“The lawyer is out of the question,” Mr Milosevic said yesterday. “I would never accept that”.Yesterday’s development is yet another delay in the seemingly interminable case. But the idea of imposing a defence attorney is problematic since it is certain to be rejected by Mr Milosevic, who has repeatedly declined earlier offers. The future of the biggest war crimes trial since the Second World War was thrown into doubt yesterday as ill health prevented Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, from taking the stand – prompting suggestions that the case might have to be abandoned.
Judges at the UN tribunal in The Hague will decide today how to proceed, after one lawyer questioned the fitness of Mr Milosevic – who is said to be at risk of a heart attack – to stand trial.One possibility is the imposition of a defence counsel on the former Yugoslav president who is conducting his own case; another is the installation of a video link to Mr Milosevic’s cell to avoid the need for him to appear in court.At present the trial judges are not thought to be considering bringing the trial to a close. The measures are designed to keep Italy in line with the eurozone ceiling of a budget deficit of 3 per cent of GNP.The finance ministers – several of whom have also breached EU deficit guidelines – took the pledge at face value, arguing that Italy has “responded to the concerns” expressed and that “the procedure is closed”.The EU finance ministers agreed to press ahead with plans to appoint a new public face of the euro to help coordinate policies in the 12- nation eurozone and communicate with the European Central Bank. It looked last night as if Mr Berlusconi will hang on to the post of Finance Minister for some time after suggestions that the job would go to Mario Monti, the European commissioner for competition, fell by the wayside.In addition to being Prime Minister, Mr Berlusconi served as Foreign Minister for 11 months after the resignation of Renato Ruggiero in 2002.
His exit was the price demanded by Mr Berlusconi’s fractious coalition partners for avoiding the prospect of early elections. But his new position raises more questions of conflict of interest for Italy’s richest man.As Finance Minister he will act as the main shareholder in the state broadcaster RAI, the utility and energy giants ENEL and ENI, the national flag carrier Alitalia, the national post and the state railways.However EU finance ministers in Brussels welcomed his statement. Italy escaped without a rebuke for its big budget deficit yesterday, after the country’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, promised to implement a multibillion-euro package of spending cuts and tax rises which has provoked a domestic political crisis.
Mr Berlusconi, who has temporarily added the role of finance minister to his wide web of interests, hailed the deal as “a good result as I had predicted”, after a meeting in Brussels.So controversial is the €7.5bn (£5bn) package of measures that the man who constructed it, Giulio Tremonti, was forced to quit as Finance Minister over the weekend. “The celebrations were uniquely Greek but the organisation and performances were recognisably German,” Professor Tsoukalas added.Rehhagel may not have a Greek soul but he will have citizenship as the reward for turning Greeks into world-beaters But his need is more basic.
He wanted the freedom of the Athens bus lanes to avoid that other Greek tragedy: gridlock.. Police had to seal off four blocks in the city centre as the match kicked off just before 5am local time.”After they won, everything went wild, the police had to give up and just let them get on with throwing fireworks and blocking traffic,” said a Greek-Australian, Vicky Kyriakopoulos. “It’s infectious and the city had adopted the team as their own.” In Toronto, home town of the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, traffic was at a standstill yesterday afternoon. Many settled in Melbourne, the second-biggest Greek city in the world after Athens. Its 500,000 Greeks staged an overnight party the city will never forget. The result was suffering among ordinary Greeks.More than 20 years later, German occupation led to the worst famine Europe saw in the 20th century Ten of thousands of Greeks starved to death. “Greece is a country with a bloody history which is why so many people left,” Professor Tsoukalis said.
The recent cinema hit A Touch of Spice reminded the world that Greeks also yearn for their lost homelands in Asia Minor. The population exchanges of the 1920s that followed the disastrous attempt to invade Turkey were the beginning of a century of migration for Greeks. Between 1914 and 1918, the country’s competing interests argued for the country to join differing sides. Tashkent?These Greeks, political refugees of the civil war half a century ago, these Greeks fled to the Communist states beyond the Iron Curtain, establishing communities in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and the former Soviet Union.The largest of these communities was in Tashkent, in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. Twelve thousand political refugees established the Greek Association of Tashkent in 1950 In 1974, there were 35,000 Greeks there Today, 12,000 remain. Last night they were on the streets dancing to the syrtaki in scenes repeated all over the world.Professor Tsoukalis said these extraordinarily diverse pockets of people are a legacy of Greece’s turbulent 20th century This nation was shaped by war and dictatorship Autocratic rule blighted the country from 1967 until 1974.