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Italian Olympic Committee appoints new president
ROME (AP) -- Gianni Petrucci was elected president of the Italian Olympic Committee, toppled by a drug scandal last year.Petrucci, a former president of the Italian Basketball Federation, received 27 votes out of 39 Friday to become the fifth president in CONI's history.
Luciano Nizzola, the president of the Italian soccer Federation, was among the six new members of CONI's executive body also elected Friday.
Petrucci, a 53-year-old political sciences graduate, announced a strong stand against drug use in Italian sports and efforts to revive soccer pools which are suffering from the competition by the state-run lotteries.
Petrucci succeeded Mario Pescante, who resigned two months ago because of a scandal over the IOC-accredited drug-testing laboratory in Rome. The lab was shut down after allegations that some tests were mishandled and covered up.