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A8 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 23 OcTOber 2018
Italy stands firm against EU in budget dispute

By COLLEEN BARRY economists worry it is a risk rived" and added that on
Associated Press to the region's financial Tuesday "the Commission
MILAN (AP) — Italy on markets. will discuss the procedure
Monday refused to back In the letter to the Europe- and will determine" its next
down on its plans to ramp an Commission, Economic steps.
up public spending, keep- Minister Giovanni Tria said Conte was critical in his re-
ing alive a dispute with the Italy would adjust the plan marks of EU officials, whom
European Union, which is if it does not deliver the ex- he said spoke out of turn
worried the budget would pected dividends, but that by slamming the budget
increase the country's high the spending boost and draft and Italy's response
debts. reform course were nec- before receiving either. He
Premier Giuseppe Conte essary due to "particularly also said that citing treaties
defended the budget in a unsatisfactory macroeco- alone would not persuade
news conference in Rome nomic and social condi- Europeans who are disillu-
following the noon dead- tions a decade after the sioned with current policies.
line for Italy to submit its re- beginning of the crisis." "Today we are living years
sponse to the EU's rebuke of The letter said that the bud- in which Europe is languish-
the draft budget. get plan "does not pose ing," he said. He added
"If today, confronted by the any risks to the financial Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte answers reporters' questions that blaming populists or
EU letter, I would say that stability of Italy, or the other during a press conference at the foreign press club in Rome, nationalists misses the op-
we made a mistake and European Union countries." Monday, Oct. 22, 2018. portunity to "assume the
we re-write the maneuver, Conte the budget was Associated Press burden of evaluating what
that would mean admitting "well-conceived," and that are the causes and see
that we made the wrong it would promote econom- from its proposed deficit ers as being out of line with how to relaunch Europe."
maneuver," Conte said. ic growth. increase, credit ratings the bloc's spending con- He also emphasized that
"That is not the case." He noted that the 2.4 per- agency Moody's down- straints. Italy had no intentions of
The plan increases the defi- cent deficit level was a graded Italy by one notch The EU Commission hand- exiting either the Europe-
cit to 2.4 percent of GDP ceiling and held out the to just one level above junk ed Italy a stinging letter an Union or the 19-country
next year, three times more possibility that it would not status. It gave Italy a stable last week warning that the euro currency, recalling
than initially targeted by reach that level in 2019. He outlook, meaning it is not higher deficit targets rep- a famous phrase used by
the previous government. also repeated that it would currently considering an- resented a deviation "un- U.S. President George H.W.
The EU complains that the be brought lower in the fol- other downgrade. precedented in the history" Bush.
plan means Italy will not lowing two years. Conte said that underlined of EU budget rules. "Read my lips. For Italy,
lower its public debt as Investors and financial ex- that the Italian economy's Margaritis Schinas, the Euro- there is no chance, no
promised. At over 130 per- perts are skeptical. Even "fundamentals are good." pean Commission spokes- way, to get Italexit. There
cent of GDP, debt is more before knowing whether Italy's plans have widely man, said Monday that is no way to get out of Eu-
than twice the EU limit and Italy would back down been criticized by EU lead- Italy's response "has just ar- rope and the eurozone."q

Russian paper: Indicted Prigozhin ordered beatings, killing

MOSCOW (AP) — A secu- Syria last year to test an es of a so-called troll farm
rity aide to Yevgeny Prigo- unknown poison on Syr- in the Russian city of St. Pe-
zhin, a Russian businessman ians who refused to fight tersburg that aimed to in-
who has been indicted by for Syrian President Bashar fluence U.S. politics through
American investigators for Assad's government. No- social media postings.
allegedly trying to interfere vaya Gazeta corroborated When reached by phone
with the 2016 U.S. election, the account with two other on Monday, the woman's
says the mogul has been in- sources. ex-husband, Ravil Khusy-
volved in attacks on sever- Amelchenko disappeared aynova, told The Associ-
al people and at least one early this month shortly af- ated that he had spoken
killing, an independent Rus- ter meeting the reporter to her and she refuses to
sian newspaper reported and telling him that he was speak to the media.
Monday. being followed. Korotkov Another member of Prigo-
Prigozhin has been dubbed said he received a call zhin's security detail, Oleg
"Putin's chef" for organizing from Amelchenko's phone Simonov, who is suspected
catering events for Russian later that day and when he of attacking the husband
President Vladimir Putin went to the man's house, of an opposition activist
and even personally serv- In this July 4, 2017 file photo, Russian businessman Yevgeny Pr- he found two cellphones and injecting him with poi-
igozhin is shown prior to a meeting of Russian President Vladimir
ing him and his guests on Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin in Moscow, and what looked like his son, died last year under
some occasions. Russia. shoe lying on the ground. murky circumstances.
The Novaya Gazeta article Associated Press Amelchenko is now on a In addition, the activities of
Monday by reporter Denis Russian police list of missing Prigozhin's private security
Korotkov came out several Korotkov's article relies nents as well as the killing persons. contracting firm Wagner
days after unknown people on several interviews with of an opposition blogger in U.S. authorities on Friday have been well-document-
sent a funeral wreath to the Valery Alemchenko, a for- northwest Russia, all at the also brought charges ed. The AP last year pub-
journalist's home and left mer convict who worked mogul's behalf. against another Prigozhin lished a memorandum de-
a basket with a severed for Prigozhin. Alemchenko Amelchenko also said sev- employee, bookkeeper tailing an oil deal between
goat's head at the news- said he orchestrated at- eral people working for Elena Khusyaynova, for Prigozhin's company and
paper's office. tacks on Prigozhin's oppo- Prigozhin had traveled to helping oversee the financ- the Syrian government.q