Word: francoed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Giulio Andreotti, the country's leading postwar statesman, went on trial Tuesday, charged with trading political favors in Rome for votes supplied by the Mafia . "Is it possible that a man who represented Italy for 50 years at the same time swore allegiance to Cosa Nostra?" his defense attorney, Franco Coppi, shouted to the Palermo courtroom. The 76-year-old Andreotti, a reputed crime-fighter who served as premier seven times, is the highest Italian official ever to be tried on mob charges. "Much of the testimony against Andreotti is supplied by pentiti -- repentant Mafiosi -- and 26 are scheduled...
Shrewdly, Whistler kept just enough American quirks to make him look exotic to Europeans--while speaking to other Americans in a Franco-British accent. He liked buckwheat cakes and green corn, sweet potatoes and American cocktails; he had a flat American straw hat and a specimen of American invention, a horn gramophone, on which he would play Fourth of July orations to mystified French guests...
...domestic program is a bit of a hodgepodge, critics would say that Chirac is most opportunistic when it comes to European union. After zigging and zagging sharply several times since 1978, last March he embraced the "complete realization of economic and monetary union" with "the Franco-German couple at its heart." Then, just days before the final vote, in what opponents said was an attempt to appeal to the right, he retraced his steps and called for a referendum on a follow-up to the pro-union Maastricht treaty...
With the U.S., Chirac will be a tough-minded ally. "Franco-American relations have been, and always will be, both conflictual and excellent," he says. "The U.S. finds France unbearable with its pretensions; we find the U.S. unbearable with its hegemonism. But deep down, we remember that the 'boys' came to help us two times, just as the Americans remember that the French helped them win their independence. So there will be sparks but no fire, because a real bond exists." The sparks, Chirac predicts, will come on "trade issues-we won't give one inch on culture and agriculture...
...Gregorian chant. Though their scary Gothic ancestors patrolled the cathedrals of Europe, serving double duty as protectors from evil and divertors of rainwater, today's gargoyles are more likely to turn up as tchotchkes--pencil holders, bookends, and the like. They've also gone edible, in the form of Franco-American canned pasta (with and without meatballs...