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from small businesses to major corporations. >> the italian prime minister await the result of the vote of no-confidence in parliament. they are still voting at this moment. is the billionaire prime minister now damaged beyond repair -- beyond repair? the vote nears its climax. welcome to "gmt." in the program today, the united states loses one of its policy

giants. richard holbrooke, the man they call the diplomatic bulldozer, dies at the age of 69. how does israel planned to stem the rise of would-be emigrants. midday in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington. 1:00 in rome. the italian prime minister is awaiting the result of the crucial result of no confidence. the billionaire prime minister won a vote in the senate but now the lower house of we are joined in rome by our correspondent, duncan kennedy. >> we are just a few minutes to

buy it was well. a couple minutes ago the politicians' voting moved in alphabetical order. not many more left to vote. they have been getting everyone into the house to make sure that all of the numbers count. is it -- silvio berlusconi is cajoling everyone that he can, telling everyone that without confidence they could face the political nightmare. >> this was the critical vote. analysts said that it was too close to call. is support in this house was that the most precarious.

earlier that administers survived this vote in the upper house. his victory here was widely expected. the embattled silvio berlusconi had rejected a call by his long- term allied to resign, urged lawmakers to go on supporting his government, insisting that he had successfully protected italy from becoming a victim of the debt crisis. support for the 74-year-old prime minister was eroded by his dancing girls and of color comments. many saw this as part of his charm and effectiveness. but he often negotiated new attendance -- new agendas, and

the opposition has called him scared of the polls. >> we have now moved on to the letterr plant -- the latter r in terms of the vote. heading for victory, they simply do not know. we should know within the next few minutes. >> do you think that he believes that with those last-minute arguments that he has referred to that he is pull this out of the fire? >> what i think he did not do is upset anyone else. he was not his usual blustering, in-your-face style. this is a more subdued silvio berlusconi, saying that he can

change, bring more people on board. the other side of the argument is that if you do not back me up, it is about italy and the economy. now is not the time. a careful and experienced man. he says he has the votes to do it. we shall know in the next few minutes if that is true. >> an extraordinary day in italian politics. thank you very much, duncan kennedy. you can see that we are still on the letter r. we, of course, will be back with duncan kennedy as soon as we get the results. let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. a true giant of u.s. foreign

policy. that was the president's description of his special envoy to afghanistan and pakistan, richard holbrooke. known to friends and enemies as the bulldozer. in recent years he has been trying to bend afghani beaters to america's will. >> a towering figure. richard holbrooke was famous for getting his feet dirty. >> i do not think the to and draw in national conclusion from this. >> known to have been blunt behind-the-scenes, yet courteous.

>> i carried a personal message from president obama. >> a tough negotiator and a veteran troubleshooter. having worked with tcratic assoe 1970's. europe's war in bosnia, he persuaded the leaders of the warring parties to go to some unlikely surroundings. making it clear to them that they would not be leaving until a peace deal was signed. >> on paper we have peace. making it work is our next and greatest challenge. >> he approached the challenge

of afghanistan with no less enthusiasm, reportedly discussing it with his pakistani dr. well being prepared for surgery. >> in terms of the level of energy and his networks, he was incomparable. >> he stuck to the people who were very arrogant, which is not the way of the politician. in some places he may have believed that he could succeed, like bosnia. let the tragedy is that he has died now, the hour before he would have come into his own in a negotiation.

all of the neighbors would have been brought together in a final peace deal. >> paying tribute, president obama says millions of people around the world have lives that were saved and enriched by his work. richard holbrooke died before he could see his work translated into peace in afghanistan. >> let's go to washington now and talk to our state department correspondent. we heard some of the tributes. how big of a whole does this leave inside of the state department? particularly thinking of his active role as an envoy >> absolutely. he was a central figure in the development of the strategy of the obama administration for afghanistan and pakistan. personally bringing together many of the people on his team.

academics, military experts, people devoted to the issues. he brought them together two years ago at the state department. in a way he was the glue that kept it together. this will possibly complicate efforts in the short term. leaving a big hole in the state department. the latest complication in an effort that has already been very complicated. the american public, skeptical in afghanistan, facing the relationship between the u.s. and pakistan he put together a very good team. the upcoming review of the strategy will have his mark all

over it. in many ways he was indefatigable. he never stopped. often on the plane traveling to pakistan and afghanistan he would still be reading while we were all sleeping in the back of the plane. he was at home at the white house, a cocktail party, or on the ground in afghanistan. >> joining me now from afghanistan is the director for afghanistan central asia. we have heard the tributes, but what do you believe of the significance of his loss as seen from government circles in afghanistan and pakistan? >> i think that it is a great loss for the world, absolutely.

especially for the u.s.. i think that he has a reputation as a great negotiator and diplomat. a few things happen whereby his success in this arena did not match his early success. there were a few things that were very important. the general impression in afghanistan and pakistan as highlighted, the entire civilian aspect. he played a role in surviving the bill with a long term civilian links between afghanistan and pakistan. he also played an important

role when it was decided through the u.s. aid to put more of the power in the hands of the afghan government would most of the aid funding going to the u.s.-based ngo's. >> if i might come in, there was some concern fair to say in islamabad about his direct, no- nonsense style. that he did not understand the culture and politics of the region. fair? >> absolutely. i was about to get to the negative. feeling that we needed to highlight the positive first. the first thing that impacted his ability was that he was

supposed to come in as ambassador addressing strategic calculations. it did not happen because of the indian resistance to that. in our building relationships with security establishments is a fact was diluted by the defense department building direct relationships with security establishment. they had a very good one to one equation would hamper. his impact on security policy was diluted. of course, his style of

diplomacy and personality. knowledge of the politics of afghanistan did impact of u.s. performing and received. >> sorry to interrupt again. fascinating analysis. thank you for joining us today. the founder of the wikileaks web site is appearing in court in london to make a renewed application for bail. he had been demanding custody last week. wikileaks has released tens of thousands of confidential u.s. documents. a russian woman arrested in britain 10 days ago has told the bbc that she has been released on bail. working as a researcher and

member of the british parliament. the head of a south korean army creating tension on the south korean peninsula, resigning after reports linked him to a scandal. the defense minister resigned last month over his response to an attack from north korea. still to come, we will be back in rome to bring you the latest results of the confidence motion in italy as soon as we get it. ahead, a meeting for the u.s. federal reserve. bill ben bernanke inject more money into the struggling u.s. economy? police in sweden are continuing to investigate the background and motives of the suicide bomber blew himself up in stockholm over the weekend.

educated, he lived in britain before moving to sweeten. the foreign minister said he was minutes away from inflicting carnage in one of stockholm's busiest shopping streets. >> the moment that terror came to the streets of stockholm. saturday evening a car exploded on a busy shopping street minutes later a second blast that killed the bomber. swedish authorities are convinced that he wanted to kill as many people as possible. >> he exploded all of the ordinance there would have been massive casualties of the sort that we have not seen in quite some time. >> his facebook page hinted at his extremist views.

investigators will be looking into all aspects of his life. there is no guarantee that he had accomplices. >> if he was following orders, this would be part of the al qaeda strategy to continue in their style. but it is likely he is following the english language propaganda material that we are currently seeing much of. >> parallel investigations are now under way in sweden and britain. although a swedish citizen lived here, he went to university here and was driven out of a mosque. moments before his first device exploded he sent an e-mail that he was protecting the cartoons of the prophet mohammed.

it appears that his bombs detonated prematurely. the only life that he took was his own. in new experience for sweden, a hunt is now on for accomplices. >> we are going to go back to our top story of the hour. the vote in the lower house of the italian parliament, upon which the premiership of silvio berlusconi depends. never has the italian alphabet'' seemed more important. they are now on zed, suggesting they are coming to the end of the vote. duncan, are we going to get the results any moment? >> id is alphabet soup but they

seem close indeed. a few minutes ago silvio berlusconi was a head. we know that one of the rebels receive guests from supporters and cheers of the light from silvio berlusconi's supporters. one of the rebels has gone and voted with him. this argument to have a change of leadership now is not the right way forward for him or for a lead. so, it is one of those things that has come as a surprise, as has the rest of the process. we are still waiting for the roundup. 630 members of parliament have been voting.

about one hour ago he won comfortably in the senate. but in the lower house is where the rebels have been the most organized and in the greatest numbers. he has pinned his hopes on this. in the final stages, silvio berlusconi has been lobbying behind the scenes, pressuring people, making promises to change and broaden his coalition, introducing more policies to your liking. but that now was not the time to get rid of me. here in the middle of an economic crisis, to change horses now, to jump ship now would not be the right way forward. obviously he has a vested interest because he wants to

stay prime minister. but he tried to widen that argument, saying that this was not about him, this was about italy and the direction of the third biggest country in the euro zone. saying that most of those rebels had voted forcefully against him. this was not enough to carry him over the line. we also do not know if there were any abstentions. >> you summed up the uncertainty perfectly. based on the pictures from inside the chamber, it seems to me that the initial voting is over. is it fair to assume that when the result is bred there is going to be a huge cheer of applause there will likely be a

lively reaction. >> one would expect so. they are lively lot. this is the italian parliament. showing off the passion of their politics, they are expected to get excited. there were speeches earlier on where these people before they start voting were impassioned, saying that we should go this way about way depending on if they were supporters or not. on contrast, silvio berlusconi was much more subdued than he normally is. saying look, you have got to do things this way. he kept it very calm and short,

not wanting to create any more enemies. simply stating his policies and saying look, i can change. i am prepared to broaden my coalition. but that right in the middle of this economic change he was saying that if you change ships now, this will leave the country in crisis. it seems that he was trying to play these rebels, saying that now was not the time to take italy in a different direction. whether any others have gone across on this argument is unclear. in theory there were attempting to deprive him of his automatic

majority. they haven't stilled doubt in the whole process, saying that the run-up to all of this is simply not on any more. italy has become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world and it is time to change direction. silvio berlusconi was saying no, that he had many more achievements. you should stick with me. it now seems as though the votes are coming down to the wire in terms of the direction that italy is going in. >> duncan, thank you. for now we will continue to follow the vote in rome.

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