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...Alitalia has been in need of a shakeup for years. The company hasn't turned a profit since 1999, forcing the Italian government to set up a series of bailouts that have drawn the ire of European Union competition regulators. In December 2006, then Prime Minister Romano Prodi put the government's 49.9% share of Alitalia on the selling block. Several potential buyers pulled out, and a takeover bid by Air France-KLM was blocked by the unions and the open disdain of then opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi...
Hounded by allegations of corruption, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned on Sept. 21 after 33 months in office, but he will remain as head of an interim government until a new ruling coalition is formed by the country's quarrelsome parties...
...parties representing pensioners and the ultra-orthodox lobby. She is trying to bring Labor on board again by offering them a "real partnership" - making key concessions that Olmert would not. She will have to contend with the ego of Labor leader Ehud Barak, a medaled ex-general and former Prime Minister who finds it difficult to take orders from Livni, a relative newcomer to Israeli politics. Experts say that Barak wants Livni to give Labor better cabinet posts and may want Olmert's 2009 budget rewritten. Livni has one advantage: polls show that in an early general election, Labor under...
...popularity plunged even further when police said they had uncovered evidence to indict Olmert for suspected fraud and bribery. The attorney general has yet to issue the indictment, and Olmert's lawyers say he is innocent. Nevertheless, his long career in politics, from Jerusalem mayor to cabinet minister to Prime Minister, appears to be finished. As Haaretz editorialized: "His personal conduct, which reflected his hedonism and greed, shadowed his performance as Prime Minister." It's now up to Livni to see if she can create a new government from the remains of Olmert's tattered legacy...
...Amid fierce debate in the local media over how to counter the extremist threat, analysts have criticized government leaders for leaving Islamabad on Sunday. The President left for New York where he will attend the U.N. General Assembly, and will meet with President Bush on the sidelines. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, meanwhile, flew to the eastern city of Lahore. "Political forces need to join hands at this moment," says Talat Masood, a retired general turned analyst. "There should have been a day or two of meeting with the political parties and religious parties to try and develop a consensus...