Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina reacted with fury on Friday after they were all relegated from Italian football’s top-division and banned from Europe for their part in the country’s match-fixing scandal. Juventus were also deducted 30 points from their total for next season and stripped of their last two league titles.
It worked for David as he squared up to Goliath, and now scientists hope a slingshot will help save the planet. Scientists at the French space agency, CNES, have calculated how to capture an asteroid and manoeuvre it into a near-Earth orbit, from where it can be flung into the path of a larger asteroid that threatens to collide with Earth.
Hezbollah threatened ”open war” on Friday night as Israel ramped up its attacks on Lebanon, bombing roads and bridges in the centre of Beirut and warning that its fight would last until the militant group was destroyed. Israeli politicians and army officers brushed aside international criticism and said their goal was to force Hizbullah’s disarmament.
The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc) says harassment and arbitary arrests have disrupted the election campaign as the troubled Central African country edges closer to its first multiparty polls in 45 years on July 30.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party is planning a major cleansing exercise to remove elements who are tarnishing its image with bad behaviour, President Robert Mugabe told leading party members on Friday. ”You are not being fair — some people are just being crookish,” he was quoted as telling 400 members of his Zanu-PF central committee.
The New York Times on Friday received a letter containing a suspicious white powder and a copy of a recent editorial in which the paper defended its coverage of the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism programmes. The powder incident raised fears of a repeat of a series of anthrax attacks in the United States, which started one week after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah declared ”open war” on Israel on Friday after emerging unscathed from an Israeli air strike on his home and office in the Lebanese capital. Meanwhile, a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting ended with no action on Beirut’s demand for an immediate end to Israeli air strikes on its territory.
The South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) on Friday accused Fidelity Springbok Security Services of discriminating against its members. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said in a statement on Friday that Fidelity ”continues to target Satawu members for abuse, intimidation and victimisation”.
Gauteng’s school-bus transport saga is over, the provincial education department said on Friday. Education provincial minister Angie Motshekga said that misunderstandings about the payment of bus operators had been handled at an urgent meeting in the morning.
Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych of the Discovery Channel team won the 12th stage of the Tour de France on Friday to deprive the hosts of a coveted victory on Bastille Day. American Floyd Landis retained the race leader’s yellow jersey ahead of Saturday’s 13th stage, at 230km the longest of the race, between Beziers and Montelimar.