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/ 22 February 2007
Only a few days ago, Liverpool’s Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise were battling each other in a training-camp fracas, but the pair joined forces to give Liverpool a memorable 2-1 win at Barcelona on Wednesday. One goal from each man made Liverpool the overwhelming favourites to progress to the Champions League quarterfinals.
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/ 21 February 2007
Three-time African Player of the Year Samuel Eto’o has been left out of the Barcelona squad to play Liverpool in their Champions League last 16 first-leg match on Wednesday. The Catalan club said on Tuesday that last season’s Spanish First Division top scorer would miss the clash between the last two Champions League winners because he was still not 100% fit.
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/ 19 February 2007
From a cellphone with just six brightly coloured buttons to one that lets users dictate text messages to a handset that delivers the results of a breathalyser test, manufacturers put their most eye-catching gadgets on display at last week’s wireless industry conference.
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/ 16 February 2007
It could be the answer to grandma’s prayers: a cellphone designed specifically for the over-65s that aims to take the fear out of technology and get the elderly connected. A small Austrian company shrugged off the buzz of innovation at the 3GSM cellphone trade show this week and showcased a simple handset for the "grey market".
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/ 14 February 2007
Reigning Formula One champion Fernando Alonso said on Tuesday the press are to blame for focusing on a comment last week that the thing he likes most about his McLaren-Mercedes is the colour. Alonso also said in pre-season testing that the car of his new team, after successive titles with Renault, has ”some way to go” before it can deliver victories in the new season.
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/ 13 February 2007
Ferrari had a frustrating time testing in Spain on Monday with both the F2007s driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa suffering electrical failure. ”Ferrari had scheduled an endurance test, technical adjustments and the development of new aerodynamic parts,” a statement from Ferrari reported after a session that was also affected by rain.
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/ 13 February 2007
Cellphones are being harnessed to fight HIV/Aids in Africa under a new -million scheme announced on Tuesday with the backing of leading companies and the United States government. South Africa’s MTN is the first operator partner in the programme.
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/ 12 February 2007
An alliance of all major music publishers and 23 cellphone operators said on Monday they would launch a music service to 690-million phone subscribers. The first operators to provide it will be Telenor in Norway and Vodafone partner network Vodacom in South Africa.
Barcelona’s board of directors resigned on Wednesday following a judicial ruling that paves the way for new elections at the Catalan giants later this year, the club announced. The resignation had been expected after a Spanish judge last week ordered the European champions to hold fresh polls for the board after club members complained regulations had been broken.
It makes those who have never seen it stop in their tracks, while Catalans who have grown up with it find their chests swelling with pride. Building castells, the centuries-old Catalan tradition of creating human towers up to 10 levels high, is a cross-cultural snapshot of a region in the political spotlight amid moves to give it great autonomy from Madrid.
South African athlete Ernst van Dyk was named Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday. Swiss tennis superstar Roger Federer was named World Sportsman of the Year for the second straight year, with the women’s honour going to Croatian skier Janica Kostelic.
Defending world-champion Fernando Alonso made Spanish sporting history here on Sunday when he became the first home winner of the Spanish Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Renault driver triumphed in stunning fashion, finishing a comfortable 18,5 seconds ahead of his main rival, seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso heads back to his native Spain this weekend determined to win the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time and extend his lead in the drivers’ world championship. Alonso (24) leads the race for this year’s drivers’ crown after winning twice and finishing on the podium in every one of the five races so far.
Barcelona will meet Arsenal in a Champions League final that will delight football purists around the world after holding AC Milan to a goalless draw in Barcelona on Wednesday. The Catalans were unable to add to the 1-0 advantage they had established in the first leg at the San Siro last week.
With a mix of flair, an eye for things of beauty and, er, dried bugs, four men are turning food-crazed Barcelona into a candy lovers’ paradise on earth. First up is Christian Escriba, a fourth-generation pastry chef who often seems closer to an artist than the baker down the street. His Candy-Glam rings look like something made by a glass blower.
Ronaldhino scored a late goal on Tuesday to lead FC Barcelona into the quarterfinals of the Champions League after a 1-1 draw with Chelsea. The Spanish team won the two-leg series 3-2 on aggregate. Ronaldinho scored in the 78th minute after beating three Chelsea defenders and then Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.
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/ 16 February 2006
Capturing market share in emerging countries is vital, according to telecommunications operators who relentlessly plugged their third-generation (3G) mobile phone technology at a four-day 3GSM World Congress in Spain. All are out for a slice of the global pie which is set to comprise three billion cellphone users by 2008/2010 compared with about two billion at the end of 2005.
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/ 23 December 2005
In another life, he would have been a cocktail wizard or a mad scientist. Instead, he’s Barcelona’s culinary king of canned food. At Quimet and Quimet, one of Barcelona’s best tapas bars, Quim Perez not only turned the idea of tapas — Spanish finger food — on its ear, but he did it by using nothing but high-quality goods preserved in metal.
Narain Karthikeyan has Fernando Alonso as his role model. It’s not a bad choice. Alonso is the formula-one season leader after five races. Karthikeyan finished three laps behind Alonso on Sunday, far out of the points. But he finished, which is like winning for drivers on some of the also-ran teams.
”Constructionist” haute cuisine comprising weird and wonderful servings of limitless invention has won Argentinian chef extraordinaire Miguel Sanchez Romera a Michelin star, the first latino to receive such an accolade. Romera combined his prandial passions with a career as a neurologist until 1996, when he opened his restaurant.
Spanish King Juan Carlos made Fernando Alonso feel like a winner. Although Alonso’s Renault finished second to Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren-Mercedes in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, the king’s presence at the sell-out event with a 115Â 000-strong crowd made the difference.
Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa topped the times after Friday’s incident-filled second practice session for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, but his efforts for McLaren were overshadowed by a massive accident involving his Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya, driving a McLaren, spun off the track at the high-speed ninth turn.
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/ 16 February 2005
A collection of soccer talent not seen in at least 30 years braved near-freezing temperatures and a polar wind on Tuesday, displaying their skills for an exhibition all-star match in hopes of raising -million for victims of December’s south-east Asian tsunamis. Barcelona’s Ronaldinho led his team of mostly non-European stars to victory.
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/ 24 January 2005
Kimi Raikkonen is confident the new McLaren car will be able to challenge Ferrari’s formula-one supremacy. McLaren launched the MP4-20 at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, hoping to avoid the mistakes that led to a terrible start to 2004. The car is an update of the MP4-19B, which was used for the second half of 2004.
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/ 17 December 2004
Dumping on one’s royal family is a harmless enough sport in some countries, but in the fiercely independent eastern Spanish region of Catalonia the concept has taken on a whole new meaning. Traditionally at Christmas, Catalans place ceramic statuettes in nativity scenes, but this year the statuettes have sparked some controversy.
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/ 24 November 2003
Copito de Nieve (Snowflake), the world’s only known white gorilla, died on Monday in the Barcelona zoo. The albino gorilla, which was estimated to be about 40 years old, suffered from incurable skin cancer. The gorilla was a worldwide celebrity, and even made the cover of the National Geographic magazine.
The first in a brand-new class of drug has yielded excellent results in suppressing HIV among patients with a chronic history of fighting the Aids virus.
For the United States and other wealthy countries, the worst of the Aids pandemic may be over, thanks to new powerful drugs.
Death has become so much a part of life in southern Africa that church history professor Paul Gundani’s face barely bespoke loss as he rattled off the people in his family recently struck down by Aids.
Former president Nelson Mandela and his United States counterpart Bill Clinton have urged world leaders to step up the fight against Aids through personal action.
An important step in the fight against Aids in the developing world is for poor nations to immediately make a deal with drug companies or other countries to provide affordable HIV drugs, according to Bill Clinton.