Berlusconi convicted in sex-for-hire trial
MILAN – Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s flamboyant former premier, was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from politics for life Monday for paying an underage prostitute for sex during infamous “bunga bunga” parties and forcing public officials to cover it up.
It was the most damaging setback yet for the 76-year-old Berlusconi, who has been tried numerous times for his business dealings but never before for his personal conduct.
Still, he vowed that his days as a political force are not over. He has two levels of appeal and his supporters quickly rallied around him.
The charges against the billionaire media mogul resulted from what became widely known in Italy as “bunga bunga” parties hosted in 2010 by Berlusconi, then the sitting premier, at his villa near Milan, where he wined and dined beautiful young women.
Brazil sets $23B hike for transit after protests
SÃO PAULO – Under pressure after more than a week of nationwide protests, Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff said Monday her government will spend $23 billion more on public transportation and announced five core areas that leaders will focus on to speed political reform and improvements to government services.
Rousseff made the announcement after meeting with leaders of a free-transit activist group that launched the first demonstrations more than a week ago and has called for new protests Tuesday. The president also opened a meeting of governors and mayors from 26 capital cities to discuss ways to make deep improvements.
“I mainly want to repeat that my government is listening to democratic voices. We must learn to hear the voices of the street,” Rousseff said at the opening of the meeting with governors and mayors. “We all must, without exception, understand these signals with humility and accuracy.”
While not providing details, Rousseff said she would push debate about holding a plebiscite on political reform and said all levels of government would focus on five priorities: fiscal responsibility and controlling inflation; political reform; health care; public transport; and education.
Lebanon’s weak military tested by clashes
BEIRUT – Lebanon’s third-largest city of Sidon was turned into a battle zone Monday as the military fought heavily armed followers of an extremist Sunni Muslim cleric holed up in a mosque.
Residents of the southern port fled machine-gun fire and grenade explosions that shook the coastal area in one of the deadliest rounds of violence, seen as a test of the weak government’s ability to contain the furies unleashed by the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Official reports said at least 16 soldiers were killed and 50 were wounded in two days of clashes with armed followers of Ahmad al-Assir, a maverick Sunni sheik whose rapid rise is a sign of the deep frustration among many Lebanese who resent the ascendancy of Shiites to power, led by the militant group Hezbollah. More than 20 of al-Assir’s supporters were killed, according to a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.
Reward for 12 missing from Mexico City
MEXICO CITY – An anti-crime group in Mexico City is offering a $750,000 reward for information that leads to finding 12 young people who were kidnapped in broad daylight from an after-hours bar in the capital.
The Citizen Council for Public Safety announced the reward Monday, a month after the group was abducted from the Zona Rosa business and entertainment district.
Council’s president Luis Wertman says the group hopes to find the young men and women alive.
Surveillance tape shows men herding a few of the missing at a time into compact cars. They haven’t been heard from since.
Prosecutors say the abductions are linked to a dispute between two rival drug gangs in the Tepito neighborhood, one of the city’s most dangerous areas.
Haiti gets $35.5M grant to provide clean water
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti is receiving $35.5 million from the Inter-American Development Bank to improve drinking water services in the Caribbean nation’s gritty capital of Port-au-Prince.
The grant will support a program created in 2010 with the help of the bank and the Spanish Cooperation Fund in Water and Sanitation in Latin American and the Caribbean. The program aims to cut losses from leaks, clandestine connections and unpaid bills. It also seeks to improve revenue to cover operational expenses.
Associated Press
