Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: From The Times

From The Times
July 6, 2009
Bob Geldof joins the Pope in attack on Silvio Berlusconi over Africa aid
(Massimo Di Vita)
Bob Geldof with Silvio Berlusconi: the interview was 'like a boxing match'
Richard Owen in Rome
Bob Geldof joined the Pope to turn up the pressure on Silvio Berlusconi 
yesterday with a strident attack on the Italian Prime Minister's record on 
aid before this week's G8 summit.
In a hard-hitting interview published yesterday, Geldof forced Mr Berlusconi 
to apologise for failing by a huge margin to meet his commitments on 
fighting poverty.
Shown figures by Geldof proving that Italy had cut aid after promising large 
increases, Mr Berlusconi said: "I am sorry, we made a mistake . . . Our 
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti has made a commitment to readjust in line 
with our undertakings within three years." The singer and antipoverty 
campaigner labelled Mr Berlusconi "Mr 3 Per Cent", saying that he had 
delivered only 3 per cent of the aid that Italy pledged at the G8 meeting at 
Gleneagles in 2005, when Mr Berlusconi was last in office.
"How can you lead the G8? Where is your credibility?" asked Mr Geldof, who 
guest-edited La Stampa, the Turin daily, for a day. Mr Berlusconi admitted 
that Italy was "behind with its payments" but said that after Gleneagles he 
had been out of power for two and a half years, blaming the intervening 
Government of Romano Prodi and the financial crisis.
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When Mr Berlusconi complained that he was being "attacked by the press, the 
Left and magistrates", Geldof brushed it aside as irrelevant.
At Gleneagles, the G8 countries vowed to increase aid to Africa by at least 
$26 billion (�16 billion) by 2010, later revised downward to $21.8 billion.
A report by Geldof's ONE campaign group last month said that Italy was 
trailing behind other G8 nations in aid to Africa, putting the whole group's 
performance at risk.
Mario Calabresi, the Editor of La Stampa, said that the interview had been 
"like a boxing match", and at some points he had expected either Mr 
Berlusconi or Geldof "to get up and walk out". He said the Italian leader 
was suffering from chronic neck pain. The interview followed an open letter 
from Pope Benedict XVI to Mr Berlusconi on Saturday urging the G8 leaders, 
whose meeting starts on Wednesday, to "defend the poor".
The pontiff appealed to them to "listen to the voice of Africa", adding that 
the economic crisis meant there was a "real risk not only that hopes of 
emerging from extreme poverty will be dashed but that populations that have 
benefited from a minimum of material wellbeing will fall into poverty.
"I appeal to G8 member states to maintain and boost development aid, not in 
spite of the crisis but precisely because this is one of the main solutions 
to it," the pontiff said. He is to publish an encyclical, the most 
authoritative document a pope can issue, on poverty and globalisation 
tomorrow.
He praised Mr Berlusconi's decision to move the summit from Sardinia to L'Aquila 
after the April 6 earthquake in Abruzzo, however, saying that the relief 
efforts there served as an example of how to "face challenges".

 From The Times
- Feste in cui si canta e si balla? Sai che scandalo.
- Qualche ragazza in topless al mare in Agosto nella villa sarda del
Premier?
Basta andare in spiaggia a Rimini.
- Una nottata passata con una "signora" consenziente da parte di un adulto
di
fatto separato dalla moglie da alcuni anni?
Chi � senza peccato scagli la prima pietra.
- La foto di un bacio lesbico sullo sfondo di Villa Certosa?
Questo dimostra che Berlusconi non ha pregiudizi.
Cosa doveva fare, cacciare le poverette?
E i diritti degli omosessuali, dove li mettiamo?