By-election win for ex-magistrate

Rome - Former magistrate Mr Antonio Di Pietro, standing for the ruling centre-left coalition, won a crushing victory in a by-election for Italy's Senate yesterday. Mr Di Pietro, who became a folk hero for his anti-corruption crusade in the early 1990s, won 67.75 per cent of the vote in the rural constituency of Mugello, sweeping aside candidates from the centre-right opposition and the Communist party.