:00:05. > :00:10.Italy's MPs approve tough austerity measures to tackle the country's
:00:10. > :00:15.debt crisis. The move paves the way for Silvio Berlusconi to resign as
:00:15. > :00:18.prime minister. The Government denies claims that
:00:18. > :00:21.its planning to lay off wounded soldiers.
:00:21. > :00:31.The Arab League suspends Syria, telling its rulers to stop
:00:31. > :00:40.
:00:40. > :00:45.Good evening. Italy's MPs have approved a package of tough
:00:45. > :00:47.austerity measures to tackle the country's growing debt crisis. The
:00:47. > :00:50.move now paves the way for the country's Prime Minister, Silvio
:00:50. > :01:00.Berlusconi to resign, possibly as early as tonight, and the formation
:01:00. > :01:05.of a new government. Christian Fraser is in Rome for us tonight.
:01:05. > :01:08.Thank you very much. We just had the vote. I can tell you it has
:01:08. > :01:14.been approved without any amendments to the bill. That is
:01:14. > :01:18.part one of events this evening. Part two is a cabinet meeting, the
:01:18. > :01:23.prime minister's offices behind me, lots of people are here. Some of
:01:23. > :01:28.them shouting resign. They expect Mr Berlusconi to leafier in an hour,
:01:28. > :01:32.go up the hill to meet the President Napolitano, to tender his
:01:32. > :01:36.resignation. That's what we think will happen but there are no
:01:36. > :01:41.guarantees, not in Italian politics, and certainly not with Mr
:01:41. > :01:46.Berlusconi. For 17 years, Silvio Berlusconi has held a mysterious
:01:46. > :01:48.grip on Italian voters. Today, they gathered outside the prime
:01:49. > :01:53.minister's residence to glimpse what may prove his final day in
:01:53. > :01:57.office, well aware events this weekend will have huge bearings on
:01:57. > :02:00.their future. With the clock ticking, the lower house of
:02:00. > :02:08.parliament gathered for an emergency debate on the austerity
:02:08. > :02:12.Bill, which would set in motion the changing of the Guard. Mr
:02:12. > :02:15.Berlusconi pledged to leave power once the Bill was approved and
:02:15. > :02:19.although his likely successor Mario Monti was given a rapturous welcome
:02:19. > :02:25.yesterday, it is the outgoing government but is now manoeuvring
:02:25. > :02:31.for position. Mario Monti can only deliver change with the support and
:02:31. > :02:36.approval of a fractious Italian parliament. You must know that the
:02:36. > :02:42.resignation of Mr Berlusconi is not a solution in itself. It's an
:02:42. > :02:47.important step. In fact, the uncertainty would spread disaster.
:02:47. > :02:52.The onus is on at present Napolitano. His role is symbolic in
:02:52. > :02:56.Italy but he must find consensus to appoint a new prime minister and he
:02:56. > :03:01.must do it in a matter of days. Italy depends on it and so does the
:03:01. > :03:05.rest of Europe. Christian, we saw in your report,
:03:05. > :03:11.the disagreements emerging. How important will that be when it
:03:11. > :03:15.comes to the future of this package? I think all eyes at the
:03:15. > :03:19.moment are on Silvio Berlusconi is party. You cannot underestimate the
:03:19. > :03:28.Italian system. There's all sorts of powers, best of his interest,
:03:28. > :03:32.privileges behind me in the building behind me. They hoped that
:03:32. > :03:36.sense will prevail this weekend and people will not want to go to
:03:36. > :03:40.elections, but you have no guarantees in this system at the
:03:40. > :03:44.moment, because they could be as many as 10 cabinet ministers about
:03:44. > :03:49.to lose their job and they are now jockeying for position in the new
:03:49. > :03:53.government to see it they will be part of Mario Monti's plans. We saw
:03:53. > :04:00.how difficult it was with Greece to get an interim Prime Minister in
:04:00. > :04:03.place. This is Italy. Welcome to the main event. Christian, thank
:04:03. > :04:06.you. The Ministry of Defence has
:04:06. > :04:09.dismissed claims in a leaked Army memo suggesting injured soldiers
:04:09. > :04:12.could lose their jobs as a result of more cuts to personnel. The MoD
:04:12. > :04:14.said the memo, which was obtained by The Daily Telegraph, was
:04:14. > :04:16.incorrect. It also rejected suggestions that it was planning
:04:16. > :04:22.further cuts than those already announced. Our defence
:04:22. > :04:26.correspondent Jonathan Beale reports.
:04:26. > :04:32.It's the time of year that the entire nation remembers the
:04:32. > :04:36.sacrifice of those who have served in uniform. This morning,
:04:36. > :04:43.politicians paid tribute to former marines who have now left the
:04:43. > :04:45.service. Soon, many more will be joining their ranks. A leaked
:04:45. > :04:49.internal Army memo suggests thousands of troops will be made
:04:49. > :04:53.redundant than originally planned. Keen to distance themselves from
:04:53. > :04:58.the document, the army admits with more defence cuts, difficult
:04:58. > :05:05.decisions will have to be made. have been set the task by a
:05:05. > :05:08.government to get the army down by a Twenty20. As the person
:05:08. > :05:13.responsible for our programme, you would not expect me to do anything
:05:13. > :05:18.other than actually look at all the possibilities. Last year the MoD
:05:18. > :05:24.announced it would make 7,000 troops redundant. This year, it
:05:24. > :05:28.rose by another 5,000, to 12,000 redundancies. This document
:05:28. > :05:32.suggests the final figure could be more like 16 and a half 1,000
:05:32. > :05:37.soldiers losing their jobs. One of the most difficult issues as what
:05:37. > :05:42.to do with those who have been injured and wounded. Ben Parkinson
:05:42. > :05:46.lost his legs and suffered brain injuries in Afghanistan. His family
:05:46. > :05:49.has been fighting to keep his job in the Army but the leaked memo
:05:49. > :05:55.suggests those injured will not be exempt from the next round of
:05:55. > :06:03.redundancies. This must be an incredible blow to the morale of
:06:03. > :06:09.those deployed and about to deploy, who know the terms are not as blunt
:06:09. > :06:15.as a peer in the memo, but we know, long term, the aim of the MoD is to
:06:15. > :06:19.offload the wounded as quickly as possible. The memo, written by a
:06:19. > :06:21.junior officer, was sent to commanders in Afghanistan. But
:06:21. > :06:28.tonight the defence secretary, having himself returned from
:06:28. > :06:31.Helmand province, tried to reassure the troops. Anyone injured, who was
:06:31. > :06:35.undergoing medical treatment, will not be eligible for consideration
:06:35. > :06:39.for a redundancy programme, so long as that medical treatment is under
:06:39. > :06:43.way. The second round of redundancies will be announced
:06:43. > :06:47.early next year. For the government and the army, the challenge is to
:06:48. > :06:51.maintain morale while implementing painful cuts.
:06:51. > :06:53.Syria has been suspended from the Arab League over its failure to end
:06:53. > :06:56.the violence against anti- government protestors. The League,
:06:56. > :07:00.which has been meeting in Cairo, is also going to impose economic and
:07:00. > :07:09.political sanctions on the country. Our correspondent Jon Leyne is in
:07:09. > :07:14.Cairo. How sick of the good is this move by the League? -- How sick of
:07:14. > :07:20.the can? It's a huge blow to President Assad. Who would have
:07:20. > :07:27.thought the Syrian Arab League would be suspended. And equally
:07:27. > :07:30.it's a huge boost to the protesters. They are celebrating outside League
:07:30. > :07:35.headquarters here. In the short term, it could lead to an increase
:07:35. > :07:38.in violence in Syria. After all, it's going to encourage the
:07:38. > :07:41.protesters to go onto the streets and that will surely lead to more
:07:41. > :07:46.repression from the Syrian government. In the longer term,
:07:46. > :07:51.this could well be the cue for more UN action and maybe a Security
:07:51. > :07:54.Council resolution imposing some kind of economic pressures on Syria.
:07:54. > :07:59.Nobody is expecting the military intervention that happened in Libya
:07:59. > :08:03.after the Arab League voted to support UN no-fly zone there. But
:08:03. > :08:10.it could increase economic pressure, on the Syrian government, and it
:08:10. > :08:15.sends a strong signal from the Arab League that they believe President
:08:15. > :08:19.Assad days are numbered. Thank you very much. Two Britons have been
:08:19. > :08:21.killed in a helicopter crash in Majorca. Spanish police say the
:08:21. > :08:26.helicopter came down in a mountainous area of the spanish
:08:26. > :08:29.island. The Foreign Office had said they
:08:29. > :08:32.are in contact with the victims' families.
:08:32. > :08:35.The manager of Tottenham Hotspur football club, Harry Redknapp, is
:08:35. > :08:37.to face trial over allegations of tax evasion during his time as
:08:37. > :08:40.manager at Portsmouth. Mr Redknapp and the former Portsmouth chairman,
:08:40. > :08:46.Milan Mandaric, will appear at Southwark Crown Court on January
:08:47. > :08:49.23rd next year. In Iran, 17 people, many of them
:08:50. > :08:52.soldiers, are believed to have been killed in an explosion at a
:08:52. > :08:54.military arms depot near the capital Tehran. 16 others were
:08:55. > :09:01.wounded. The Iranian authorities are treating the blast, which was
:09:01. > :09:04.reportedly felt for miles around, as an accident.
:09:04. > :09:06.Union leaders have dismissed as daft a suggestion by a government
:09:06. > :09:10.minister that public sector workers in England and Wales planning to
:09:10. > :09:12.strike over pension changes should walk out for just 15 minutes. The
:09:12. > :09:15.Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude said the token industrial action
:09:15. > :09:23.would stop workers losing a day's pay and minimise disruption to the
:09:23. > :09:26.public. Our Business correspondent Joe Lynam reports.
:09:26. > :09:29.Last June hundreds of thousands of public sector workers walked out
:09:29. > :09:36.over the Government's plans to water down their pensions. To
:09:36. > :09:41.prevent a repeat of that, talks are under way between the unions and
:09:41. > :09:45.the Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, and the Treasury Secretary
:09:45. > :09:51.Danny Alexander. Unions have voted for the next strike to take place
:09:51. > :09:56.on November 30th. In today's Financial Times, there is an option
:09:56. > :09:59.of staging a token 50 minutes strike without losing a day's pay
:09:59. > :10:04.whilst negotiations continue with the government. Public sector
:10:04. > :10:08.employers are in favour of the plan. It's a complex issue we are dealing
:10:08. > :10:11.with. I recognise the feeling on the trade union side but this
:10:11. > :10:16.doesn't give us a chance to carry on with those important discussions.
:10:16. > :10:19.The trade unions dismissed the idea. Each part of a public sector has
:10:19. > :10:23.different pension schemes and they need to be thoroughly examined, so
:10:23. > :10:28.between now and 30th November, it's not long to sort out these problems.
:10:28. > :10:33.I hope Francis Maude negotiate more with us and less time coming up
:10:33. > :10:37.with daft ideas about 15 minutes since. The government wants public
:10:37. > :10:42.sector workers to retire later, staff would have to pay more into
:10:42. > :10:46.their pension pots, and all its new public sector staff would join a
:10:46. > :10:50.less generous pension scheme. If the strike goes ahead by public
:10:50. > :10:54.sector workers, the government has warned it may be tended to change
:10:54. > :10:59.the law surrounding strike action. That would mean at least half of
:10:59. > :11:04.all union members would have to cast a ballot for a strike have
:11:04. > :11:06.legal force. Only a quarter of union members and a public service
:11:06. > :11:09.have voted for the current industrial action.
:11:09. > :11:11.Football, and England and Wales are both in action in international
:11:11. > :11:16.friendly matches today with players from both teams wearing black
:11:16. > :11:19.armbands displaying the poppy emblem. England have just kicked
:11:19. > :11:23.off against World Champions Spain at Wembley. But earlier, Wales
:11:23. > :11:28.comfortably beat Norway in Cardiff. There were first half goals from
:11:28. > :11:31.Gareth Bale and Craig Bellamy. But two goals in 60 seconds from Sam
:11:31. > :11:34.Vokes secured an emphatic 4 -1 win for the home side.
:11:34. > :11:38.And in Formula 1, Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel will be in pole
:11:38. > :11:41.position tomorrow in Abu Dhabi. The World Champion secured his 14th
:11:41. > :11:44.pole position of the season, equalling a record set by Nigel