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/ 8 September 2005
Critics and public at the Venice film festival have made the George Clooney directed Good Night, and Good Luck the clear favourite to win the two-week event’s prestigious Golden Lion award, to be announced on Saturday. With just a few of the 20 films in the official competition yet to be screened, Clooney’s film remains the most popular with critics and public alike.
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/ 7 September 2005
A senior official of Italy’s national rail operator was summoned to the transport ministry on Tuesday after several incidents in which passengers complained of being infected or bitten by ticks, fleas and lice on trains, some of them serving Paris.
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/ 6 September 2005
A Catholic religion teacher claims her good looks have cost her her job at a primary school in central Italy. Caterina Bonci, described in the local media as a sexy 38-year-old blonde who likes to wear miniskirts, was fired after 14 years spent teaching religion at a state-run school in Fano.
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/ 5 September 2005
McLaren-Mercedes’s Juan Pablo Montoya admitted that concerns over the tyres at the Italian Grand Prix had been playing on his mind as he took victory at Monza. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fighting his way through the field when he was called into the pits to change a heavily blistered rear tyre.
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/ 5 September 2005
Juan Pablo Montoya won the Italian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday and Renault’s Fernando Alonso finished second to maintain the inside track on the season championship. Alonso’s teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, was third and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth for the most impressive performance of the day.
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/ 4 September 2005
World champion Michael Schumacher warned his Ferrari team’s loyal Tifosi fans in Monza on Saturday not to expect a miracle podium performance from him in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Schumacher looked a shadow of his seven-time title-winning self when he settled for seventh in qualifying on Saturday.
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/ 3 September 2005
Championship challenger Kimi Raikkonen said in Monza on Friday that he will ignore the performances of title race leader Fernando Alonso and concentrate on winning the remaining five races of the season. Raikkonen knows nothing less than victory will do if he wants to close down the 24-point gap to Spaniard Alonso quickly.
Ferrari’s seven-time formula-one world champion Michael Schumacher believes he will struggle to get a place on the podium at this Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Schumacher has shown signs of frustration at the Italian team’s lack of competitiveness this season.
Tonino Delli Colli, director of photography for the greats of Italian and United States cinema, has died at the age of 81, his family announced on Thursday. He "gave light to the dreams" of numerous directors, including Roman Polanski’s <i>Bitter Moon</i> and Roberto Benigni’s <i>Life Is Beautiful</i>, his last film for the cinema.
Injury-plagued Juventus shoots for a record-equalling fifth title on Saturday when it takes on perennial rival Inter Milan in the Italian Super Cup, the country’s top preseason trophy. The match at Turin’s Stadio delle Alpi between the Serie A champion and the Italian Cup winner will also test the form and strength of two of the favourite teams in the league campaign which kicks off on August 27.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged on Wednesday that he was absent-minded after forgetting to bless the hundreds of pilgrims who attended his weekly audience at his Castel Gandolfo summer residence. He said his mind was already in Cologne, where he is to travel on Thursday.
Ferrari is testing its new eight-cylinder engine this week for the first time, a sign the defending formula-one champion is looking ahead to next season amid a disappointing 2005. Beginning in 2006, most formula-one teams will be required to use V8 engines, as opposed to the V10s currently in use.
Inter Milan have completed the signing of Portugal international Luis Figo from Real Madrid, the Italian Serie A club confirmed on Friday. The 32-year-old forward passed a medical before putting pen to paper on a two-year contract. No transfer fee was involved for Portugal’s most-capped player.
The police described in detail on Monday how they monitored a London bombing suspect’s cellphone calls before arresting him in Rome and said his extradition to Britain would not take long. Italian police also said the Briton falsified his name and nationality when applying for asylum in Britain years ago.
The first major airlifts of emergency food aid to Niger are scheduled to begin on Thursday, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday. The Rome-based WFP says 3,6-million people are directly affected by food shortages, with 2,5-million of those ”in urgent need of food aid”.
Two large images of the late Pope John Paul II tower over Lisena inside her take-away pizza shop near the Vatican. Below and to the right, a postcard-sized photo of his successor struggles to make itself seen between slices of Spicy Salame and Margherita pizza.
The rising star of Italian football, Alberto Gilardino, was due to undergo routine medical tests in Milanello on Tuesday before joining his new teammates at AC Milan. ”This is a dream come true,” the striker told reporters after signing a five-year contract with the Italian giants.
Niger faces a serious food crisis aggravated by rising prices, notably for millet, a staple food in the West African country, the Food and Agriculture Organisation warned on Monday. About 2,5-million people are at risk, including 800 000 children, the United Nations agency said, appealing for urgent aid.
One out of three Africans suffers from malnutrition and a total of 852-million people in the world suffer from hunger, the United Nations said in a report issued Friday. The World Food Programme said they had received less than 20%, or -million, of the -million it needs for its operations in Southern Africa from now until 2006.
Valentino Rossi won the Italian Grand Prix for the fourth straight year on Sunday, passing old rival Max Biaggi two laps from the end. Rossi led the first all-Italian sweep of the top four positions in the top motorcycling division and has now won four of the first five races this season.
Francesco Totti signed a new five-year contract on Tuesday with AS Roma to make him the fifth-highest-paid player in the world. The deal is worth €10,4-million (R87,1-million) annually and expires on June 30 2010. Roma’s captain will earn an additional €520 000 (R4,3-million) per season through image rights.
Transubstantiation has always been a difficult concept to come to grips with. Even many of Jesus’s first listeners left in disbelief upon hearing the words: ”He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”
Top seed Maria Sharapova beat France’s Mary Pierce in an absorbing third-round match to reach the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters on Thursday. The reigning Wimbledon champion won a thrilling contest 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in exactly two hours to reach the last eight and keep alive her dream of becoming world number one for the very first time.
Serena Williams certainly didn’t look ready for the French Open on Wednesday. The six-time Grand Slam winner was upset 7-6 (2), 6-1 by Italy’s Francesca Schiavone in her opening match at the Italian Open, an important tune-up for the season’s first major, which starts in less than two weeks.
Maria Sharapova overpowered her Spanish opponent in the second round of the Italian Open, but the top-seeded Russian still has a long way to go before claiming the top ranking in women’s tennis. The Wimbledon champion needs to win the ,3-million tournament in order to overtake Lindsay Davenport for the number-one ranking.
Serena Williams is looking forward to getting her clay court game going at this week’s Italian Open. The American says she is feeling fit after a series of injury-related withdrawals since winning the Australian Open in January. ”I’m feeling pretty good and I’ve been working on my clay court game,” Williams said on Monday.
Rafael Nadal won his third straight clay-court title on Sunday by edging French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6) at the Rome Masters in a match that ended in darkness and lasted more than five hours. ”This was the toughest match of my life,” Nadal said.
Spanish qualifier Nicolas Almagro upset Australian Open champion Marat Safin 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday in the second round of the Rome Masters. Earlier, Andre Agassi managed a routine 6-2, 6-3 win over French teenager Richard Gasquet, taking just 64 minutes to defeat his 18-year-old opponent.
Andy Roddick is taking a new, lighter approach to the clay-court season. After eliminating Greg Rusedski 6-4, 6-2 on Monday in the first round of the Italian Open, top-seeded Roddick said he has lost 2,25kg off his 1,88m frame. Sixth-seeded Andre Agassi, winner of the Rome title in 2002, beat Italian wild card Alessio di Mauro 7-5, 6-2.
Fernando Alonso absorbed the awesome pressure of flying world champion Michael Schumacher in the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola on Sunday to secure his third consecutive victory for Renault. Alonso had to keep composed to cope with the rejuvenated Schumacher in the closing stages.
McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa finished fastest in first practice for the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy on Friday as world champions Ferrari were outpaced by their rivals. Michael Schumacher, who has only scored two points so far, showed his hand early at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari to set the pace.
Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced on Wednesday he will resign and form a new government with a revamped programme in a bid to quell a revolt by key allies in his centre-right coalition. He told the Italian Senate that he will form a new government with the same majority.