INTERNATIONAL WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014 Italian court orders Berlusconi to do community service

ROME: An Italian court yesterday near Milan by 11pm (2100 GMT). Ghedini and Franco Coppi welcomed But Daniele Capezzone, a lawmaker relates to the purchase of television dis- ordered former prime minister and bil- Berlusconi will also now be banned the ruling as “balanced and satisfactory from Forza Italia, said it was still “a blow tribution rights by his Mediaset busi- lionaire tycoon Silvio Berlusconi to do a from meeting other people with crimi- relating to the requirements of his polit- for democracy”. Berlusconi was sen- ness empire in the 1990s. He was year of community service in an old nal convictions, which includes at least ical activity”. tenced last year in the case, which spared prison time because of leniency person’s home in a symbolic but humili- one of his close associates. The ruling in Italy for convicted over-70s and the ating punishment for tax fraud. The did not say when the community serv- sentence could be further cut for good flamboyant 77-year-old media magnate ice would start but reports said it could behavior to nine months. will have to work at the centre “one day be within days. Berlusconi was at his Berlusconi claims total innocence of a week and for not less than four hours”, residence in Rome yesterday and meet- any crime he has ever been charged Milan judge Pasquale Nobile De Santis ing with his lawyers, Italian media with and regularly accuses a large part said in his ruling published by Italian reported. of the Italian judiciary of plotting to media. The ANSA news agency identi- Berlusconi has been expelled from exclude him from politics because of an fied the centre as the Fondazione Sacra parliament and is barred from running alleged leftist bias. He is currently Famiglia a Church-run centre for dis- in an election for six years but is still the involved in two other court cases. In a abled and elderly people with 2,000 leader of Italy’s main centre-right party, trial set to start on June 20, he will patients in Cesano Boscone, a south- Forza Italia (Go Italy) and a major politi- appeal a seven-year prison sentence western outskirt of Milan. cal player. The ruling is certain to ease and lifetime ban from parliament for The court in Milan said Berlusconi the veteran politician’s concern about having sex with an underage 17-year- would have to stay in the Lombardy campaigning for European Parliament old prostitute and abusing his official region most of the week but would be elections next month. powers. He is also a defendant in a trial granted special dispensation to travel The court was deciding between for allegedly paying a three-million to Rome between Tuesdays and granting him community service or euro ($4 million) bribe to get a centre- Thursdays for political engagements. placing him under house arrest, which left senator to join his party in 2006 in a He will have to respect a curfew and be would have severely limited his move- move that helped bring down a rival back home on Thursdays in his villa ments. Berlusconi’s lawyers Niccolo Former prime minister and billionaire tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. government. — AFP Ukraine on the brink of civil war: Moscow Poland calls for more NATO reinforcements

KIEV: Russia declared Ukraine on the brink of civil war yesterday as Kiev said an “anti-terror- ist operation” against pro-Moscow separatists was under way, with troops and armored per- sonnel carriers seen near a flashpoint eastern town. Twenty-four hours after a Ukrainian ulti- matum expired for the separatists to lay down their arms, witnesses however saw no signs yet that Kiev forces were about to storm state buildings in the Russian-speaking east that ATHENS: New Democracy ruling party’s supporters shake hands with Greek Prime the rebels have occupied. Minister Antonis Samaras who presents in Athens, his party’s candidates for the May Police said separatists had surrendered the 2014 European Parliament elections. — AFP police headquarters in Kramatorsk, one of about 10 towns and cities where the sepa- Greece far right fires ratists have seized buildings. However, an offi- cial later said they occupied another building in the town. Interim President Oleksander up Athens campaign Turchinov insisted the operation had started in the eastern Donetsk region, although it would happen in stages and “in a considered ‘Here comes the mayor!’ way”. Amidst the deepest East-West crisis since the Cold War, the leaders of Russia and ATHENS: Greek far-right Golden Dawn law- becoming household names. Greek opposi- the United States have called on each other to maker Ilias Kasidiaris strode into a packed tion parties such as Syriza on the left and do all in their power to avoid further blood- hotel room in central Athens last month to Golden Dawn on the right - the anti-immi- shed. IZIUM: Ukraine internal troops check traffic at a checkpoint in Izium yesterday. Ukraine’s act- the sound of a marching song and support- grant party accused of being a neo-Nazi The standoff has raised fears that Moscow ing president accused Russia of harboring “brutal plans” to destabilize the southeast of his ex- ers’ cries of “Here comes the mayor!” “In less criminal organization - have tried to raise might turn off gas supplies to Kiev, disrupting Soviet country by backing separatist militants. — AFP than 100 years, Greeks will become a minor- the stakes by calling the municipal elections flows to the European Union. Russian ity in their country. The only way to strike at the first step towards overthrowing the exporter Gazprom promised it would remain right nationalists among Kiev’s new rulers. speaking areas, where most of the country’s the root of evil is through the municipal government. a reliable supplier to the EU, but German However, a United Nations report yester- heavy industry lies, while the secessionists elections,” Kasidiaris said, pledging to rid the “Everyone knows that the municipal energy company RWE began deliveries to day cast doubt on whether Russian-speakers have demanded Crimean-style referendums Greek capital of “thieves and immigrants”. elections have a deep political significance,” were seriously threatened, including those in in their regions. Kiev opposes anything that “We must win the May elections to save said Gabriel Sakellaridis, the 33-year-old Ukraine yesterday - reversing the usual east- west flow in one central European pipeline. Crimea who voted to join Russia after Moscow might lead to the dismemberment of the the Greek blood,” he roared before leading economist put forward by Syriza as its can- forces had already seized control of the Black country. But in an attempt to undercut the the crowd in singing the national anthem. didate. “The Athens ballot will certainly Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave a gloomy assessment after at least two Sea peninsula. “Although there were some rebels’ demands, Turchinov has held out the The raucous gathering was just one cam- send a political message. A message for attacks against the ethnic Russian community, prospect of a nationwide referendum on the paign stop in an increasingly heated Athens’ resistance and dignity, for change and cre- people died on Sunday when Kiev unsuccess- fully tried to regain control in the town of these were neither systematic nor wide- future shape of the Ukrainian state. mayoral race, the most symbolic and closely ativity. A message that will be heard and spread,” said the report by the U.N. human watched battle in Greece’s local and discussed, not only across the country, but Slaviansk, about 150 km from the Russian bor- rights office. The report cited “misinformed Reverse flows European elections in May - the first big also across Europe.” He and Golden Dawn’s der. “Blood has once again been spilt in electoral test for Prime Minister Antonis Kasidiaris are one of seven contenders, Ukraine. The country is on the brink of civil reports” and “greatly exaggerated stories of RWE’s deliveries of gas to Ukraine through Samaras since he took power in 2012. including two rival candidates from the rul- war,” he said on his Facebook page. harassment of ethnic Russians by Ukrainian a pipeline from Poland marked an initial step At stake is the right to run the ancient ing New Democracy party, a popular Turchinov said the offensive, which he first nationalist extremists”. in EU efforts to counter the risk that Russia city that gave birth to democracy over Communist party member, an HIV-positive announced on Sunday, was finally underway. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will turn off the taps. Central Europe’s pipeline 2,500 years ago but is now on its knees, riv- gay activist as well as a right-wing lawyer, “The anti-terrorist operation began during the denied accusations from both Kiev and the network is designed to carry Russian gas en by protests, rising homelessness and reflecting the chaotic post-crisis political night in the north of Donetsk region. But it West that Moscow was stirring up the sepa- westwards. But Polish operator Gaz-System poverty-ridden areas. After six years of landscape in Greece. will take place in stages, responsibly, in a con- ratists in the east and southeast as a possible said it had reversed the flow to send back 4 recession and austerity, the election is sidered way. I once again stress: the aim of prelude to repeating its annexation of Crimea. million cubic meters per day, the equivalent being fought as much on national issues Resurrecting the past these operations is to defend the citizens of “Ukraine is spreading lies that Russia is behind of 1.5 billion annually - a modest volume com- like an unpopular EU/IMF bailout as on local In the lead is George Kaminis, the cur- Ukraine,” he told parliament. At least 15 the actions in the southeast,” Lavrov said on a pared with Ukraine’s need for more than 50 issues. Opposition parties see it as a test of rent Socialist mayor who boosted his for- armored personnel carriers displaying visit to China. He called on Kiev to hold back billion. sentiment on Samaras’s pro-bailout govern- tunes by declaring himself an independent Ukrainian flags were parked by the side of a before a meeting between Russia, the EU, Moscow has nearly doubled the price it ment. “The municipal elections now have in November, capitalizing on anger among road around 50 km north of the town of United States, and Ukraine planned for charges Kiev this year, and President Vladimir more of a political meaning because they Greeks towards the established political Geneva tomorrow. “The use of force would Putin has threatened to halt supplies if Kiev are being held for the first time in the mid- class blamed for driving the country close Slaviansk, witnesses said. Ukrainian troops wearing camouflage gear sabotage the opportunity offered by the four- does not repay more than $2 billion it owes to dle of the chaos of the debt crisis,” said to bankruptcy. “Yesterday has no place in party negotiations in Geneva,” he said. Gazprom. Putin has also warned EU leaders Dimitris Mavros, head of the MRB polling what’s happening today,” he said this month and armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers were stationed nearby, Moscow has demanded constitutional change that this could disrupt their supplies that flow agency. The rise of far-right and anti-EU par- referring to Greece’s decades-old political in Ukraine to give more powers to Russian- across Ukraine. —Reuters ties has been seen across Europe as voters system dominated by two parties. “People with a helicopter and several buses contain- shun the mainstream architects of austerity have already left it behind. Only some hope ing interior ministry personnel near the road. policies, such as in France, the Netherlands, in vain that they can resurrect it.” Coalition In Slaviansk itself, where separatists have Belgium and even non-euro zone Britain. It member PASOK, which put Kaminis forward seized the local headquarters of the police has led to figures like Kasidiaris, who in 2010, and the small Democratic Left par- and state security service, a Reuters corre- stunned viewers of a live TV debate before ty have come out in his support but have spondent heard no shots or blasts. Outside the election in 2012 by hurling a glass of both kept a low profile during campaigning the occupied police station about a dozen water at one female politician and surging after seeing their support hammered over civilians manned barricades that have been from his seat to slap another in the face, the crisis years. —Reuters built up overnight with more tyres and wood- en crates. A dozen or so armed Cossacks - paramilitary fighters descended from Tsarist- Scottish independence era patrolmen - stood guard at the mayor’s offices. Shops were functioning as usual and bread supplies were normal. could ‘weaken’ Britain “The night passed quickly, thank God. LONDON: Scottish independence would weak- on Tuesday that shared defense forces provide There have been lots of rumors of violence, en Britain’s maritime defenses by splitting up “security and peace of mind” for the people of but it’s been very quiet here. We are in con- bases, infrastructure and staff, the country’s Britain and Scotland’s bond with the rest of the trol,” said one civilian on the barricades out- navy chief said, the first serving military boss to United Kingdom is “precious”. He will also talk side the police station, who gave his name give a view on the consequences if Scots vote about the complexity of what he calls “pro- only as Rustam. Igor Dyomin, a spokesman for to break away in September. Writing in the tracted” negotiations on the future of nuclear- the Donetsk region police, said armed mili- Daily Telegraph newspaper yesterday, Admiral armed submarines should Scotland vote for tants had ended their occupation of the George Zambellas said the nations that independence. police station in Kramatorsk, which had remained in the United Kingdom if Scotland left begun on Saturday. “They left of their own the three-centuries-old union would cope Weaken both nations accord,” he said. But later a state security serv- eventually but Scotland would feel a “deeper Zambellas said he believed independence impact”. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond would “fundamentally change maritime securi- ice spokeswoman said rebels had occupied faces increased pressure over defence issues in ty for everyone in the United Kingdom” and the agency’s local offices in the same town. an apparently choreographed campaign this damage the heart of the navy’s capabilities. week ahead of the independence referendum “While the continuing United Kingdom would Exaggerated stories scheduled for Sept 18. eventually adapt and cope, the deeper impact Ukraine’s security forces have been in some On Sunday defense and aerospace indus- would be felt in Scotland, which would no disarray since protesters ousted pro-Moscow tries cautioned Scotland could lose its compet- longer have access of right to the security con- President Viktor Yanukovich in February. itive edge because of uncertainty over the tribution of one of the finest and most efficient However, the delays to the crackdown may future of the currency and taxation. A group of navies in the world,” he wrote. “The effective- also reflect a desire by the interim leadership 12 retired military chiefs on Monday said mov- ness of the Royal Navy, following separation, ing to evict the nuclear submarine base from would weaken the security of both nations.” As to avoid making things worse by causing civil- the Clyde River in the event of a “yes” vote well as being the home for Britain’s four Trident ian casualties. Moscow accuses Kiev of pro- would cost billions of pounds, cut thousands of nuclear-armed submarines, the Royal Navy has voking the crisis by ignoring the rights of citi- jobs and create international resentment. 16 ships and submarines and two commando zens who use Russian as their first language, Defense Minister Philip Hammond will say in a units based in Scotland that employ about and has promised to protect them from LUGANSK: People attend a pro-Ukraine rally in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk yester- speech to an electronics company in Scotland 5,250 people. —Reuters attack. It also highlights the presence of far- day. — AFP