Word: italia
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...improve his standing on the Continent. Also, Armstrong might get some real challenges on the road this year. Jan Ullrich, the German 1997 champion and four-time runner-up who missed last year's Tour because of a knee injury, remains a threat. And this year's Giro d'Italia winner, Italian Gilberto Simoni, who sat out the last Tour because of a drug suspension that was later overturned, promises to be another contender. "[Armstrong] has always had an easy ride to Paris because he's never faced real climbers," said Simoni. "If we can get him in a trap...
...spotlit RAI 's troubled board, whose seats are traditionally divvied up among majority and opposition Members of Parliament. Only board president Antonio Baldassarre and another center-right loyalist remain. Three others quit in November to protest Baldassarre's leadership and alleged partisanship. Sandro Bondi, spokesman for Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said RAI's leadership is more independent than ever, though he conceded that "politics continues to influence the world of television." Those influences, says one veteran RAI reporter, include all the old tricks of warping coverage to favor the incumbents - only jacked up exponentially under Berlusconi. The subterfuge ranges...
...courts to attack democratically elected leaders. Giuffrè's testimony was blunt. He said that after the decline in the early 1990s of the ruling Christian Democrats - who had leaders in Sicily who looked out for the Mafia's interests in Rome - top bosses turned to Berlusconi's Forza Italia party to do the Mafia's bidding. The Sicilian-born Dell'Utri, the witness said, was the go-to man on a range of legislative efforts to ease pressure on mobsters in exchange for electoral support. Giuffrè said that current top Mob boss Bernardo Provenzano told him that they...
...elections, the poll-happy Prime Minister has suddenly got shy about releasing his own popularity numbers. Berlusconi began picking up the pieces by naming Giuseppe Pisanu, 65, as the new Interior Minister. More seasoned than his predecessor, Pisanu is a former Christian Democrat who helped build Berlusconi's Forza Italia into the country's largest party after the billionaire media mogul entered politics in 1994. But Scajola's departure comes just six months after Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero stepped down in a dispute over what he called the government's weak commitment to Europe. In addition to the turnover...
...BEST HAIR Carlos Valderrama set the bar too high in Italia '90 and USA '94?nobody even came close to the Colombian's golden dreadlocks. Amid a riot of bad hairstyles at this Cup, the most distinguished look was bald. Take your pick from Sweden's Henrik Larsson, Brazil's Roberto Carlos and England's Ferdinand...