Italian Marzio Bruseghin of the Lampre team was given widespread congratulations from the Tour of Italy peloton after winning the 13th stage, a hilly, 12,6km time trial at Oropa, Italy, on Friday. However, it was race leader Danilo di Luca, of Liquigas, who shone brightest.
Drought and high temperatures have resulted in the ”worst harvest” in Swaziland, leaving one in three people in need of food aid in the Southern African country. About 400 000 Swazis — about a third of the population -– will need about 40 000 tonnes of food between now and the next maize harvest in April.
AC Milan are desperate to atone for their Istanbul nightmare when they face Liverpool in next Wednesday’s Champions League final rematch in Athens. Milan looked certain to beat Liverpool in the 2005 final after taking a 3-0 lead at half-time. But Milan inexplicably imploded in a bizarre six-minute spell in the second half.
Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso said on Tuesday he had never used illegal substances or blood transfusions, but was guilty of attempts at doping. ”It is only attempted doping. In my career I have never used doping substances or transfusions,” Basso told reporters at a packed news conference in Milan.
Italian cycling star Ivan Basso admitted to the anti-doping prosecutor of the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) on Monday that he was involved in the Operation Puerto blood-doping scandal. Coni said the 29-year-old rider came to its offices of his own accord and offered to cooperate with its investigation and clarify his part in the scandal.
AC Milan are desperate to beat Liverpool in the Champions League final to erase the memory of their nightmare defeat at the hands of the Merseysiders in the Istanbul final two years ago. Milan set up the chance for revenge with a superb 3-0 semifinal, second-leg victory over Liverpool’s Premiership rivals Manchester United on Wednesday for a 5-3 aggregate victory.
Focusing solely on AC Milan’s Brazilian playmaker Kaka could prove fatal, said Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson on the eve of their Champions League semifinal second-leg clash. United lead the clash 3-2 after a thrilling encounter at Old Trafford, but Ferguson was at pains to point out the Italian side possessed dangers other than Kaka.
Four Italians were among six employees of the United States oil company Chevron who were abducted on Tuesday in Nigeria, Italy’s Ansa news agency reported. The other victims were a US national and a person from Croatia, the report added. The Foreign Ministry in Rome has confirmed the abduction of the four Italians.
Authorities in Milan have enforced a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol this Wednesday in a bid to stave off the threat of trouble between Manchester United and AC Milan fans. AC Milan host United for the second leg of their semifinal a week after United won the first leg 3-2 at Old Trafford.
Three people were hanged in Japan on Friday; one was executed in the United States a day earlier. Not good news for those campaigning for abolition of the death penalty. "The execution of the three people in Japan and one in Texas shows that even if significant steps have been taken towards abolition of capital punishment worldwide," says Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan.
Judicial executions dropped sharply in 2006, but at least 19 000 people remained on death row at the end of the year, Amnesty International said in its annual report published on Friday. A total of 1 591 people were executed, most of them in China, down from 2 148 in 2005, the London-based rights group said.
A new <i>Spider-Man</i> film swings into cinemas soon, but an Italian researcher said on Thursday he was working on a project that could lead to real-life versions of the comic book character. Nicola Pugno, a 35-year-old researcher at the Polytechnic University of Turin, said he has worked on a form of adhesion for about 10 years.
Luigi Comencini, one of Italy’s best known and prolific film directors, has died at the age of 90, the Lucherini film studios announced on April 6. Comencini was best known for his 1953 hit, Bread, Love and Dreams”, which starred Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica and spawned two sequels.
Two Manchester United fans who were stabbed during clashes before a Champions League match with AS Roma remained hospitalised on Thursday but are expected to live. Rome prefect Achille Serra said the two fans were stabbed in the groin or backside during clashes with Roma supporters.
Italian researchers have found the skeleton of a 10m-long prehistoric whale in the Tuscan countryside, a discovery that could help shed light on the ancient environment of the sea, officials said on Tuesday. The skeleton dates to four million years ago, to the Pliocene epoch, and was found in almost perfect order.
The late pope John Paul II will move a step closer to sainthood next week when the Vatican receives proof of his miraculous intercession to cure a French nun of Parkinson’s disease, diocesan officials said on Tuesday. The ”miracle” will qualify the charismatic Polish pope for beatification, the main stepping stone to becoming a saint.
The founder of Fastweb, Italy’s number-two telecommunications company, has reached 1,1-million Italian customers and is now seeking to bring internet television to as many of the world’s 300-million broadband users as he can reach with his new venture, an internet TV network called Babelgum.
After decades of indifference, soccer-mad Italy is finally falling in love with its rugby team after they managed two Six Nations wins in the same season for the first time. Their 23-20 win over Wales on the weekend — two weeks after a 37-17 victory against Scotland — sealed their most successful campaign with one home game against Ireland still to come.
Mauro Bergamasco scored a dramatic late try as Italy beat Wales 23-20 in Rome on Saturday to record an unprecedented second win in a Six Nations campaign. However, the match ended in controversy when the full-time whistle blew just after Wales had declined an opportunity to kick what could have been a score-levelling penalty.
If you thought cracking The Da Vinci Code was tough, try unscrambling The Provenzano Code, the cryptic cypher of the Mafia’s ”boss of bosses”. Numbers, alphabet letters, Bible quotations, references to Jesus — they are all in a new book by Sicilian magistrate Michele Prestipino.
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/ 28 February 2007
Developing countries, including emerging economic giants China and India, are not prepared to take the blame for climate change, the head of the G77 group of developing nations said on Tuesday. Some countries want developing countries to accept limits on their emissions of greenhouse gases when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2012.
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/ 27 February 2007
A Milan schoolteacher lost her job after slashing a seven-year-old student’s tongue with a pair of scissors to punish him for talking too much, the Education Ministry announced on Tuesday. "Faced with such grievous actions there is only one possible response: zero tolerance," Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni said in a statement.
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/ 6 February 2007
Soccer fans won’t be allowed into stadiums in Italy unless security measures are met, the country’s Interior Minister said on Monday. The decision comes only days after riots broke out during and after a Serie A match in Sicily in which a police officer was killed.
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/ 1 February 2007
Fiat on Wednesday unveiled its new Bravo saloon car, a week after announcing a bumper 2006 during which car sales were in the black for the first time in six years. "In 2007 we are turning the page, and Bravo is the car that embodies this change," CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters at the launch.
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/ 31 January 2007
Ronaldo’s farewell to Real Madrid didn’t include any fond words for coach Fabio Capello. The World Cup’s all-time leading scorer left Madrid for AC Milan on Tuesday, returning to Italy’s Serie A for a reported â,¬7,5-million transfer fee. The 30-year-old Brazil striker joined Milan until 2008 — the same length as the remainder of his contract at Madrid.
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/ 24 January 2007
Food-aid programmes need to be overhauled to strengthen the long-term campaign against world hunger, the United Nations food agency said on Wednesday. Emergency aid has saved millions of lives, but such help provided over longer periods might destabilise markets, the UN said in a report.
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/ 15 January 2007
Ferrari began life after Michael Schumacher on Sunday when they unveiled their new car for the 2007 Formula One season, which they hope will reclaim the world title. The Italian team finished second to Renault in the drivers’ and constructors’ championships last season before Schumacher retired from racing.
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/ 10 January 2007
Carlo Ponti, a producer who was known both for classic films such as Doctor Zhivago and for his long marriage to the film star Sophia Loren, died early on January 10 at a hospital in Geneva. He was 94. Ponti started out in life as a lawyer, going into film production in the late 1930s.
Giovanni Viglione of northern Italy took turning 100 in his stride, passing his driver’s test with flying colours, the Ansa news agency reported on Wednesday. Viglione, who lives alone, needs to drive his Fiat 500 to his watercolour class in Rovereto, near Verona.
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/ 22 December 2006
Pope Benedict spoke out on Friday against legal recognition for unmarried couples and ”dismal theories” on the rights of gays to marry, which he said stripped men and women of their innate sexual identity. ”I cannot hide my concern about legislation on de facto couples,” the pope said in a Christmas address to the Rome clergy.
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/ 2 December 2006
Juventus moved into a tie for first place in Serie B after drawing with Genoa 1-1 on Friday. Pavel Nedved put Juventus ahead in the 71st minute and Ivan Juric equalised for Genoa three minutes later. Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon saved a penalty kick in the 31st.
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/ 1 December 2006
The prostitutes lining the roads around Turin, a hub for the Nigerian sex trade, have names that evoke dreams of a bright future — Joy, Blessing, Hope. Hope that they could escape poverty at home in Africa’s most populous nation drew these women to Italy. But when they arrived, they were saddled with crushing debts. They were spat at, insulted, robbed and even raped.