Word: franco
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...President of the Italian Senate, Franco Marini has had some trying days lately. Last week he had to restore order in the august Senate chambers when the center-right opposition exploded in celebration after Romano Prodi's center-left government lost a decisive confidence vote, sealing its collapse. When two members of the National Alliance party popped bottles of spumante and waved slices of mortadella to mock Prodi - nicknamed "Mortadella" for his presumed resemblance to the pink sausage popular in his hometown of Bologna - the white-haired, pipe-smoking Senate President pounded his gavel and ordered Senate guards to immediately...
...opinion has failed to warm to their cause. Before and during their trial in Chad, certain members of the group righteously justified their at times extra-legal efforts to tend to the children as legitimate given the urgency of the situation. Since their December 28 return to France under Franco-Chadian judicial accords, several members of the operation have reportedly fallen out with their leaders of its illegal aspects. Lawyers and families of those support staffers had hoped the tribunal would consider evidence in their conviction of the subordinate roles they assumed, and lighten their sentences as accomplices rather...
...merda!" and made the gesture of firing a gun. The targeted Senator then duly fainted (or feigned a fainting) in his soft chamber chair. Finally, just after the votes were counted, victorious center-right lawmakers uncorked Spumanti directly on the Senate floor. "Take them away!," implored Senate President Franco Marini, pounding his gavel as the bubbly spilled out of the bottles onto the carpet. "This isn't a tavern here!" The final tally after nearly an hour: 161-156 to bring down the coalition, 20 months after Prodi eked out a victory over his perennial nemesis Silvio Berlusconi, the controversial...
...international leader. His government's first piece of legislation was a sweeping law to protect women against domestic violence, and in the succeeding months Zapatero's administration eased divorce laws, required gender parity in political parties, reduced the Catholic Church's influence in education, officially recognized victims of Franco's repression, and made Spain the third country in the world after Holland and Belgium to legalize gay marriage...
...country prospers, it is looking beyond its borders for places to park its wealth. And Hong Kong, with its world-class financial-services sector and bustling stock market, is perfectly positioned to become China's Wall Street at the dawn of the Asian century. "We have clear advantages," says Franco Ngan, Value Partners CEO. "We're part of China. We understand the culture and speak the same language. There's a natural tendency for people to invest with managers near them. No one wants to take a 14-hour flight to see who's managing their wealth...