ROME: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi easily won a confidence vote yesterday over his plans to ease rules for companies that hire temporary workers, part of a broader plan to overhaul labour regulations.
The lower-house of parliament voted 344 to 184 to back Renzi, the 39-year-old former mayor of Florence who took power in February from party rival Enrico Letta.
The confidence vote allows the government to accelerate passage of a decree that will allow businesses to renew temporary contracts for up to 36 months without citing their motives. Currently, companies have to justify each extension beyond 12 months.
The decree must be approved by the Senate by May 19 to become a permanent law.
Kosovo approves war crimes court
PRISTINA: Kosovo’s parliament yesterday approved the establishment of an international court to deal with alleged crimes committed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the 1998-1999 war with Serbia.
The vote came amid mounting pressure on Pristina to back an EU call to create a special court to address the allegations detailed in a 2011 Council of Europe report on crimes committed by pro-independence ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The report by the Council’s special rapporteur Dick Marty said the KLA, which fought Serbian armed forces during the war, should be held accountable for abductions, beatings, summary executions, and in some cases, the removal of human organs of non-Albanian prisoners. According to the report, the prisoners, some 500, were mostly ethnic Serbs and Romas.
Berlusconi to start service
MILAN: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday he would start doing community service with the elderly next week as part of a one-year tax fraud sentence.
A court ruled earlier this month that Berlusconi, one of Italy’s richest men, must spend four hours a week in a Catholic old people’s home on the outskirts of Milan.
After completing the first six months, Berlusconi’s one-year sentence will automatically be reduced to 10 and a half months.
The ruling limits Berlusconi’s movements to the Lombardy region around his Milan residence, but allows him to travel to Rome weekly and does not restrict his political activity.
Three kids found dead in London
LONDON: A 42-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the bodies of three children were found at the house of a South African banker in southwest London.
A four-year-old girl and twin boys, aged three, were found dead on Tuesday evening at the address in New Malden. Neighbours leaving flowers and tributes outside the house told reporters that the family had carried out extensive renovations to the house before moving in as three of their four children had disabilities and needed wheelchair access. A woman was taken to hospital for treatment for minor injuries after police were called to the house but she was later discharged and arrested on suspicion of murder.
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