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/ 13 February 2006
Perhaps there won’t be so much controversy this time. The last Olympic pairs competition ended with a scoring scandal and gold medals awarded to two couples as officials scurried to make things right. This year, with a new scoring system, the short programme went off without a hitch ahead of Monday’s final.
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/ 11 February 2006
A first taste of the tallest hills in Olympic history looms before ski jumpers at the Winter Games in the Italian Alps this weekend, unsettling even the most seasoned competitors. Czech Jakub Janda heads into the normal hill final at the 2006 Turin Games on Sunday with a narrow overall World Cup lead over five-times world champion Janne Ahonen of Finland.
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/ 11 February 2006
Shaun White, the United States teen redhead known as ”The Flying Tomato”, is the man to beat for the Turin Olympic halfpipe title, but top rivals are set to unleash a new trick that could grab the gold. Sunday’s snowboard showdown promises high-flying excitement measured in thrills and cheers just as the riders’ tricks are measured in rotation degrees and frontside or backside spins.
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/ 10 February 2006
Cheesemaker Arnaldo Blanc, who keeps a menagerie of cows and roosters in a smelly, hay-strewn basement below the kitchen, knows his village is dying. Set in the icy crags of a 2 900m peak called Ciantiplagna, Balboutet is only a half-hour drive from the main venue for ski jumping and about 100km from the
host city of Turin.
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/ 9 February 2006
Even as she approaches her 50th birthday and recovers from knee surgery, Martina Navratilova plans to play a full schedule of doubles tournaments in 2006, including the grand slams, and might take another stab at singles. ”I just feel like I’m not quite done yet,” Navratilova said on Thursday.
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/ 7 February 2006
There are still problems to resolve, particularly in transportation, before the Winter Olympics begin on Friday. Turin and the surrounding mountain venues are generally ready, however, organising chief Valentino Castellani said on Monday. ”We are very satisfied and committed,” Castellani said.
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/ 31 January 2006
The Italian government said on Monday it will be relaxing its strict doping laws for next month’s Winter Olympics in Turin, much to the relief of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). The IOC and Wada had been concerned that some athletes could end up with jail sentences.
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/ 30 January 2006
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) appealed on Monday for -million in aid to Sudan, saying aid coupled with long-term development is crucial to lasting peace there. The agency said that despite a peace accord in 2005, Sudan’s humanitarian needs for 2006 ”remain immense”.
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/ 30 January 2006
Serie A side Roma could face a stadium ban after Nazi and fascist symbols were spotted in the home supporters enclosure in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Livorno. Flags bearing swastikas and Celtic crosses were seen in the Curva Sud where Roma’s hard core fans congregate.
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/ 27 January 2006
An Italian judge heard arguments from lawyers on Friday on whether a small-town parish priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed. The priest’s accuser, an atheist, says the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people for 2 000 years with a fable that Christ existed and he accused the priest of violating two laws by furthering the assertion.
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/ 24 January 2006
Some protesters briefly grabbed the Olympic torch from Italian track star Eleanora Berlanda as the relay passed through the Italian town of Trento on Monday. Four protesters known as ”the disobedient ones” — demonstrators associated with the anti-globalisation movement — nabbed the torch.
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/ 23 January 2006
Ferrari will on Tuesday officially unveil their new car for the 2006 Formula One season which they hope will recapture the title from Renault. The car has already been seen having made an unexpectedly early debut at Fiorano on January 16 where seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher drove it for 51 laps.
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/ 19 January 2006
Nearly 90% of Italians call themselves Catholics, but more than two-thirds favour legal recognition for unmarried couples despite opposition from the Church, according to a study sociologists say is evidence that Italians tailor their religion to
fit their lifestyles.
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/ 18 January 2006
Bird flu could become entrenched in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Near East regions and could spread in the spring to Europe and Africa through trade and bird migrations, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Wednesday. FAO has already warned that bird flu risks becoming endemic in Turkey, where more than 20 people have so far tested positive for the virus
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Friday called for urgent humanitarian assistance for the Horn of Africa region where recent droughts and ongoing conflicts have left millions facing possible famine. More than 11-million people in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia are in need of aid, the FAO said in a special alert issued in Rome.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini on Friday expressed his ”most sincere gratitude” to his Yemeni counterpart at the release of five Italian hostages who had been held by Yemeni tribesmen. ”This experience can only reinforce the ties of friendship that have traditionally united Italy and Yemen,” he said.
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/ 15 December 2005
American Lance Armstrong, the seven-times Tour de France winner who retired last July, will go on trial in Italy for defamation after losing a preliminary hearing against Italian Filippo Simeoni on Wednesday. Armstrong famously tarnished the Italian rider a ”liar” in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde in 2003.
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/ 5 December 2005
Mauro Camoranesi scored the winner in the 88th minute, and defending champion Juventus beat host Fiorentina 2-1 on Sunday to widen its lead in the Serie A. France striker David Trezeguet put Juventus in the lead in the eighth minute, kicking in a low cross from Zlatan Ibrahimovic for his 11th goal this season.
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/ 23 November 2005
Venetian gondolas, horses and even a Ferrari will help transport the torch across Italy for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. The Olympic flame begins a 64-day, 11 300km relay through every Italian province on December 8, sailing Venice’s Grand Canal on gondolas and parading in a sports car through the Ferrari factory.
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/ 21 November 2005
A consumer group accused Giancarlo Fisichella of setting a bad example after the Italian formula-one driver was caught speeding in Rome. Fisichella had his licence confiscated after being caught driving 148kph in a 60kph zone at dawn on Sunday, the news agency Ansa said.
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/ 16 November 2005
A prominent United States museum curator appeared in court in Rome on Wednesday in a trial designed to assert Italy’s ownership of a large part of the J Paul Getty antiquities collection, and sound a warning to museums elsewhere which may have acquired looted Italian art.
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/ 11 November 2005
In the beginning there was … Madonna. Now you can also download Pope Benedict XVI into your iPod. The Holy See’s official broadcaster, Vatican Radio, is ”podcasting” audio content to any of the world’s one-billion-plus Catholics who own a portable MP3 player.
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/ 1 November 2005
A downhill skier is led off in handcuffs after crossing the finish line for a gold medal. Paramilitary police jump on to the ice and take away a hockey defenceman or chase down a pair of ice dancers. It may sound like a goofy film script, but the International Olympic Committee is worried about just such scenes at the Winter Olympics in Turin.
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/ 31 October 2005
An 80-year-old Italian woman whose loan request was turned down brandished a kitchen knife on Monday and ordered bank officials to turn over their tills, reported Italian news agency Ansa. The woman initially asked for a loan of €2 000 to €3 000, but was told that the sum was too high.
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/ 30 October 2005
AC Milan ended Juventus’ 100% league record in style with a 3-1 victory over the Serie A leaders on Saturday. Carlo Ancelotti’s side blew away the reigning champions with three first-half goals as Milan recorded their seventh straight win and cut Juve’s lead to just two points.
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/ 17 October 2005
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe denounced United States President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as ”the two unholy men of our millennium” at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation anniversary meeting in Rome on Monday.
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/ 15 October 2005
The United States has expressed ”amazement” at a United Nations invitation to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to address a conference in Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. ”I find it amazing they’ve invited Mr Mugabe to speak,” said the US ambassador to the UN food agencies in Rome.
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/ 13 October 2005
A 73-year-old Italian man was back on his feet on Thursday, two days after spending 35 minutes in the afterlife, reports said. According to Rome-based daily La Repubblica, the pensioner suffered a heart attack while being treated for unrelated problems in a hospital in Montova on Tuesday morning.
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/ 12 October 2005
Despite promises by the Italian football authorities to clamp down on racism, Serie A defender Marc Zoro says he constantly suffers ”deplorable” insults because of the colour of his skin. ”It happens less in the south of Italy, but I have problems all the time. All this makes me really sad. It’s not easy for me and it hurts. I don’t deserve this.”
Italy’s stock-market regulator said on Monday it has given its final approval to a proposal by Parmalat Finanziaria SpA to go public, part of the dairy giant’s plan to recover from a massive fraud scandal and pay back its creditors. Parmalat shares were taken off the stock exchange following massive fraud revelations in 2003.
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/ 29 September 2005
Question: What unites Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Adolf Hitler? Answer: An art exhibition in northern Italy. Entitled ”War is Over 1945-2005”, the exhibition opening at Bergamo’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art on October 15 offers visitors an international collection of drawings, paintings and posters united by the common theme of freedom in Europe in the post World War II era.
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/ 19 September 2005
Thousands of Neapolitans crowded the Italian city of Naples’s cathedral on Monday to see what they believe to be the dried blood of their patron saint liquefy in a glass vial. The alleged ”miracle”, which has been taking place almost without fail for centuries, is seen as a sign that San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) still loves them.