Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued
NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over
84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities
finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none
of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition.

Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue
choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate
4,000 people to safer places using rope bridges. Even the 6,000 still
stuck, mostly in Badrinath, are safe and equipped with enough food and
shelter arranged by rescue forces.

"The worst is over now. All are safe in Badrinath, Harsil and
Gangotri. Army, ITBP and NDRF are present there. It will take 2-3 days
to finish the rescue work. Kedarnath valley is almost evacuated,"
Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna said.

Speaking of the rescue operations over the past few days, Bahuguna
told TOI, "Initially we had small airplanes of the state government
and then the big aircraft of the IAF arrived. We have evacuated about
4,000 people from Kedarnath and Gaurikund. Now less than 100 people
are left in Garur Chatti. The choppers are constantly bringing people.
From tomorrow, NDRF will start combing operations on foot. NDRF and
Army jawans have reached everywhere. Wherever people are stranded, be
it Kedarnath, Harsil, Gangotri, there is Army and civilian presence.
There is man-to-man contact. It is not that they have been left to the
mercy of nature. Now mobiles are working in Badrinath."

Despite climate-related hurdles, opening new trek routes and adding
more rope-bridges over the Alaknanda, forces managed to rescue close
to 4,000 people stranded in various parts of the Char Dham religious
circuit.

Now, only 6,000 remain stuck in Badrinath, Gangotri and Harsil even as
Kedarnath, worst affected by floods, has been declared clear of all
pilgrims and locals. Only 50-odd sadhus and mule owners, some of whom
were caught with money stolen from the temple chest, remain in
Kedarnath in the custody of forces.

Though rains are forecast for the next three days and fresh landslides
have already blocked some recently opened roads, authorities are not
too worried as all stranded people have been reached and are being
provided food, shelter and medical care.

To ensure quick evacuation by road as air operations remain suspended,
ITBP has added two more rope bridges over Alaknanda. Close to 500
people were also evacuated from Govindghat by vehicles and taken to
Rishikesh via Joshimath. The force also rescued 267 people from Maneri
in Uttarkashi. About 150 people are still stranded there.

Army, meanwhile, rescued 1,375 people from Badrinath and Harsil, the
only place where air evacuation was carried out in the morning. While
1,463 people were airlifted from Harsil by Army and the Air Force,
1,340 are reportedly still stuck there.

"Weather is expected to remain bad but there could be small windows
for air evacuation. However, since people are now stranded in areas
where trek routes and roads can be created we will continue evacuation
on foot and through vehicles tomorrow and day after. BRO is already
clearing some landslide sites," ITBP chief Ajay Chadha said.

Amid hope, there is also the gloom of dead bodies spread across the
kedarnath valley. Although counting of the dead has not yet started,
ITBP and NDRF have together found 394 dead bodies in the valley.
Sources said some of those among the 50 Sadhus and mule owners left
behind in Kedarnath were found to be carrying Rs 1.14 crore in cash
apart from jewellery. While the cash is suspected to be belonging to
temple, the jewellery seems to have been stolen from the dead, sources
said.
For More Info vist Here : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

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Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued
NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over
84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities
finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none
of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition.

Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue
choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate
4,000 people to safer places using rope bridges. Even the 6,000 still
stuck, mostly in Badrinath, are safe and equipped with enough food and
shelter arranged by rescue forces.

"The worst is over now. All are safe in Badrinath, Harsil and
Gangotri. Army, ITBP and NDRF are present there. It will take 2-3 days
to finish the rescue work. Kedarnath valley is almost evacuated,"
Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna said.

Speaking of the rescue operations over the past few days, Bahuguna
told TOI, "Initially we had small airplanes of the state government
and then the big aircraft of the IAF arrived. We have evacuated about
4,000 people from Kedarnath and Gaurikund. Now less than 100 people
are left in Garur Chatti. The choppers are constantly bringing people.
From tomorrow, NDRF will start combing operations on foot. NDRF and
Army jawans have reached everywhere. Wherever people are stranded, be
it Kedarnath, Harsil, Gangotri, there is Army and civilian presence.
There is man-to-man contact. It is not that they have been left to the
mercy of nature. Now mobiles are working in Badrinath."

Despite climate-related hurdles, opening new trek routes and adding
more rope-bridges over the Alaknanda, forces managed to rescue close
to 4,000 people stranded in various parts of the Char Dham religious
circuit.

Now, only 6,000 remain stuck in Badrinath, Gangotri and Harsil even as
Kedarnath, worst affected by floods, has been declared clear of all
pilgrims and locals. Only 50-odd sadhus and mule owners, some of whom
were caught with money stolen from the temple chest, remain in
Kedarnath in the custody of forces.

Though rains are forecast for the next three days and fresh landslides
have already blocked some recently opened roads, authorities are not
too worried as all stranded people have been reached and are being
provided food, shelter and medical care.

To ensure quick evacuation by road as air operations remain suspended,
ITBP has added two more rope bridges over Alaknanda. Close to 500
people were also evacuated from Govindghat by vehicles and taken to
Rishikesh via Joshimath. The force also rescued 267 people from Maneri
in Uttarkashi. About 150 people are still stranded there.

Army, meanwhile, rescued 1,375 people from Badrinath and Harsil, the
only place where air evacuation was carried out in the morning. While
1,463 people were airlifted from Harsil by Army and the Air Force,
1,340 are reportedly still stuck there.

"Weather is expected to remain bad but there could be small windows
for air evacuation. However, since people are now stranded in areas
where trek routes and roads can be created we will continue evacuation
on foot and through vehicles tomorrow and day after. BRO is already
clearing some landslide sites," ITBP chief Ajay Chadha said.

Amid hope, there is also the gloom of dead bodies spread across the
kedarnath valley. Although counting of the dead has not yet started,
ITBP and NDRF have together found 394 dead bodies in the valley.
Sources said some of those among the 50 Sadhus and mule owners left
behind in Kedarnath were found to be carrying Rs 1.14 crore in cash
apart from jewellery. While the cash is suspected to be belonging to
temple, the jewellery seems to have been stolen from the dead, sources
said.
For More Info vist Here : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Read More

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued
NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over
84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities
finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none
of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition.

Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue
choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate
4,000 people to safer places using rope bridges. Even the 6,000 still
stuck, mostly in Badrinath, are safe and equipped with enough food and
shelter arranged by rescue forces.

"The worst is over now. All are safe in Badrinath, Harsil and
Gangotri. Army, ITBP and NDRF are present there. It will take 2-3 days
to finish the rescue work. Kedarnath valley is almost evacuated,"
Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna said.

Speaking of the rescue operations over the past few days, Bahuguna
told TOI, "Initially we had small airplanes of the state government
and then the big aircraft of the IAF arrived. We have evacuated about
4,000 people from Kedarnath and Gaurikund. Now less than 100 people
are left in Garur Chatti. The choppers are constantly bringing people.
From tomorrow, NDRF will start combing operations on foot. NDRF and
Army jawans have reached everywhere. Wherever people are stranded, be
it Kedarnath, Harsil, Gangotri, there is Army and civilian presence.
There is man-to-man contact. It is not that they have been left to the
mercy of nature. Now mobiles are working in Badrinath."

Despite climate-related hurdles, opening new trek routes and adding
more rope-bridges over the Alaknanda, forces managed to rescue close
to 4,000 people stranded in various parts of the Char Dham religious
circuit.

Now, only 6,000 remain stuck in Badrinath, Gangotri and Harsil even as
Kedarnath, worst affected by floods, has been declared clear of all
pilgrims and locals. Only 50-odd sadhus and mule owners, some of whom
were caught with money stolen from the temple chest, remain in
Kedarnath in the custody of forces.

Though rains are forecast for the next three days and fresh landslides
have already blocked some recently opened roads, authorities are not
too worried as all stranded people have been reached and are being
provided food, shelter and medical care.

To ensure quick evacuation by road as air operations remain suspended,
ITBP has added two more rope bridges over Alaknanda. Close to 500
people were also evacuated from Govindghat by vehicles and taken to
Rishikesh via Joshimath. The force also rescued 267 people from Maneri
in Uttarkashi. About 150 people are still stranded there.

Army, meanwhile, rescued 1,375 people from Badrinath and Harsil, the
only place where air evacuation was carried out in the morning. While
1,463 people were airlifted from Harsil by Army and the Air Force,
1,340 are reportedly still stuck there.

"Weather is expected to remain bad but there could be small windows
for air evacuation. However, since people are now stranded in areas
where trek routes and roads can be created we will continue evacuation
on foot and through vehicles tomorrow and day after. BRO is already
clearing some landslide sites," ITBP chief Ajay Chadha said.

Amid hope, there is also the gloom of dead bodies spread across the
kedarnath valley. Although counting of the dead has not yet started,
ITBP and NDRF have together found 394 dead bodies in the valley.
Sources said some of those among the 50 Sadhus and mule owners left
behind in Kedarnath were found to be carrying Rs 1.14 crore in cash
apart from jewellery. While the cash is suspected to be belonging to
temple, the jewellery seems to have been stolen from the dead, sources
said.
For More Info vist Here : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Read More

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued
NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over
84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities
finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none
of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition.

Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue
choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate
4,000 people to safer places using rope bridges. Even the 6,000 still
stuck, mostly in Badrinath, are safe and equipped with enough food and
shelter arranged by rescue forces.

"The worst is over now. All are safe in Badrinath, Harsil and
Gangotri. Army, ITBP and NDRF are present there. It will take 2-3 days
to finish the rescue work. Kedarnath valley is almost evacuated,"
Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna said.

Speaking of the rescue operations over the past few days, Bahuguna
told TOI, "Initially we had small airplanes of the state government
and then the big aircraft of the IAF arrived. We have evacuated about
4,000 people from Kedarnath and Gaurikund. Now less than 100 people
are left in Garur Chatti. The choppers are constantly bringing people.
From tomorrow, NDRF will start combing operations on foot. NDRF and
Army jawans have reached everywhere. Wherever people are stranded, be
it Kedarnath, Harsil, Gangotri, there is Army and civilian presence.
There is man-to-man contact. It is not that they have been left to the
mercy of nature. Now mobiles are working in Badrinath."

Despite climate-related hurdles, opening new trek routes and adding
more rope-bridges over the Alaknanda, forces managed to rescue close
to 4,000 people stranded in various parts of the Char Dham religious
circuit.

Now, only 6,000 remain stuck in Badrinath, Gangotri and Harsil even as
Kedarnath, worst affected by floods, has been declared clear of all
pilgrims and locals. Only 50-odd sadhus and mule owners, some of whom
were caught with money stolen from the temple chest, remain in
Kedarnath in the custody of forces.

Though rains are forecast for the next three days and fresh landslides
have already blocked some recently opened roads, authorities are not
too worried as all stranded people have been reached and are being
provided food, shelter and medical care.

To ensure quick evacuation by road as air operations remain suspended,
ITBP has added two more rope bridges over Alaknanda. Close to 500
people were also evacuated from Govindghat by vehicles and taken to
Rishikesh via Joshimath. The force also rescued 267 people from Maneri
in Uttarkashi. About 150 people are still stranded there.

Army, meanwhile, rescued 1,375 people from Badrinath and Harsil, the
only place where air evacuation was carried out in the morning. While
1,463 people were airlifted from Harsil by Army and the Air Force,
1,340 are reportedly still stuck there.

"Weather is expected to remain bad but there could be small windows
for air evacuation. However, since people are now stranded in areas
where trek routes and roads can be created we will continue evacuation
on foot and through vehicles tomorrow and day after. BRO is already
clearing some landslide sites," ITBP chief Ajay Chadha said.

Amid hope, there is also the gloom of dead bodies spread across the
kedarnath valley. Although counting of the dead has not yet started,
ITBP and NDRF have together found 394 dead bodies in the valley.
Sources said some of those among the 50 Sadhus and mule owners left
behind in Kedarnath were found to be carrying Rs 1.14 crore in cash
apart from jewellery. While the cash is suspected to be belonging to
temple, the jewellery seems to have been stolen from the dead, sources
said.
For More Info vist Here : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Read More

India 8 killed, 12 injured in militant attack ahead of PM’s J&K visit

8 killed, 12 injured in militant attack ahead of PM's J&K visit
In an audacious attack on Army on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, militants have killed
eight soldiers and left 14 others wounded at Hyderpora, on the
Jammu-Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Highway, on Monday.

Highly placed authoritative sources told The Hindu that eight soldiers
died and eleven others sustained injuries when a group of heavily
armed militants opened fire and lobbed grenades on a military convoy
on way from Panta Chowk to Pattan at 1630 hours. Two of the targeted
vehicles were extensively damaged. Later, the fleeing militants left a
Central Reserve Police Force [CRPF] Sub Inspector injured in another
attack near Barzulla.

The militants, sources said, attacked the convoy from an alley taking
off towards a mosque near Classic Hospital. They are believed to have
escaped towards Police Station Saddar through an interior locality on
a motorcycle, followed by a Santro car. Even at Barzulla, close to
Police Station Saddar, they attacked and left injured a CRPF
personnel. Thereafter, they abandoned their wheeler, which was later
seized by Police, and escaped in the car. Police sources said that the
motorcycle had been snatched away from two youths, Saquib and Zaid
Farooq, in Baghaat area. Both had reported to the Police.

While as none of the Jammu and Kashmir Police officials agreed to
speak on record, responsible official sources confirmed the death of
eight soldiers. They said that six of the critically injured were
battling for life at Army's Base Hospital.

Defence spokesman at headquarters 15 Corps, Naresh Vig, confirmed five
fatal casualties and said that about 10 others had sustained injuries.
He said that six of the injured were critical and three 'extremely
critical'.

Monday's attack on the Army occurred amid the high security alert as
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi,
are reaching here on a two-day visit on June 25. On Saturday last,
militants had gunned down two J&K Police personnel in uptown Hari
Singh High Street. With the addition of another attack, as many as ten
Army and Police personnel here died in the last three days.

On March 13 this year, five CRPF men and three fidayeen of
Lashkar-e-Toiba had died in a fierce gunbattle at Bemina, not far away
from Hyderpora, on the same highway.

Hizb claims responsibility

Local news agencies said that the Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman
Baleeguddin called them by telephone to claim that the cadres of his
outfit had attacked the Army and the CRPF in Srinagar.
For More Info vist Here : http://m.thehindu.com/

Read More

Facebook’s Creepy Data-Grabbing Ways Make It The Borg Of The Digital World

Facebook's Creepy Data-Grabbing Ways Make It The Borg Of The Digital World
The latest Facebook data breach – which exposed personal contact
information Facebook had harvested on six million of its users – is a
reminder that even if you're not handing over all your contact data to
Facebook, Facebook is obtaining and triangulating that data anyway.
And even if you're not on Facebook yourself, your contact data likely
is because the social network is building a shadow profile of you by
data-mining other people.

You might never join Facebook but a zombie you — sewn together from
scattered bits of your personal data — is still sitting there in
sort-of-stasis on its servers. Waiting to be properly animated if you
do sign up for the service. Or waiting to escape through the cracks of
another security flaw in Facebook's systems.

Facebook is a crowd-fuelled data-mining machine that's now so massive
(1.11 billion monthly active users as of March 2013) it doesn't matter
if you haven't ever signed up yourself to sign over your personal
data. It has long since passed the tipping point where it can act as a
distributed data network that knows something about almost everyone.
Or everyone who leaves any kind of digital/cellular trace that can be
fed into its data banks.

Chances are someone you have corresponded with — by email or mobile
phone — has let Facebook's data spiders crawl through their
correspondence, thereby allowing your contact data to be assimilated
entirely without your knowledge or consent. One such example was
flagged to TechCrunch on Saturday when one of the users informed by
Facebook they had been affected by its latest breach found it had
harvested an email address they had never personally handed over.

This behaviour casts Facebook as the Borg of the digital world:
resistance is futile. It also underlines exactly why the NSA wants a
backdoor into this type of digital treasure trove store. If you're
going to outsource low-level surveillance of everyone then Facebook is
one of a handful of tech companies large enough to have files on
almost everyone. So really, forget the futuristic Borg: this ceaseless
data-harvesting brings to mind the dossier-gathering attention to
detail of the Stasi.

Does this matter? That depends on whether you care about privacy —
your own or other people's. Since Facebook is not immune to data leaks
and security imperfections, as the latest bug illustrates (which has
apparently been a puncture-hole in its systems since last year), the
fact that it is harvesting and storing your data means there is an
ongoing risk that data could be exposed to others without your
consent. And that's ignoring the primary lack of consent in Facebook
storing your data without asking you in the first place.

Apparently it's ok for your friends to consent to sharing your data on
your behalf. Better choose your friends carefully then. Except it's
not even just your friends — it's likely anyone you have had cause to
correspond with in any capacity, friendship or otherwise. It seems
unlikely Facebook's algorithms are discerning enough to determine
which contacts are friends, were once friends or have always only ever
been passing/fleeting acquaintances and therefore have zero claim to
be custodians of your personal data. Not that your real friends are
likely aware they are acting as guardians of your data either.

Facebook says it uses the data it mines on you from others to power
its friend recommendation feature. Which means the friend suggestion
thumbnails that periodically crop up to help you build out your
Facebook network, based on people its algorithms think you might know.
This feature is helpful to Facebook, allowing it to encourage rapid
growth of its users' networks — by cutting down on the legwork
required to find friends on the service — and therefore fuel overall
user growth of its service. Sure, it's also handy for individual
Facebook users but is it useful enough to justify holding on to a vast
mountain of personal contact data without consent?

The key issues here — beyond the overarching privacy theme — are
transparency and consent. Facebook is very coy about explaining what
it is doing. Do your friends even know they are consenting to your
contact details being stored in Facebook's cloud when they hook
Facebook up to their contacts' books? It's highly unlikely they're
aware that that is what is happening. All they're likely thinking is:
'this feature will help me find more friends'. Facebook is certainly
not going out of its way to explicitly say how its digital matchmaking
service works.

You could argue that the average user won't care or likely understand
a technical explanation. But that does not excuse Facebook treating
your personal data as the property of another person who may or may
not care where that data ends up. It's your data — and you are the one
affected if it's leaked. But Facebook is sidestepping that reality by
being opaque about its processes and failing to acknowledge there are
wider privacy implications to its data-grabbing ways (Packet Storm
goes into one possible unpleasant scenario of the current Facebook
data-harvesting process here).

In its blog post detailing last week's data breach, Facebook skimmed
over the surface of its processes (see quotation below). It focused,
instead, on explaining why it harvests data, rather than making it
clear it is storing users' friends' phone numbers and email addresses'
to do this. Why avoid spelling that out? Because it inevitably sounds
creepy. Because, well, it inevitably is creepy.

When people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook,
we try to match that data with the contact information of other people
on Facebook in order to generate friend recommendations. For example,
we don't want to recommend that people invite contacts to join
Facebook if those contacts are already on Facebook; instead, we want
to recommend that they invite those contacts to be their friends on
Facebook.

Because of the bug, some of the information used to make friend
recommendations and reduce the number of invitations we send was
inadvertently stored in association with people's contact information
as part of their account on Facebook. As a result, if a person went to
download an archive of their Facebook account through our Download
Your Information (DYI) tool, they may have been provided with
additional email addresses or telephone numbers for their contacts or
people with whom they have some connection. This contact information
was provided by other people on Facebook and was not necessarily
accurate, but was inadvertently included with the contacts of the
person using the DYI tool.

Note Facebook's phrasing: "This contact information was provided by
other people on Facebook". In other words, 'your personal contact info
was shared with us — but not by you'. That's the root issue here, and
Facebook is cloaking it with anodyne language — and burying it five
paragraphs into the post. Transparent? No, not even close.

Of course Facebook is not the only tech giant intent on amassing data
dossiers on as many Internet users as possible. Google has drawn the
attention of European data protection regulators, for example, after
it consolidated more than 60 individual product privacy policies into
one joined up policy — allowing it to join the dots of usage of its
different products to sketch more detailed profiles of those users.
Mountain View's Google+ social layer is also designed to function as a
data harvester, pushing people to tie their usage of multiple Google
products back to a single public profile. As the Guardian's Charles
Arthur has argued, Google+ is not really a social network at all; it's
more like The Matrix.

But despite Google's consolidated privacy policies drawing the
attention of data protection regulators the company has not (yet)
altered its data-knitting course. It remains to be seen whether the
investigation by six European Union member states will force it to
make changes. The possibility of fines is on the table. But when
you're dealing with a company with such massive resources as Google —
and one which pours so much effort into political lobbying — it likely
requires a commensurately joined up, global approach to have any hope
of changing its behaviour. A handful of EU countries aren't going to
be able to turn this juggernaut around.

There is also the argument that the cat is out of the bag. That these
huge data-mining operations are now so mature, extensive and well used
that any kind of regulatory unpicking is futile. Not least because the
quantity of data being gathered on human behaviour is only going to
grow — likely becoming even more personal and intimate, with wearable
devices enabling the harvesting of physical data-points too. And yet
that actually sounds like a lot more weight for the argument that
these huge data-harvesting operations really need proper scrutiny
stat.

It has to be said that data protection regulators have been extremely
flat-footed in their response to the implications of systematic
consolidation and cross-referencing of personal data. The lack of
transparency about how these algorithms work has certainly helped the
companies that created them to grow their user-data mountains in
carefully crafted shade.

But a little more light is now being directed onto those darkened
places, and onto the control-minded organisations (such as the NSA)
inevitably attracted by the scale of the data-mining operations going
on behind some of the shiniest consumer facades in tech town. So, even
if we as personal Internet-using individuals can't now hope to claim
absolute ownership of all our data online, it's worth asking what
other kind of data-fuelled Frankensteins are lurking in the darkness —
besides Facebook's zombie army of shadow profiles.
For More Info vist Here : http://techcrunch.com/

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Berlusconi convicted in sex-for-hire case; sentenced to 7 years and barred from office

Berlusconi convicted in sex-for-hire case sentenced to 7 years and
barred from office
MILAN A Milan court on Monday convicted former Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi of paying for sex with an underage prostitute during
infamous "bunga bunga" parties at his villa and then using his
influence to try to cover it up.

Berlusconi, 76, was sentenced to seven years in prison and barred from
public office for life - a sentence that could mean the end of his
two-decade political career. However, there are two more levels of
appeal before the sentence would become final, a process that can take
months.

Berlusconi holds no official post in the current Italian government,
but remains influential in the uneasy cross-party coalition that
emerged after inconclusive February elections.
Both he and the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal have
denied ever having sex.

His lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, immediately announced an appeal and said
the sentence was as expected as it was unjust.

"This is beyond reality," Ghedini told reporters outside the
courthouse. The sentence was even stiffer than the six-year prison
term and lifetime ban on public office that prosecutors had originally
requested.

"I'm calm because I've been saying for three years that this trial
should never have taken place here," Ghedini said.

The charges against the billionaire media mogul stem from the "bunga
bunga" parties in 2010 at his mansion near Milan, where he wined and
dined beautiful young women while he was premier. He says the dinner
parties were elegant soirees; prosecutors say they were sex-fueled
parties that women were paid to attend.

Neither Berlusconi nor the woman at the center of the case, Karima
el-Mahroug, better known by her nickname Ruby, have testified in this
trial. El-Mahroug was called by the defense but failed to show on a
couple of occasions, delaying the trial. Berlusconi's team eventually
dropped her from the witness list.

El-Mahroug did testify in the separate trial of three Berlusconi aides
charged with procuring prostitutes for the parties. She told that
court that Berlusconi's disco featured aspiring showgirls dressed as
sexy nuns and nurses performing striptease acts, and that one woman
even dressed up as President Barack Obama.

Berlusconi was not in court on Monday. The three female judges
deliberated for more than seven hours before delivering their verdict.
Their written explanations for arriving at the verdict will be
submitted in the next few weeks.

Berlusconi frequently has railed against Milan prosecutors and judges,
accusing them of mounting politically motivated cases against him.

El-Mahroug, now 20, said in the other trial that she attended about a
half-dozen parties at Berlusconi's villa, and that after each,
Berlusconi handed her an envelope with up to 3,000 euros ($3,900). She
said she later received 30,000 euros cash from the then-premier paid
through an intermediary - money that she told Berlusconi she wanted to
use to open a beauty salon, despite having no formal training.

She was 17 at the time of the alleged encounters but passed herself
off as being 24. She also claimed she was related to then-Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak. Berlusconi's lawyers argued that he -
thinking el-Mahroug was indeed Mubarak's niece - called police after
she was detained in a bid to avoid a diplomatic incident.

El-Mahroug denied that Berlusconi had ever given her 5 million euros
($6.43 million). She said she told acquaintances and even her father
that she was going to receive such a large sum "as a boast," but that
it was a lie to make her seem more important.

The verdict garnered intense international media attention with half a
dozen TV satellite trucks taking positions outside the courthouse. The
verdict comes on the heels of Berlusconi's tax-fraud conviction, which
along with a four-year prison sentence and five-year ban on public
office, have been upheld on a first appeal.

Berlusconi sentenced after tax fraud verdict upheld
At Berlusconi trial, court hears of "stripper nuns"
The tax-fraud case is heading to Italy's highest court for a final
appeal after Berlusconi's defense failed to derail it last week at the
constitutional court.

Berlusconi, who has been tried numerous times relating to his business
dealings, has been convicted in other cases at the trial level. But
those convictions have always either been overturned on appeal or the
statute of limitations has run out before Italy's high court could
have its say.

The sex-for-hire case is the first involving his personal conduct.
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