By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
An appeals court has upheld the tax fraud conviction against ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi and sentenced him to four years in prison.
A Milan court on Thursday convicted former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of breach of confidentiality for the illegal publication of wiretapped conversations related to a failed bank takeover in a newspaper owned by his media empire.
President Raul Castro has called on Cubans to air their opinions openly, as his government tries to revive the struggling economy with economic reforms. However officials have sent mixed signals about where it draws the invisible frontier between loyal criticism and what they consider to be dangerous attacks on the system.
