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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Accusations of child sex, cover-up rock Penn State

In this photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, center, is placed in a police car in Boalsburg, Pa., to be taken to the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General via Commonwealth Media Services)

This Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011 photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General shows former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General)

A sign for The Second Mile charity is seen outside the organization's headquarters in State College, Pa., on Saturday Nov. 2, 2011. The charity's founder, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, was charged Saturday with 40 criminal counts for allegedly molesting eight boys. (AP Photo/Genaro C. Armas)

In this photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, center, walks to the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot while being escorted by Pennsylvania State Police and Attorney General's Office officials on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in State College, Pa. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General via Commonwealth Media Services)

Former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky sits in a car as he leaves the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in State College, Pa. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Andy Colwell, The Patriot-News)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? An explosive sex abuse scandal and allegations of a cover-up rocked Happy Valley after former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, once considered Joe Paterno's heir apparent, was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over 15 years. Among the allegations was that a graduate assistant saw Sandusky assault a boy in the shower at the team's practice center in 2002.

Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to use the school's facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a foundation he established to help at-risk kids, where authorities say he encountered the boys. The case took on added dimension Saturday when perjury charges were announced against Tim Curley, Penn State's athletic director, and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business. They were also accused of failing to alert police and other agencies ? as required by state law ? of their investigation of the allegations.

"This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys," state Attorney General Linda Kelly said Saturday in a statement.

Paterno, who last week became the coach with the most wins in Division I football history, wasn't charged, and the grand jury report didn't appear to implicate him in wrongdoing.

"Joe Paterno was a witness who cooperated and testified before the grand jury," said Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office. "He's not a suspect."

Frederiksen called questions about whether Paterno might testify premature and speculation.

"That's putting the cart way ahead of the horse," he said. "We're certainly not going to be discussing the lineup of potential witnesses."

Under Paterno's four-decades-and-counting stewardship, the Nittany Lions became a bedrock in the college game, and fans packed the stadium in State College, a campus town routinely ranked among America's best places to live and nicknamed Happy Valley. Paterno's teams were revered both for winning games ? including two national championships ? and largely steering clear of trouble. Sandusky, whose defenses were usually anchored by tough-guy linebackers ? hence the moniker "Linebacker U" ? spent three decades at the school. The charges against him cover the period from 1994 to 2009.

Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts. Curley, 57, and Schultz, 62, were expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg.

The school said Sunday that it would bar Sandusky from campus.

The allegations against Sandusky, who started The Second Mile in 1977, range from sexual advances to touching to oral and anal sex. The young men testified before a state grand jury that they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred; there is evidence even younger children may have been victimized. Sandusky's attorney Joe Amendola said his client has been aware of the accusations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.

"He's shaky, as you can expect," Amendola told WJAC-TV after Sandusky was arraigned on Saturday. "Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life and having the distinguished career that he's had, these are very serious allegations."

A preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday would likely be delayed, Amendola said. Sandusky is charged with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, as well as single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.

No one answered a knock at the door at Sandusky's modest, two-story brick home at the end of a dead-end road in State College. A man who answered the door at The Second Mile office in State College declined to give his name and said the organization had no comment.

The grand jury said eight boys were targets of sexual advances or assaults by Sandusky. None was named, and in at least one case, the jury said the child's identity remains unknown to authorities.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, the grand jury report said.

He said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky, even being listed as a member of the Sandusky family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and 1999 Alamo Bowl. But when the boy resisted his advances, Sandusky threatened to send him home from the Alamo Bowl, the report said.

Sandusky also gave him clothes, shoes, a snowboard, golf clubs, hockey gear and football jerseys, and even guaranteed that he could walk on to the football team, the grand jury said, and the boy also appeared with Sandusky in a photo in Sports Illustrated. He testified that Sandusky once gave him $50 to buy marijuana, drove him to purchase it and then drove him home as the boy smoked the drug.

The first case to come to light was a boy who met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12, the grand jury said. The boy received expensive gifts and trips to sports events from Sandusky, and physical contact began during his overnight stays at Sandusky's home, jurors said. Eventually, the boy's mother reported the allegations of sexual assault to his high school, and Sandusky was banned from the child's school district in Clinton County in 2009. That triggered the state investigation that culminated in charges Saturday.

But the report also alleges much earlier instances of abuse and details failed efforts to stop it by some who became aware of what was happening.

Another child, known only as a boy about 11 to 13, was seen by a janitor pinned against a wall while Sandusky performed oral sex on him in fall 2000, the grand jury said.

And in 2002, Kelly said, a graduate assistant saw Sandusky sexually assault a naked boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in a team locker room shower. The grad student and his father reported what he saw to Paterno, who immediately told Curley, prosecutors said.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg identified the assistant as Mike McQueary, now a Penn State wide receivers coach and the team's recruiting coordinator. McQueary was out of town on a recruiting trip Sunday, according to his father, John McQueary, who declined to comment about the case or say whether they were the two named in the grand jury report.

"I know it's online, and I know it's available," John McQueary told The Associated Press. "I have gone out of my way not to read it for a number of reasons."

Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half after the alleged attack, Kelly said.

"Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law," Kelly said.

There's no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy or follow up with the witness, she said.

Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law requires certain people associated with schools and other institutions to report suspected abuse immediately to the ChildLine service, which makes referrals to police, and to follow up within two days with written reports to the county children and youth services agency and to the state Department of Public Welfare.

Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it "merely 'horsing around,'" the 23-page grand jury report said. But he also testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Penn State President Graham Spanier of the matter.

The grand jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz's testimony not to be credible.

Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used.

But despite his job overseeing campus police, he never reported the 2002 allegations to any authorities, "never sought or received a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002," the jurors wrote. "No one from the university did so."

Lawyers for both Curley and Schultz issued statements saying they are innocent of all charges.

In response to a request for comment from Paterno, a spokesman for the athletic department said all such questions would be referred to university representatives, who released a statement from Spanier calling the allegations against Sandusky "troubling" and adding that Curley and Schultz had his unconditional support.

He predicted they will be exonerated.

"I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years," Spanier said. "I have complete confidence in how they handled the allegations about a former university employee."

The university is also paying legal costs for Curley and Schultz because the allegations against them concern how they fulfilled their responsibilities as employees, spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.

Sandusky, once considered a potential successor to Paterno, drew up the defenses for the Nittany Lions' national-title teams in 1982 and 1986. The team is enjoying another successful run this season; at 8-1, Penn State is ranked No. 16 in the AP Top 25 and is the last undefeated squad in Big Ten play.

The Nittany Lions were off Saturday, which Frederiksen, the prosecutors' spokesman, said had nothing to do with the timing of charges.

He said the attorney general's office and state police had agreed ahead of time to act quickly once a presentment was issued.

"If somebody months ago was able to foresee the Friday before an off weekend, the grand jury would issue a presentment, they should be counting cards in Las Vegas," he said.

As the head football coach, Paterno has spent years cultivating a reputation for putting integrity ahead of modern college-sports economics. It's a notion that has benefited Penn State's marketing and recruiting efforts over the decades and one that the Big Ten school's alumni proudly tout years after they leave.

"We're supposed to be one of the universities to follow after, someone to look up to," said sophomore Brian Prewitt of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "Now that people on the top are involved, it's going to be bad."

___

Scolforo reported from Harrisburg.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-06-Penn%20State%20Ex-Coach-Allegations/id-7b90587f00dd4df39172500eaa7610a8

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Russian police break up Occupy-style protest (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Kremlin critics put an Occupy Wall Street twist on a protest in the Russian capital over next month's parliamentary election on Monday, but the result was the same as usual: dispersal and detention.

Police forcefully broke up a small rally by government opponents who donned the kind of mustachioed Guy Fawkes masks popular with anti-greed protesters in London, New York and other cities.

About a dozen protesters gathered outside the Central Election Commission headquarters and announced plans to "Occupy Old Square" -- a square nearby that houses presidential administration offices.

There have been few major Occupy Wall Street-style rallies in Russia, and despite the spin on Monday's protest, the protesters made clear their message was about the December 4 parliamentary election. They chanted "Cancel the illegal elections!" and held placards with similar slogans.

In an echo of other recent protests over the election -- without the masks -- the demonstrators were quickly seized by camouflage-clad police and shoved roughly into a waiting bus. Police said they violated the law by holding a rally without official permission.

Kremlin critics say that the parliamentary election will not be democratic, saying vociferous opposition groups have been barred from the vote illegally. They also charge that Vladimir Putin's dominant United Russia party will use its levers of power to skew the results in its favor.

The parliamentary vote will be followed by a March 2012 presidential election in which Putin is expected to return to the Kremlin after four years as prime minister.

The tiny protest outside the Central Election Commission headquarters was far smaller than a march and rally celebrating the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

Police said about 4,000 people took part in the state-sanctioned rally organized by the Communist Party, which polls indicate will come in a distant second to United Russia in the parliamentary vote, as in previous elections.

November 7 was a major holiday in the Soviet era, but it is no longer a day off and the Kremlin has replaced it with a November 4 holiday that officially commemorates the 17th century expulsion of Polish invaders.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111107/wl_nm/us_russia_occupy_protest

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Monday, November 7, 2011

Syrian forces kill 4 at start of Eid: activists (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) ? Syrian forces shot dead at least four civilians on Sunday in a continued military assault on the central city of Homs and in an attack on pro-democracy demonstrations that erupted after prayers marking the main Muslim feast, an activist group said.

Three of the deaths occurred in Homs, 140 km (90 miles) north of Damascus, where a main district has been under tank bombardment since Tuesday. One demonstrator was shot dead when security police fired at a protest demanding the removal of President Bashar al-Assad in the city of Hama to the north, the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) said.

The organization said in a statement that at least 10 protesters were also injured in the town of Talbisah near Homs and in Harra in the southern Hauran Plain.

Fifty protesters were arrested after a demonstration in the Damascus district of Kfrar Souseh. Troops deployed in several Damascus suburbs, surrounding mosques to prevent crowds from rallying after the early morning prayers for the feast of Eid al-Adha, it said.

Syrian authorities have banned most non-official media since an uprising against Assad's rule erupted seven months ago, making independent verification of events hard.

Officials say the unrest is largely a result of a foreign conspiracy to divide Syria and that security forces are using legitimate means to confront "terrorists" and Islamist militants bent on wrecking a reform drive by Assad.

Activists and residents said tank fire killed at least 13 civilians and wounded dozens in Homs on Saturday, casting doubt on whether an Arab League plan can end the bloodshed touched off by the popular uprising.

In Cairo, the Arab League chief said the organization was seriously concerned by the violence in Syria, and appealed to Damascus to abide by steps agreed this week with Arab states to protect civilians and set Syria on the course of dialogue.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111106/wl_nm/us_syria_killings

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APNewsBreak: PSU official's lawyer shapes defense

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? The Pennsylvania law requiring some school officials and others to report suspected child abuse does not apply to a Penn State administrator who's accused of keeping quiet about allegations that a former football coach molested a boy in a shower, the administrator's attorney said Sunday.

The comments by Pittsburgh lawyer Thomas J. Farrell offer a preview of the defense he plans to use on the charge of failing to report faced by his client, Gary C. Schultz, the university's senior vice president for finance and business. Farrell said he will seek to have the charge dismissed.

The charge is part of a broader case centered on retired Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who is accused of sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years. Schultz, 62, and Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, 57, were both charged Saturday with failing to report to state and county officials that a witness told them he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a naked boy in the showers of a team practice facility in 2002.

Schultz and Curley were both also charged with perjury. Lawyers for all three men say they are innocent.

Farrell told The Associated Press on Sunday that the mandated reporting rules only apply to people who come into direct contact with children. He also said the statute of limitations for the summary offense with which Schultz is charged is two years, so it expired in 2004.

The explosive charges are surprising both for what they detail and their contrast to the image of Penn State's football program. Under the leadership of Joe Paterno, who's won more games than any coach in Division I history, the Nittany Lions have become a bedrock in the college game. For more than four decades, Paterno's teams have been revered both for winning, including two national championships, and largely steering clear of trouble.

Paterno is not implicated in the case.

"Joe Paterno was a witness who cooperated and testified before the grand jury," said Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office. "He's not a suspect."

Frederiksen called questions about whether Paterno might testify premature and speculation.

"That's putting the cart way ahead of the horse," he said. "We're certainly not going to be discussing the lineup of potential witnesses."

The grand jury report that lays out the accusations against the men cites the state's Child Protective Services Law, which requires immediate reporting by doctors, nurses, school administrators, teachers, day care workers, police and others.

Neither Schultz nor Curley appear to have had direct contact with the boys Sandusky is accused of abusing, including the one involved in the eyewitness account prosecutors say they were given. Prosecutors say Sandusky encountered victims through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk children.

The two school administrators fielded the complaint from an unnamed graduate assistant, and from Paterno. The Patriot-News of Harrisburg has identified the graduate assistant as Mike McQueary, now the team's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. McQueary was out of town on a recruiting trip Sunday, according to his father, John McQueary, who declined to comment about the case or say whether they are the two named in the grand jury report.

The law "applies only to children under the care and supervision of the organization for which he works, and that's Penn State, it's not The Second Mile," Farrell said of his client. "This child, from what we know, was a Second Mile child."

Messages left later Sunday seeking comment from Frederiksen with the attorney general's office, and from Curley's lawyer, Caroline Roberto, were not immediately returned. Farrell said it was accurate to say the allegations against Curley are legally flawed in the same manner.

Farrell said he plans to seek dismissal at the earliest opportunity. Both Schultz and Curley are scheduled to turn themselves in at a district judge's office in Harrisburg on Monday.

"Now, tomorrow is probably not the appropriate time," Farrell said. "We'll bring every legal challenge that is appropriate, and I think quite a few are appropriate."

As a summary offense, failure to report suspected child abuse carries up to three months in jail and a $200 fine.

"As far as my research shows, there has never been a reported criminal decision under this statute, and the civil decisions go our way," he said.

Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half after the alleged attack, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said Saturday. There is no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy or follow up with the witness, she said.

The allegations mirror the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church, albeit on a smaller and narrower scale. As in the church's case, authorities say high-ranking figures were given details about instances of sex abuse and failed to share them with law enforcement or child-welfare agencies.

Curley and Schultz also are accused of perjury for their testimony to the grand jury that issued a 23-page report on the matter Friday, the day before state prosecutors charged them. Sandusky was arrested Saturday and charged with 40 criminal counts.

Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it "merely 'horsing around,'" the grand jury report said. But he also testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Penn State President Graham Spanier of the matter.

The grand jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz's testimony not to be credible.

Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used.

Farrell said Schultz "should have been required only to report it to his supervisor, which he did."

Schultz reports to Penn State president Graham Spanier, who testified before the grand jury that Schultz and Curley came to him with a report that a staff member was uncomfortable because he'd seen Sandusky "horsing around" with a boy. Spanier was not charged.

About the perjury charge, Farrell said: "We're going to have a lot of issues with that, both factual and legal. I think there's a very strong defense here."

The university is paying legal costs for Curley and Schultz because the allegations against them concern how they fulfilled their responsibilities as employees, spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-06-Penn%20State%20Ex-Coach-Allegations/id-4e636e56981b44079bb3ee85b5e773a1

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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Fugitive hedge fund manager back in custody in NY (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Hedge fund manager Brian Kim pleaded not guilty in New York state court on Friday to charges of running a $6 million Ponzi scheme and fleeing the country before his trial in a separate theft case.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office said Kim, 36, claimed he was an accomplished trader investing in stable securities, but in reality put his clients' money in highly speculative futures contracts that generated huge losses.

Kim, who ran Liquid Capital Management, also diverted "vast amounts of money" to himself, prosecutors said. Like notorious Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, Kim was accused by prosecutors of creating fake monthly statements for investors showing account balances with inflated gains.

In January, Kim fled to Hong Kong on the eve of a state court trial in Manhattan on charges he stole $430,000 in June 2008 from the condominium where he lived, prosecutors said. He was brought back last month, and is now in federal custody.

Kim was charged with grand larceny, forgery, scheming to defraud and other charges in connection with the hedge fund. He also pleaded not guilty to bail jumping.

Liquid Capital Management also has been indicted in connection with the Ponzi scheme case.

Kim still faces larceny and forgery charges in the condominium case. He also was arraigned on passport fraud charges last month in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Kim had surrendered his passport after being charged in the condominium case in 2009. He obtained another one fraudulently by saying his own was lost, according to his lawyer, Justin Levine. Hong Kong officials came to Kim's home there and eventually he was turned over to U.S. authorities.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111104/us_nm/us_newyork_ponzi

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'In God We Trust': Did Congress waste time reaffirming the U.S. motto? (The Week)

New York ? Obama mocks the House for passing a symbolic resolution instead of a jobs bill ? even though the motto debate lasted just 35 minutes

In a 396-9 vote, the House of Representatives reaffirmed "In God We Trust" as the nation's motto on Wednesday. The resolution's Republican sponsor said it would clear up any confusion President Obama created by once referring mistakenly to "E Pluribus Unum" ? a Latin phrase meaning "out of many, one" ? as our motto. ("In God We Trust" replaced "E Pluribus Unum" in 1956.) Obama mocked Congress for frittering away its day on such a symbolic gesture instead of focusing on creating jobs. Wednesday's debate only took 35 minutes ? was it really a waste of time?

Of course. Congress has bigger fish to fry: At a time when Americans are desperate for jobs, says Steve Benen at Washington Monthly, the House shouldn't be "investing time" in a resolution that changes nothing. Even rank-and-file GOP voters think it's time to pass "Democratic jobs proposals and modest tax increases on millionaires and billionaires." Boy, are House Republicans "out of touch."
"Obama mocks Congress on motto vote"

Obama is the one who is wasting time: It's worth reminding everybody what the national motto is from time to time, says John Hayward at Human Events. And if anyone's wasting time here, it's Obama. He's the one running around trying "to push his moribund 'American Jobs Act' ? the half-billion-dollar spending spree that died in the Democrat-controlled Senate" ? instead of considering a GOP alternative that "actually would create jobs." What a hypocrite.
"Obama: In jobs bill we trust"

Changing the motto might have been worthwhile: In one sense, this was "just a silly misfire in the culture war," says Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune. The real question isn't why the House brought up the motto, but why it approved it. Why would lawmakers in a secular nation "formally decree on behalf of all citizens that they trust in God when, plainly, some of them emphatically do not?" We're supposed to be a "secular nation."
"In symbolic gestures they trust"

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Saturday, November 5, 2011

G-20 rejects extra help for debt-strapped Europe

U.S President Barack Obama arrives for Friday's first working session at the G20 summit in Cannes, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011. European leaders had meant to use the summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Cannes, France to get foreign powers like China to help with the debt crisis that has rocked the eurozone for the past two years and threatens to push the world economy into a second recession. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, with Foreign Minister Alain Juppe arrives for Friday's first working session at the G20 summit in Cannes, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011. European leaders had meant to use the summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Cannes, France to get foreign powers like China to help with the debt crisis that has rocked the eurozone for the past two years and threatens to push the world economy into a second recession. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

Delegates arrive for Friday's first working session at the G20 summit in Cannes, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011. European leaders had meant to use the summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Cannes, France to get foreign powers like China to help with the debt crisis that has rocked the eurozone for the past two years and threatens to push the world economy into a second recession. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

U.S. President Barack Obama talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a working session at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France Friday, Nov. 4, 2011. _Leaders from within troubled Europe and far beyond are working Friday on ways the International Monetary Fund could do more to calm Europe's debt crisis. Political chaos in Greece has hamstrung the leaders of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing economies, meeting on the French Riviera for their last day of a summit Friday. Italy's dance with financial disaster and doubts about its commitment to reforms only exacerbated the concern. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

U.S. President Barack Obama, 2nd right, talks with, from left to right: Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne; British Prime Minister David Cameron; and Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper, during a working session at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011. Leaders from within the troubled Europe other nations are working Friday in Cannes, on ways the International Monetary Fund could do more to calm Europe's debt crisis. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

CANNES, France (AP) ? The G-20 summit ended in disarray Friday without additional outside money to ease Europe's debt crisis and new jitters about Italy clouding a plan to prevent Greece from defaulting.

In Athens, meanwhile, Greece's prime minister survived a confidence vote in parliament, calming a revolt in his Socialist party with a pledge to seek an interim government that would secure a vital new European debt deal.

In the end, only vague offers to increase the firepower of the International Monetary Fund ? at some later date ? were all the eurozone leaders were able to take home after two days of tumultuous talks.

With their own finances already stretched from bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal ? and the United States and other allies wrestling with their own problems ? eurozone countries had been looking to the IMF to help line up more financing to prevent the debt crisis from spreading to larger economies like Italy and Spain.

Italy's fate in particular is crucial to the eurozone, because its economy ? the third-largest in the currency union ? would be too expensive to bail out. The implications for the world economy are stark: The debt crisis that has rocked the 17-nation eurozone threatens to push the world economy into a second recession.

European leaders could point to one potential catastrophe averted: They stared down Greece's prime minister and berated him into scrapping a referendum that threatened their European bailout plan. Greece's politics are in upheaval as a result, but the shaky bailout plan appears back on track ? for now.

"We want Europe to work," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on French TV when the summit was over. "I think today we can have confidence ... but that's not to say our troubles are behind us."

In the end, the Greek question completely derailed Sarkozy's aim of using the summit to show that Europe had sorted out its debt problem once and for all ? and possibly convince some of them to pitch in to the rescue effort.

In the space of days, the already shrunken list of goals set out by France to close out its year as head of the G-20 was scrapped, replaced by a nearly constant stream of shocking new developments and reversals in Europe's long-running attempt to get control of Greece's debt crisis.

That reality was perhaps best illustrated at the height of the summit Thursday evening, when hundreds of journalists dropped what they were doing in the basement of Cannes' Palais des Festivals and gathered around television screens to watch a live transmission from the Greek parliament in Athens, where Prime Minister George Papandreou was speaking.

The week of unending drama in Athens horrified its European partners, spooked global markets and overshadowed the summit in Cannes. The threat of a Greek default or exit from the common euro currency has worsened the continent's debt crisis.

When the week started, Europe had finally reached an intricate, ambitious and fragile deal to try to rescue Greece and stop the crisis from spreading any further. The G-20 summit was supposed to solidify and clarify the deal and get the world economy back on the right track.

Then Monday night, Papandreou shocked his European partners and domestic allies by announcing he would put the plan to a referendum. Markets panicked, as did many of the leaders coming to Cannes.

Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a series of frenzied meetings, then summoned Papandreou on Wednesday. If you lose this referendum, you could lose the euro, they told him. And they froze a new euro8 billion loan that Greece will soon need to pay government salaries.

On Thursday, Papandreou backed down and abandoned the referendum. The U-turn left his 2-year-old government teetering.

Now Europe's leaders may find it is impossible to take back the shocking admission by Sarkozy and Merkel that an exit by Greece from the eurozone was no longer unthinkable.

And even as U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders struggled to make sense of the Greek drama's fast-shifting plot, another flashpoint emerged in Italy.

Market confidence in Italy's ability to reduce its public debt and spur growth in its anemic economy has withered over recent weeks as the government weakened. Lawmakers have defected to the opposition and some of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ministers have openly suggested the government's days may be numbered.

Market fears mounted on Friday in the wake of the confusion about Greece. Italy's benchmark 10-year bond yield jumped 0.32 of a percentage point to 6.43 percent, indicating a surge in investor worries about the country's ability to repay its debts.

The need to reassure bond markets led Italy to agree to submit to IMF scrutiny.

The IMF said it will monitor Italy's financial reform efforts, a humbling step for one of the world's biggest ? but also most indebted ? economies.

To solve the political deadlock that threatens to bring down his government and slow down implementation of reforms, Berlusconi said he had asked the IMF to check up on the country's progress in implementing the measures with periodic, public reports.

The most likely way the eurozone could still get additional financing is through a special account under the auspices of the IMF, into which individual countries could make payments.

Those investments in turn could then be used to boost the eurozone's own bailout fund, the euro440 billion ($606 billion) European Financial Stability Facility. That way, countries such as the United States, which think Europe should pay for its own financial problems, wouldn't have to put any money in. And countries like Russia and Brazil, which have expressed interest in investing in the eurozone, could.

But Merkel and IMF chief Christine Lagarde both said not a single country at the two-day meeting made a firm commitment to participate.

___

Gabriele Steinhauser, Jamey Keaten, Joe McDonald and Angela Charlton in Cannes contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-04-EU-G20-Summit/id-97902ed063274245bc1aca460b8ae8fe

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