Italian PM stakes survival on confidence vote Berlusconi addresses parliament in advance of possible trust vote amid concerns over his political future.

Berlusconi  is bracing for a confidence vote in parliament that will determine his political future [EPA]

Silvio Berlusconi has asked parliament for a confidence vote that will allow him to continue governing at the helm of a centre-right coalition.

The Italian prime minister addressed the lower house of parliament on Thursday, after his government's defeat by one vote on a routine but still crucial bill on Tuesday, when a score of his deputies failed to attend.

"There is no alternative to this government," the 75-year-old leader said in a speech that was applauded by his centre-right allies but boycotted by legislators from the centre-left in a rare sign of defiance.

"What is the probability that Berlusconi will fall tomorrow with a clear-cut vote? Very low. In practice, zero" - Stefano Folli, columnist

"We want to continue working for the good of families and businesses even though a campaign of unprecedented violence has been launched against us by an opposition that is united only by its anti-Berlusconism," he said.

"I am here and with me I have a politically cohesive majority, apart from some incidents in parliament," he added, referring to the coalition's defeat on Tuesday. It was that embarrassing loss that led Berlusconi to address parliament.

"Our task and our duty is to defend Italy from the economic crisis," he added.
Berlusconi has staked his government's survival on a vote of confidence in parliament that could take place on Friday.

"Early elections would not solve the problems we have. A crisis now would mean victory for the party of decline, catastrophe and speculation that has been active for months in Europe and Italy."

'Landmark fail'
His speech came as a few anti-capitalist protesters were camped out in front of the Bank of Italy after a 2,000-strong rally on Wednesday, inspired by the "Indignant" movement in Spain and "Occupy Wall Street" in the US.

Their protest is expected to build up to a bigger rally on Saturday.
Berlusconi's popularity is at an all-time low.

He is a defendant in three trials for bribery, tax fraud, abuse of power and paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl - as well as the subject of an array of other sex scandals.

Political uncertainty in Italy and its effect on long-term economic policymaking was cited as a key factor for the recent downgrades of its sovereign debt by ratings agencies Standard & Poor's, Fitch and Moody's.

Al Jazeera's Claudio Lavanga has the latest on the political storm surrounding Berlusconi

Many commentators saw Tuesday's vote defeat as a landmark in the decline of the Berlusconi's political career - which began in the early 1990s when he entered politics with a party called Forza Italia (Go Italy).

The failure to pass the document on the 2010 state balance sheet has created an unprecedented problem for the government.
It cannot approve the country's upcoming budget until the accounts for the previous year have been ratified.

Former Berlusconi allies such as Claudio Scajola, the ex-economic development minister, have voiced their discontent and rumours have swirled for months over where exactly the allegiances of Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister, lie.

Some commentators have said the chances of a general election before the end of the government's mandate in 2013 are now higher than before.

Others, however, argue that it is too early to dismiss Berlusconi.

"What is the probability that Berlusconi will fall tomorrow with a clear-cut vote? Very low. In practice, zero," Stefano Folli, a columnist for business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, said.

"And yet few people think that winning the confidence vote will guarantee him smooth sailing," he said.

"The prime minister's real problems are the ones that existed before his visit to parliament and will continue to exist after it."

Russia says Syria veto 'no blank cheque' Appeal made for national dialogue following Medvedev's warning that Syrian leaders should enact reforms or step down.

Syrian opposition members who travelled to Moscow thanked Russia for vetoing the UN sanctions resolution [Reuters]

Russia has told both the Syrian government and the opposition that real actions are needed to solve the internal crisis in Syria, according to the Russian upper house of parliament's foreign-affairs chief.
Following a meeting in Moscow with representatives of the Syrian opposition, Mikhail Margelov said on Monday the conflict sides should urgently start a broad and comprehensive national dialogue.
"The Russian veto at the UN Security Council on the Syria draft resolution is no way a carte blanche for the
current ruling Syrian regime to do everything they want," he said.
"We are indulging neither the regime nor the opposition, no way, it is actually the last bell.
"With our veto at the UN Security Council we have used up the whole tool kit which international law offers us. This is the last appeal to the authorities and the opposition to take their places around the table and to start a national dialogue."
Margelov's appeal followed Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's statement last week that Syria's leaders should step down if they cannot enact reforms, but warned the West not to try to push President Bashar al-Assad from power.
Towards compromise
Medvedev's remarks appeared aimed to push Assad towards compromise and to patch up Russia's image after it blocked a Security Council draft resolution that would have condemned Syria's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
He also made clear that Russia opposes change in Syria on terms set by the West.
For their part, the visiting Syrian opposition members praised the Russian efforts.
"We, the representatives of the internal opposition, have come from Syria to say 'thank you for the veto' to the Russian Federation," Qadri Jamil, secretary-general of the National Committee for Unity of Syrian Communists, said on Monday.

Click for more of Al Jazeera's special coverage

"Why? Because of the fact that it made it possible to prevent external interference in Syrian affairs, and opens the way for dialogue.
"Preventing external interference [in Syria's affairs] provides safety guarantees for the civilians in Syria."
Russia had said it will oppose almost any resolution condemning Assad, making Syria a red line for Moscow after it had allowed NATO air raids in Libya by refraining from using its veto in a Security Council vote in March.
Russia said the draft UN resolution could have led to military intervention.
Russia has repeatedly urged Syria's government to implement promised reforms, but has differed starkly with
Western nations by saying Assad needs more time to do so, and has said his opponents share the blame for months of bloodshed.
Russia has accused the West of betraying its trust, charging that NATO overstepped its mandate to protect
civilians and used the UN resolution to depose Muammar Gaddafi by force.
Medvedev suggested the latest draft resolution on Syria had a similar aim and said other Security Council nations had refused to include language ruling out military intervention.
West warned
On the domestic front, Syria's highest Sunni Muslim religious leader has given warning to Western countries against military intervention and also threatened to retaliate with suicide bombings in the US and Europe if Syria comes under attack.
"I say to all of Europe, I say to America, we will set up suicide bombers who are now in your countries, if you bomb Syria or Lebanon," Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun said in a speech late on Sunday evening.
"From now on, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
Hassoun spoke to a delegation of Lebanese women who came to offer their condolences for his son's death by unknown assailants earlier this month.
"Don't come near our country, I beg you."
Hassoun's comments follow another warning by Walid Moallem, Syria's foreign minister, who told the international community not to recognise the new umbrella council formed by the opposition, threatening "tough measures" against any country that does so.

Ukrainian ex-PM found guilty of power abuse Yulia Tymoshenko has been found guilty of exceeding her authority over gas contracts she allegedly signed with Russia.

Tymoshenko's trial has seen criticism from both the European Union and the United States [GALLO/GETTY]

A court in Ukraine has found Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, guilty of abusing her authority when she ordered state energy firm Naftogaz to sign a gas deal with Russia in 2009.

Tuesday's verdict could further strain ties between Ukraine and the West.
State prosecutors asked the court to sentence Tymoshenko, 50, the main political opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, to seven years in jail for illegally forcing through the gas deal.

The European Union, one of Ukraine's main trading partners along with Russia, has told Yanukovich, who narrowly beat Tymoshenko for the presidency in February 2010, that landmark economic agreements will be in jeopardy if she is jailed.

Judge Rodion Kireyev, who was expected to deliver a sentence on Tymoshenko later, said her actions had led to a loss for Naftogaz of $188m.

"In January 2009, Tymoshenko, exercising the duties of prime minister ... used her powers for criminal ends and, acting delibertately, carried out actions ... which led to heavy consequences," he said on Tuesday.

Even before the judge began reading his verdict, Tymoshenko, who was flanked by her daughter and husband in court, exuded defiance.

"You know very well that the sentence is not being pronounced by Judge Kireyev but by President Yanukovich," she said.

"Whatever the sentence pronounced, my struggle will continue. This sentence, written by Yanukovich, will not change anything in my life or in my struggle."

About 2,000 Tymoshenko supporters, scores of police and crowds of anti-Tymoshenko demonstrators who turned out at the behest of the ruling Regions Party had gathered outside the central Kiev court before the verdict was delivered.

EU warning

Speaking on Monday, the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had said "we are not optimistic" about Tymoshenko's trial.
"Our impression remains [that it amounts to] selective application of justice," she said.

EU foreign ministers had expressed great concern about the upcoming verdict, she said after an EU meeting in Luxembourg.

The bloc warned Yanukovich, Tymoshenko's arch-rival, that bilateral agreements on association and a free trade zone would not be approved by EU members if she is jailed.

"Whatever the sentence pronounced, my struggle will continue. This sentence, written by [Ukraine's President] Yanukovich, will not change anything in my life or in my struggle" - Yulia Tymoshenko, former PM

Tymoshenko was accused of exceeding her powers by ordering state energy firm Naftogaz to sign a 2009 gas deal with Russia's Gazprom, which the Yanukovich government says binded the country with an exorbitant price for Russian gas. She denied any wrongdoing.

She has been held in police detention for contempt of court since August.

When the judge late last month called an adjournment until Tuesday it was widely seen as a strategic pause to give Yanukovich and his advisers time to consider their options in the face of the Western criticism.

He maintained her prosecution was a matter for the courts.

Her supporters say that Yanukovich wants to neutralise her as a political force before next year's parliamentary election.

A powerful orator, Tymoshenko was a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution that doomed Yanukovich's first bid for presidency.
She went on to hold the post of prime minister twice, but stepped down after losing to Yanukovich in the 2010 presidential election.

Polish PM wins second term Ruling party led by Donald Tusk registers impressive win in Sunday's vote, securing 206 parliamentary seats.

Donald Tusk's Civic Platform becomes the first Polish party to win two consecutive terms since 1989 [Reuters]

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist party has won a second consecutive term following parliamentary elections held on Sunday.
A count of 99.2 percent of all districts shows that Tusk's pro-marke Civic Platform won 39.2 per cent of the vote, against 30 per cent for its conservative challenger, the Law and Justice Party.
Civic Platform becomes the first Polish party to win two consecutive terms since communism's fall in 1989.
Tusk, 54, appears to have been rewarded for presiding over four years of strong economic growth, as Poland has been the only EU member state to avoid recession, and this year its economy is forecast to grow by about 4 per cent, the highest rate among the EU's seven largest economies.
The electoral commission said Civic Platform's 39 per cent would turn into 206 seats in the 460 member lower chamber, with its junior partner, the People's Party, winning 8.6 per cent of the vote, or 30 seats.
Both parties would hold a five-vote majority in the lower house of parliament if they continue their partnership.
Coalition talks
Tusk said he would work on forming a coalition and that his party will continue to favour a coalition with the Polish People's Party.
The leader of the Law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski admitted defeat after his party won 157 seats.
Jaroslaw had served as prime minister from 2005 to 2007, with his twin brother, Lech, as president. Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash with 95 others in April 2010.