silvio berlusconi's plan drew criticism from within his party. three out of the five minutes said they'll resign, but didn't believe the decision would serve the best interest of the county. he accused a small group of extremists from inside the party of giving him ill-conceived advice. the prime minister and president were faced with a few options. use the resigning ministers to backtrack, find a new majority or call elections. the president said he'll dissolve the government as a last resort. >> translation: i will try to find the chapses of keeping the -- chances of keeping the legislature alive. the party is only dissolved when there's no chance of finding a majority and therefore a new government is in the interests of the company. >> a crisis that would plunge italy back into economic turmoil. >> a professor of italian politics at the american university university of rome and i asked what chances does the prime minister have of avoid new elections? >> he could with difficulty, and i presume sunday, monday and tuesday there'll be frantic ne

government faces collapse after the resignation of ministers allied with silvio berlusconi. greek justice authorities arrest a leader and a dozen of the parties lawmakers. government is on the verge of collapse following the announcement that five ministers from silvio berlusconi's people of freedom party plan to resign. the vice premier made the announcement a day after prime minister enrico letta said his coalition partners would support him in a vote of confidence. tensions have been rising since the former's conviction for tax evasion. joining us now on the line from rome is patty. give us some more of the background to this news. >> the events have accelerated very fast in the last week. the straw that broke this particular camel's back came midweek when the current prime , enrico letta, was in , doing a roadshow to encourage investors, particularly north american italy in, to invest in 2014. while he was doing that, at the very moment he was meeting on wall street, mr. berlusconi held a meeting with his on parliamentarians, in which he accused the left of criminal .deo

coming up on the show, italy's government might face an early end after silvio berlusconi throws his ministers out of cabinet area the centralist coalition austria is nearly returned to our but support for the two parties dropped to a historic low. marathon, a kenyan sensate new world record. -- a kenyan set a new world record. >> is italy's government on the verge of collapse or is silvio berlusconi just bluffing? that's the question on many people's minds after he told many to resign after -- try to trigger a -- an election. but he appeared to backpedal after some were told to quit the cabinet. they will levy a new coalition government or fresh elections. ordinary italians are angry and confused. now and it will be even more so when they call new elections because we will be the ones paying for it. from our own pockets. >> i don't know what napolitano and will do, but i hope they find a new majority to govern. theewspaper headlines that lehmann one man -- silvio arliss cody. he faces exposed -- expulsion from the senate after his conviction was upheld. members threatened to quit on

that comes as one of silvio berlusconi's aide nicknamed her the pipenness said the billionaire had a video ready announcing he's pulling support for the coalition. now, this video could be played on monday if a senate committee votes to strip berlusconi of his seat in parliament following a conviction for tax fraud. ross, where you are, the setting is so inconsiderably beautiful, and it certainly belies the political drama that is once again unfolding in italy. based on what you're hearing on the ground, are people really concerned about the fall of the government, of the coalition government, or is this once again political posturing that we're so used to from berlusconi's camp? >> no, i think people are absolutely concerned. it is a real threat. it is a threat that people believe -- i've spoken to this morning, berlusconi would follow through on if -- if he's kicked out of the senate because of his four-year jail sentence for tax fraud. i think people believe that is a real threat. but here's the thing. no one wants to have the coalition fail. and therefore apart from mr. berlusconi

. >> silvio berlusconis efforts have received another setback. form he disgraced prime minister who was convicted of massive tax fraud, feels he will remain in government. >> it was the moment that silvio berlusconi was dreading. the ultimate humiliation. just hours later he had given a statesman like speech. but he is not a statesman anymore. he is a convicted criminal banned from holding office. >> i have not committed any crime, i'm not guilty of anything, i'm nt innocent, absolutely innocent. interwould this be a career relaunch? in the end there was neither. this television address with berlusconi reminding people he is still here. >> getting rid of him not through democratic action he but going against our accusation. >> berlusconi is one of italy's richest men with a $9 billion fortune. a tax fraud conviction, ban from political office the price. one of many setbacks for the man who has spent year in front of the cameras and in front of the courts. in june, the 76-year-old was convicted of paying this 15-year-old underage for section. ings

in italy five ministers from silvio berlusconi's center right party have resigned from a shaky coalition government a step follows weeks of worsening relations between the listener and these party and prime minister rica letters center left grouping of the national budget is now due to start new talks to build a parliamentary majority to avoid the government collapsing the crisis could lead to fresh elections seven months since the last shot. and so don the antigovernment unrest that started earlier this week has now claimed fifty four lives latest fatalities a protester shot dead by police at a rally over cuts to fuel subsidies activists accuse the government of christian ritual crackdown promising more rallies in the coming days people also demanding president bashir step down after almost a quarter of a century. in madrid hundreds of people are taking to the streets for an anti monarchy rally wanting prover public and slogans of protesters headed toward palace square which was blocked off by police in recent months santa monica sentiment has been on the rise and death decisions of lif

>> at a journalist forum russian president vladimir putin said former italian prime minister silvio berlusconi wouldn't have any problems with the law if he was gay. he said berlusconi convicted of tax fraud, went on trial just because he lived with women and if he was a homosexual no one would touch him. putin denies gays face discrimination in his country despite anti-gay propaganda law. >>> the police chief in houston has been suspended without pay after he hit a pedestrian in a cross walk with a city vehicle. he says the suspension was implemented because he holds himself to a higher standard. >>> now to money and business for you. a former halliburton employee was charged with destroying evidence following the bp oil spill. that happened three years ago. >>> made in america. president obama meeting with members of its export council says the u.s. is at a point where domestic production is starting to exceed imports. >>> nielsen will be adding ratings information from smart phones and tablets into its data. the details will be released next week. the new ratings data will be incorporated n

silvio berlusconi, unexpected talking point at a conference in russia, where vladimir putin was drawn on the anti-gay measures there. >> berlusconi is on trial just because he lives with women. if you were homosexual, nobody would dare touch him. >> it's -- >> it is a vladimir putin joke. >> he is a funny guy. >> but when it comes to homosexuals in russia. >> did you hear what comrade putin said? he is not condemning them. he wants to change them and send women out to try to convert them. this is the russian way. he will be sending in the moscow women, which was in the revolution. >> before that happens, there is the u.n. general assembly in new york next week. it is official, the french president will be sitting down with his iranian counterpart for the assemblies. first between the two nations since 2005. peres said the sitdown is at the request of the iranians. the white houe has upgraded broccoli obama's chances from meeting the iranian president from probably not to possibly yes. certainly they are making the rightnoises. >> we don't want nuclear weapons. because of pressure from

to try to end a political crisis brought on by supporters of the former premier, service -- silvio berlusconi. the centerleft party governed with an uneasy coalition. supporters are boycotting the governments work in protest that he could be stripped of his senate seat after the a tax fraud conviction last month. stillile in germany, coming to terms with the results of last sunday's elections. arty one big,s nevertheless she still has to form a coalition government. hurray stein broke -- peer steinbrueck said he would not be seeking a leadership position in the new parliament. theess than a week after disappointing election night peer steinbrueck said he would not be seeking reelection. berlin,sed party in they agreed to enter talks with merkel's conservatives even though many in the party have misgivings. but the move does have the backing of key regional party leaders. >> whenever said we did not want talks, but that we should be open. it is the issues that count. to theshift corresponds general mood in the german public. opinion polls suggest almost half of germans prefer a grand coalition

with silvio berlusconi at the heart of it, it won't be a quiet affair. phil la veal, al jazeera. >>> we're looking at live pictures from the mali capital. the french president has just arrived to attend the inauguration of the new president. now, french troops, of course, joined forces with mali's military in january to try and stop a rebel advance in the north of the country. the french president has praised mali's return to democracy. the former french colony, of course, entering a new era of democracy after months of political chaos there. hollande is praising this return to democratic rule. the new president, of course, was democratically elected in a landslide. francois hollande is accompanied by four for minnesota st sters talk about the fight against corruption. >>> let's move to other news now. opinion polls in germany suggest that angela merkel's christian democratic party is likely to remain the strongest in the upcoming elections this weekend. about the future of the free democratic party is looking doubtful and it's asking merkel supporters t

markets opened for the first time following the resignation of five government ministers from silvio berlusconi'sarty. that led the prime minister to call for a vote of confidence. now it looks like cracks are developing inside berlusconi's party. he arrived a little earlier for a meeting with members of his party, some of whom have threatened to leave his party unless he backs down. you'll remember, of course, he's been threatened with being thrown out of parliament over his criminal convictions. sonya has more now from rome. >> reporter: while politicians have been digesting the recent events, the prime minister is now preparing to go to parliament on wednesday to try and gain a vote of confidence in his government. therefore, a lot of political maneuvering, a lot of planning to work out which are the best possible options to try and save the government to stop it from being dissolved. to talk about some of those solutions here i'm joined by an economist with luis university. what are the solutions that the government should be looking at? >> on wednesday there's a confidence vote, and what he'

here is silvio berlusconi arriving home today. >> what's he got? >> that's his dog, dudu. it's a bichon. so we all woke up this morning -- >> bichon and a son of a bichon. i guess. pardon me, folks. >> we all woke up wondering when this happened, are we going to see italian yields skyrocket. turns out the worst did not happen today. the italian stock market dropped 2.5% this morning but recovered dramatically down only a little more than 1%. see on the one-week chart. a look at what happened with yields. they started to fall actually throughout the day. here's the one-day chart. because there are rumors and reuters reported that as many as 20 berlusconi supporters may abandon him and stick with the government and he can't necessarily make the government fall if there is a vote on wednesday. >> so if the vote comes -- vote were to happen on wednesday what are the odds makers saying? >> it's much improved that government would not fall, that the current prime minister would still be in power at this point. >> he has his own personal issues. >> many, many. >> come on. >> okay

silvio berlusconi will stay in italian politics, even if his fellow senators stripped him of his senate seat following his tax fraud conviction. the former prime minister made a promise during a 16-minute speech that aired shortly before a senate vote on berlusconi's political future. he says he is absolutely innocent. in response to the mass shooting at the washington navy yard on monday, the bbc has learned that one of the first teams of heavily armed police to retire i -- to arrive on the scene was ordered to stand down by superiors. the tactical response team of the capitol police, the force that guards the u.s. capitol, was told to leave by a supervisor. for more on what happened, i spoke a short time ago with the reporter who broke the story for debbiebie segal bomb -- siegelbaum. >> there was a capitol police, the equivalent of a swat team, that arrived on site about 15 minutes after the initial reports of aaron alexis opening fire. officeropolitan police -- they were told they were the only officers on the scene who had assault rifles. and these are highly trained marksman. .- m

. >>> in italy, cabinet ministers from the center right party led by former prime minister silvio berlusconi have resigned amid deepening rifts between the coalition parties. a spokesperson for deputy prime minister angelino alfano said saturday all the five cabinet ministers from berlusconi's people of freedom party are resigning. parliamentary debate begins soon on whether to remove berlusconi from his legislative seat. he was convicted of tax evasion. his party has asked its coalition partner, the center left democratic party, to expose expulsion of the former prime minister from parliament but the democrats are unwilling to do so. the two parties have also been at odds over an increase in value-added tax to reconstruct state finances. it took two months after the parliamentary election in february for the right and left-wing parties to form a grand coalition. >>> the foreign minister of syria has expressed his government's intention to abide by the u.n. security council's resolution, demanding the else of chemical weapons in his country. walid al mualem was speaking to nhk on saturday in

allow -- he will not allow his coalition government to become what he called a punching ball by silvio berlusconiorate with a new party down the line. >> wow, we think our government's got problems. that's an interesting story. thank you very much. >>> let's get a check on energy and commodities. sharon epperson at the imx. >> it's the post-fed prefrenzy. they've been up since the announcement and rallying into the evening. we're seeing big gains not only in copper but in palladium and platinum, itself. the biggest gainer definitely silver. silver up 8% since the 1:30 floor close we saw in the komx yesterday. keep in mind, a lot of folks are saying, why are we seeing such gains in the futures for precious metals but not in the gld? and it's because it's priced off the futures and much of the gain we're seeing in gold futures came at that time. so we're just seeing a slight up tick right now in that gld in today's session. also keep in mind as we see the no tapering, the fact that qe will continue, and we talk about the benefit that that has had to the stock market, we are going -- carl, back to y

there are meetings today with the party leaders of the house and senate and at 5:00 silvio berlusconibig day is wednesday for the confidence vote. >> a lot can happen between now and then, right, claudia? thank you so much. >>> well, wall street remains on edge. we're just going from political crisis to political crisis. washington of course inching closer to a shutdown. >> is there an opportunity in the standoff for investors? most shutdowns haven't had a huge market impact. we'll talk about that when we come back. investors. mark, okay, with all the eyes on washington, how are we going to get through this? >> yeah. i mean, it's definitely going to be an ugly day today. i think we'll see the s&ps continue some weakness down. i wouldn't be surprised if we sold off 20 some odd handles. where you'll really see the evidence is in the vix. it finally woke up on friday catching a bit of a bid towards the end of the day. traders thought, oh, my gosh, this might actually happen. i think that's really where you're going to see how worried wall street is, if we see the vix move from 15 1/2 up

simon is here to tell us the latest on silvio berlusconi. >> the video is coming out from berlusconi,aly. it looks like he is not going to challenge the italian coalition government at the moment. he's going to reform his old party. he says he will stay in politics and attempt to make a comeback through that. but importantly, so far, from what we know so far, he's not actually going to challenge the status quo. >> thank you, simon. >>> back to headquarters with scott wapner and "halftime." >> all right, guys, thank you so much. welcome to "halftime report." four hours to go until the close. let's look at the wall and see where we stand at this hour on the street. somewhat of a down day as we wait for the fed. there's the dow down 45. s&p, nasdaq negative, as well. >>> here's what we're following on "the half," trading the taper. with everything you need to know about how to maneuver today's huge news. peaks or valleys? >>> green mountain shares up nearly 200% the past year, even as some question how many k-cups the company is actually selling. we'll investigate that coming up. >>> fir

. >> we've waiting for silvio berlusconi. let me mention the front page of the times today.nt to show you what's happening. they'll be disappointed with what's happening today where you see so many of the countries in the red. the bottom right-hand side outperformance from italy. it's in the green. the senate, the subcommittee of the senate in italy that should decide whether berlusconi should be stripped of his nmembership because of his tax conviction. the market seems relaxed with the idea that berlusconi is threatening to bring down the government but probably will not succeed in that. on both sides of the atlantic we're dealing with the same problem, these rising interest rates that you have. this is the bunt and the london guild. one standout stock i thought you might find interesting is fiat, which is up about 5%, 5.5% now in milan. that as we learn that sergio -- i beg your pardon, sergio marchioni is not going to attend the auto show. they're saying he's involved in work commitments. perhaps the man is negotiating to buy the 41.5% of chrysler that fiat doesn't alrea

coming up on the show, italy's government might face an early end after silvio berlusconi throws his ministers out of cabinet area the centralist coalition austria is nearly returned to our but support for the two parties dropped to a historic low. marathon, a kenyan sensate new world record. -- a kenyan set a new world record.