Italy’s centre-left opposition on Monday ousted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after an acrimonious election campaign, exit polls showed, ending the tycoon’s flamboyant five-year hold on power. While officials of Romani Prodi’s campaign refused to declare victory, supporters flocked to his campaign’s headquarters voicing both jubilation and relief.
Inter Milan president Giacinto Facchetti on Sunday condemned the group of fans who attacked several of the club’s players at Milan’s Malpensa airport. In the early hours of Sunday morning, around 100 Inter supporters, still angry about their team’s exit from the Champions League on Tuesday, were waiting for the squad as they got off their flight from Ascoli.
Filippo Inzaghi refuses to relent — neither to injuries nor a late-game deficit. The striker scored two goals, including an 88th-minute winner, to advance AC Milan to the Champions League semifinals with a 3-1 win over Lyon on Tuesday. In October, Inzaghi returned from a slow-healing left ankle injury, which has required two operations.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi caused an uproar in Italy on Tuesday by blasting a particularly vulgar insult at left-wing voters. Addressing a meeting of shopkeepers in Rome, Berlusconi said: ”I have too high an esteem of Italians’ intelligence to believe that there are so many coglioni who may vote against their self-interest. I apologise for my coarse but effective language.”
One of Italy’s top executives was caught speeding on a motorway in northern Italy at 311kph while trying out his new car, the press reported on Saturday. Riccardo Ruggiero runs Telecom Italia, the country’s main telecoms operator with a turnover of €30-billion last year.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi said on Monday Saddam Hussein should still be considered Iraq’s legal president and the current government illegitimate as it was elected under an occupation regime. In an interview with an Italian television channel, he slammed the practice of sending in troops to get rid of heads of state.
Italian coast guards intercepted about 250 would-be illegal immigrants off the coast of southern Italy on Thursday night, port officials said on Friday. A small motorised trawler was stopped about 20km off the island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, overnight, a Palerma port official told Agence France-Presse. It was carrying about 210 people.
Dejan Stankovic scored in the 57th minute and Inter Milan beat Ajax 1-0 on Tuesday to take the last spot in the Champions League quarterfinals. Inter advanced on 3-2 aggregate and will face Spain’s Villarreal in the last eight. ”I’m pleased with the way we played,” Inter coach Roberto Mancini said.
An awful mistake by Werder Bremen keeper Tim Wiese in the 88th minute gifted Juventus a dramatic 2-1 victory in Turin on Tuesday and a place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Bremen were hanging on for the 1-1 draw which would have been enough for them to reach the last eight of the competition.
Italy reacted coolly on Friday to threats from Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi of further attacks on Italians if Tripoli’s historic compensation claim for decades of colonisation by Rome remains unheeded. Gaddafi said rioters who sacked the Italian consulate in Benghazi two weeks ago had wanted to kill the consul because Libyans ”hate” Italians.
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/ 27 February 2006
The colourful closing ceremony of the 20th Winter Olympics was marred on Sunday night when a protestor rushed the platform during the finishing speeches. The intruder ran onto the stage when the president of the organising committee Valentino Castellani was making his closing remarks.
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/ 26 February 2006
With one day left in the Winter Olympics and only two medal events set for Sunday, a few things are certain: Germany will leave Turin with the most gold medals, and Bode Miller will drive his motor home out of the Italian Alps with none. Michael Greis won his third biathlon gold medal of these Games.
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/ 25 February 2006
Julia Mancuso’s giant-slalom gold medal sparked celebrations for Americans and Italians. And 50-year-old Russ Howard helped perk up Canada’s post-hockey mood by winning a long-awaited Olympic men’s triumph in curling — the country’s number-two sport.
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/ 23 February 2006
Anja Paerson had won plenty of races, at all levels. Alas, never at the Olympics. Each silver or bronze at the Winter Games made her crave gold that much more. Each disappointment added to the pressure, made her tight. She knew it. So did her biggest rival.
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/ 23 February 2006
Defending champions Canada and 2002 runners-up United States were sent crashing out of the Winter Olympics ice hockey tournament on Wednesday. Their quarterfinal elimination set the stage for Russia and Finland to renew their long-time Olympic rivalry as they clash in the semifinals for the second time in three Winter Games.
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/ 22 February 2006
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will set up a special panel to investigate the doping scandal involving the Austrian Nordic ski team at the Turin Olympics, IOC president Jacques Rogge said on Tuesday. The IOC could take sanctions against the Austrians even without any athletes testing positive for banned substances.
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/ 22 February 2006
United States speedskaters Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis have revealed the full enmity of their bitter feud, a rivalry that helped cost them Olympic 1 500m gold. Italy’s Enrico Fabris won in one minute, 45,97 seconds on Tuesday, beating 1 000m Olympic champion Davis by ,16 of a second with 1 500m world record-holder Hedrick third in 1.46,22.
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/ 21 February 2006
For a few hours at least, all the news about Austria was good. Skier Benjamin Raich claimed his first Olympic gold medal and Michaela Dorfmeister won her second in a week to rescue the country’s image on Monday amid a doping scandal that keeps escalating around a banned former coach and his desperate bolt from the Winter Games.
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/ 20 February 2006
The Winter Olympics alpine ski competition was getting back on track on Monday after a snowy Sunday. Under bright, sunny skies, the men’s giant slalom was first up, followed by the women’s super-G postponed from the previous day. In the evening Canada takes on Sweden in the women’s ice hockey final and there is the climax to the ice dance.
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/ 19 February 2006
Italian police raided the Austrian biathlon team, casting a shadow over a super Saturday that had seen two stirring performances on the slopes and a landmark gold won by a black American skater. The evening raid centred on the private quarters of the Austrian team.
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/ 18 February 2006
About 6,7-million people in Sudan, including in the war-ravaged Darfur region, are exposed to malnutrition and will need food assistance this year, two United Nations food agencies say. The Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme estimate that about 728 000 tonnes of food aid will be required.
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/ 18 February 2006
Tiny Estonia cherished a third Olympic triumph and Canada celebrated a top-two sweep but the United States, who lead the hunt for gold medals, were giving them away in Turin on Friday. Andrus Veerpalu defended his men’s 15km cross-country crown to vault Estonia into the top five among gold-medal nations.
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/ 17 February 2006
They came from far flung corners of the world with hope in their hearts. They’ll be heading home with their tails between their legs. It’s been a tough week for the no-hopers of the Winter Olympics but the super-flops of Turin will pack away plenty of positives in their suitcases.
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/ 16 February 2006
Curling may not be the most glamorous sport at the Turin Olympics but it certainly brings a refreshing family element to the Games. On entering the Olympic curling venue in Pinerolo you could be forgiven for asking whether a school sports day was in process. The only difference is the kids are cheering on the adults.
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/ 16 February 2006
Two of the three medallists from the Salt Lake City Games struggled on the opening day of the Olympic ice-hockey tournament, while Canada shrugged off the Wayne Gretzky storm to cruise past hosts Italy. Latvia drew with 2002 silver medallists United States 3-3, while Slovakia stunned 2002 bronze-medal winners Russia 5-3.
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/ 15 February 2006
Wayne Gretzky says it’s over. The distant look in his eyes and the weariness in his voice say it’s not. Gretzky, hockey’s biggest name and the touchstone of all things sporting in Canada, didn’t arrive at the Olympics until Tuesday. Already, he can’t wait for the questions to stop.
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/ 15 February 2006
Even on a treacherous track, Germany’s high-powered luge machine never lost traction. The undisputed queens of luge made the Olympic competition their own, sweeping the medals once again and leaving the rest of the sliding world to wonder what it will take to slow them down.
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/ 14 February 2006
It may be proclaimed as the blue riband event of alpine skiing, but a series of gruesome crashes in the women’s training has highlighted the inherent dangers of the downhill. Dressed only in a figure-hugging catsuits and helmets the skiing speed kings and queens hurtle down long, steep and icy slopes at speeds that could see you cautioned on any of the world’s motorways.
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/ 14 February 2006
This time, there was no judging scandal in the pairs. Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin eliminated any chance for controversy on Monday night in the Olympic pairs with a balletic free skate reminiscent of other great Russian couples. ”I felt really great on the ice,” said Totmianina.
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/ 13 February 2006
Svetlana Ishmouratova of Russia was near flawless on her way to gold in the women’s 15km biathlon at the Olympics on Monday, while two strong contenders for the women’s downhill had spectacular crashes in training. Ishmouratova missed just one target out of 20 to finish in 49 minutes, 24,1 seconds.
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/ 13 February 2006
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday came under fire from Church officials as well as his own allies for comparing himself to Jesus Christ. Addressing party supporters over dinner at the weekend, Berlusconi had said he felt like ”the Jesus Christ of Italian politics”.
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/ 13 February 2006
Antoine Deneriaz won the marquee event of the Winter Olympics on Sunday with a surprising late run to upstage the Austrians and Americans in the men’s downhill. Unsurprisingly, Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Games, ending her decade-long quest for gold. Armin Zoeggeler gave Italy their first golden moment with victory in the luge.