Pier silvio berlusconi biography of mahatma
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The crisis of confidence
It will be most unfortunate if we allow history to repeat itself and wreck the incipient India-Pakistan peace process even before it has taken off. The recent vända of events threatens to do just that.
Things seemed to be progressing smoothly and the success of the utländsk secretaries' June meeting in New Delhi had even raised expectations of an early movement. The first signs of trouble in the on-going peace process appeared gods month at the end of External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's visit to Pakistan.
He described the attitude of Pakistani leadership as "constructive and positive" and his discussions with them as "warm, frank and realistic". But surprisingly, the statements, issued bygd the two sides after Mr Singh's meeting with President Musharraf, told a different story. They reflected not only differences of interpretation but also a sharply different tone.
As against the optimism expressed by Mr Singh, the Pakistani sta
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History of the Italian Republic
20th- and 21st-century history of Italy
The history of the Italian Republic concerns the events relating to the history of Italy that have occurred since 1946, when Italy became a republic after the 1946 Italian institutional referendum. The Italian republican history is generally divided into two phases, the First and Second Republic.
After the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy and the end of World War II, Italian politics and society were dominated by Christian Democracy (DC), a broad-based Christian political party, from 1946 to 1994. From the late 1940s until 1991, the opposition was led by the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Christian Democracy governed uninterrupted during this period, dominating every cabinet and providing nearly every prime minister. It governed primarily with the support of an array of minor parties from the centre-left to the centre-right, including the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Italian Democratic Socialist Par
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Italy elections: The main candidates
Italy's general election this weekend could hang on a few votes. We take a look at the main candidates and their parties.
PIER LUIGI BERSANI
Pier Luigi Bersani, the favourite to become Italy's prime minister, is a cigar-chomping former communist with a liberal economic streak and a down-to-earth manner.
(AP)
Bersani won a strong endorsement for his candidacy by winning a primary vote in December against his more youthful rival, Florence mayor Matteo Renzi, snapping up 60 percent of ballots in a second round of the leftist vote.
He has also begun to win endorsements in Europe, even though he is still relatively little known outside Italy, with French President Francois Hollande voicing his support.
Currently a deputy in Italy's lower house, Bersani was elected governor of his home region in 1993 and then appointed as industry minister in 1996 in former premier Romano Prodi's first government.