Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s followers on Tuesday pounced on the attack in which he was injured, blaming his political enemies and courtroom adversaries for inciting the violence, and announcing plans for new restrictions on demonstrations and the Internet.
In a tumultuous debate, the leader of Berlusconi’s parliamentary party in the chamber of deputies, Fabrizio Cicchitto, said: “The hand of he who attacked Berlusconi was primed by a pitiless campaign of hatred.”
Cicchitto went on to name the organizations and individuals he said were behind it.
Top of the list was the group that owns the daily newspaper La Repubblica and the weekly magazine L’Espresso, which earlier this year made the running in coverage of successive sex scandals involving Italy’s prime minister. Next came a new, radical daily, Il Fatto, which Cicchitto described as “the morning paper of the prosecution service.” After losing his immunity from prosecution in October, Berlusconi now faces trial for bribery and fraud.
The leader of the majority in the lower house then singled out Marco Travaglio, author of a recently re-published book about Berlusconi’s links with the mafia, whom he denounced as a “media terrorist.” Finally, Cicchitto pointed the finger at “certain prosecutors who go on television” and two of Italy’s opposition parties, including the biggest, the Democratic party, whose leader, Pierluigi Bersani, visited Berlusconi in hospital on Monday.
Italian Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni announced that tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting would discuss two new bills, one dealing with demonstrations and the other with “groups on the Internet who laud the prime minister’s assailant.” These, he said, “represent an out-and-out instigation to crime. We are considering shutdowns, with solutions I intend to table at the next cabinet meeting.”
Berlusconi was set to be released yesterday after spending a third night in hospital, but will be under doctors’ orders to forgo public duties for two weeks.
He thanked well-wishers from his hospital bed on Tuesday, in his first public statement since the assailant struck him in the face with a souvenir replica of Milan’s cathedral.
“I say to all of you, stay calm and happy. Love always triumphs over hate and envy,” Berlusconi said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of