990s to protect the interests of the Prime Minister. Mills was found guilty in 2009 for having taken a bribe of $600,000, but the guilty verdict was cancelled when more high criminal court the Italy that the limitation period had expired.

The reform bill will be now make it virtually impossible for the Court to render a verdict against Berlusconi before the prescription kick in.

Berlusconi denies wrongdoing in Mills and defended the reform bill required to unblock the notoriously slow judicial system of the Italy.

Apart from the trial of Berlusconi, critics say that the measure of justice puts several important cases, including a case following an explosion risk murderous train in 2009. The filibustered opposition against the Bill and activists protested outside Parliament for days, including at the sitting of Wednesday.

The Mills case is one of the four active cases against Berlusconi, including a sensational sex trial which began this month in which he is accused of paying for sex with a minor and using his influence to try to conceal it. Berlusconi denounced as laughable allegations and lashed out to attorneys who, said, are resolved to the eviction of the power.

Justice reform act was very much the result of the Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, 40 considered a life rising star political Italian and designated as the heir of Berlusconi in the direction of curator by the Prime Minister himself during a lunch with foreign journalists Tuesday night.

In December, Berlusconi announced that he would probably resign at the end of the legislature in 2013. Tuesday, he said that alfano could succeed him, reinforce the likelihood that his nearly two decades in power were key to its end.

In a conversation of great magnitude with foreign journalists, Berlusconi also discussed his close links with Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi.

The Italian leader said, because of these links, which it considers even resigning when the international coalition was formed to impose a no-fly zone on the Libya. Finally, Italy took part in the coalition - a decision that said Berlusconi was heavy "personal problems" - allowing the use of NATO of seven bases in Italy and using its own aircraft.

"I have accepted despite the personal problems that resulted in this decision for me." At one point I even found it my duty to resign, "Berlusconi said, adding that" everyone has asked me not to do, "so he stayed on."

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Lawmakers strike deal to avoid the closure of Government

House approves the will extensionObama signs law sometime Saturday, a measure temporary official saysA will keep the Government funded via calls to deal for April 15th for 38.5 billion in budgetary expenditure

Washington (cnn) --Democrats and Republicans narrowly avoided a partial closure of the Federal Government on Friday evening, to agree on a budget agreement and an extension of funding in the short term little more of an hour before the clock has struck midnight, and the time failed.

The new extension of funding, which reduces spending $ 2 billion, will be the last through next Friday, April 15.

The Senate immediately passed the extension on a voice vote. The House of representatives was followed early Saturday morning.

A senior White House official told CNN that President Barack Obama should sign short-term continuing resolution into law later Saturday.

And administration and Congress officials indicated that there would no is set aside by Government funding.

"The Government will be open for business," said Obama.

"The two parties reached an agreement that will allow our small businesses obtain loans that they need, our families to obtain mortgages, they asked, and hundreds of thousands of Americans to show the work and take away their paychecks on time".

Negotiators capped days of frenetic unexpected talks and public recriminations in agreeing on a framework for a package of $ 38.5 billion in spending cuts covering the rest of the fiscal year, which expires September 30. The budget agreement must still pass in both houses, with the hope that legislators he would approve and the President will be the sign before the expiry of the measurement of short-term funding.

The House is expected to given market budget Monday, with a vote scheduled for Wednesday. The Senate would take the Bill at some point after that, said spokesman Jon Summers of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Office.

Republicans, reinforced by their capture of the House of representatives to the last November elections mid-term, had pushed at the outset to $ 61 billion in cuts.

A GOP push to strip 317 million in federal funding of family planning has failed. Democrats also turned back Republican attempts to federal money being set aside for family planning and the health of women, transformed block grants to States.

Such an approach would have governors and state legislatures more capacity to cut funding for services is opposed by the conservatives.

Sources told CNN, however, that the leaders of the Senate under democratic control agreed to hold separate votes on two measures, as well as an initiative to repeal Obama review health care.

Obama welcomed the agreement, calling the cuts "painful" but necessary for the economic future of the country.

This "is what the American people have expected", the President said in the White House. "This is why they sent us here."

He has also praised the bipartisan agreement as a model of cooperation.

"As interesting compromise, both parties had to make difficult decisions and to give ground on issues that were important to them," he said.

"This has been much discussion and a long struggle," said House Chairman John Boehner, R-Ohio. Republicans fought to "create a better environment for the creators of jobs in our country."

The Senate Leader of the majority Harry Reid, D-Nevada, called the deal "difficult but important to the country."

Nevertheless, talks down-to-the-wire furious portend even more difficult series of negotiations in Congress resumes an increase in the ceiling of the debt of the country and the year 2012 budget in the coming months.

If the negotiations failed, approximately 800,000 government workers would have handed. A range of government services would have come to halt.

Earlier in the week, Obama pointed out that the mechanism of government operations closure had already begun. The inability of the agreement would undermine federal workers, people who rely on government services and wider economic recovery of the nation, he warned.

"For us to go back because Washington could not get its act together is unacceptable, the President said." ".

High aid from both sides of the aisle had seemed more resigned to the prospect of a closure. Staff of the Congress began to receive their notice of seniority Thursday afternoon.

Agreement on Friday to cut expenses $ 38.5 billion comes from two extensions previous funding that included the $ 10 billion in cuts.

Republicans, under pressure from the conservative movement party of tea to reduce the size of the Government, blame Democrats for not having to pass a fiscal year 2011 budget last year when they controlled the Senate and the House. They also say Obama and his party is ignoring the Federal risk in increasing deficits and national debt.

Democrats call the $ 61 billion in reductions driven initially by the extreme Republicans and support reductions of this scale would have harmed the economic recovery while damaging programs essential innovation in the pursuit of growth and education.

The rope steep budget showed the politics of the situation, with both parties trying to portray the other as not prepared to do what is good for the country.

It has also shown the enormous gap between the two parties on social issues.

Democrats, said the Republican drive to defund for family planning is the GOP is fixated on abortion and other issues related to the health of women. Republicans insisted on several occasions that the size of spending cuts has been the main cause of the conflict, these days.Dana Bash of CNN, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, John King, Kate Bolduan, Brianna Keilar, Terry Frieden, Ed Henry, Dan Lothian and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.

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