Word: palermo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...speed with which he metabolized the lessons of his master. In 1620, when he was only 21, he was hired by King James I as a court painter in London. A year later he was in Genoa, painting its nobles and dignitaries, making study trips to Rome, Florence and Palermo. By 1627 he was back in Antwerp, and by 1632 the new English monarch, Charles I, had brought him back to London, knighted him and made him "principalle Paynter in ordinary to their Majesties." For his last 10 years he moved between London, Antwerp and Paris, accumulating honors, commissions...
Italians call the Sicilian Mafia "the Octopus," and justly so. As investigative reporter Claire Sterling shows, its tentacles have branched from Palermo over the past 30 years to get a global stranglehold on the $100 billion heroin market -- and a major stake in the new cocaine trade. With billions in profits to launder annually, the Sicilian Mafia also ranks as the world's most profitable multinational, showing a return of 1,600% on its investment...