The World - News from July 31, 1989

Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti won a final vote of confidence for his five-party government and appealed to Italians to fight the “murderous and corrupting” influence of organized crime. The Chamber of Deputies (lower house) voted 371 to 200 for Italy’s 49th post-World War II government, giving it full powers to tackle urgent problems listed by Andreotti as the Mafia, preparation for the 1992 single European market, drugs and tax evasion. An official crime report published last week said the Sicilian Mafia and its counterparts in Naples and Calabria had taken the place of left and right-wing guerrilla violence as the biggest threat to the security of the state.