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/ 31 October 2006
Roger Federer blew a gaping hole in the credibility of the Paris Masters on Monday when the world number one joined Rafael Nadal in pulling out of the â,¬2-million tournament. The Swiss top seed cited fatigue for his no-show, the third year in succession he has opted out of the penultimate event of the season.
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/ 23 October 2006
Purists may frown, but chocolate foie gras and kiwi liquor are just two examples of how French farmers are evolving their offerings in order to lure new customers in a competitive food market. Six times a year, small farmers from across France meet in the Paris region to sell their wares directly to city customers.
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/ 20 October 2006
The Paris Club of creditor nations agreed on Thursday to cancel almost all of Malawi’s debt, reducing the small Southern African nation’s remaining debt to just -million (R67-million). National representatives to the informal group, which meets monthly in Paris, agreed to recommend to their governments that about -million in debt owed by the impoverished country be cancelled.
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/ 19 October 2006
Zinedine Zidane said he was coping well with life outside soccer and had no immediate plans to embark on a coaching career. The former France and Real Madrid playmaker, who retired after his country’s defeat by Italy in the World Cup final in July, said he did not miss competitive football.
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/ 18 October 2006
French duo Lyon and Lille rattled in the goals in Tuesday’s Champions League action as the former enjoyed a 3-0 cruise over hapless Dynamo Kiev and Lille gave themselves a great chance of progressing to the knockout stage with a 3-1 victory over AEK Athens.
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/ 17 October 2006
European giants Barcelona and Inter Milan go into battle on Wednesday looking to boost what has been a disappointing start to their Champions League campaigns.
Barcelona travel to Chelsea for what promises to be another epic battle between the two sides after two bruising encounters in successive seasons.
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/ 14 October 2006
South Africa’s Wayne Ferreira, the former world number six and who holds the record for the most consecutive Grand Slam tournaments played, admitted Saturday that retirement has been hard. The 35-year-old, an Australian Open semifinalist in 1992 and 2003, called it a day on the ATP Tour at the 2004 US Open.
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/ 12 October 2006
Footballing giant England’s so-called brave new world under Steve McClaren came to a shuddering halt on Wednesday as they were outplayed by Croatia, going down to a 2-0 defeat in their Euro 2008 qualifier. The only consolation for England fans bitter at the manner of their World Cup quarterfinal exit to Portugal was that the Portuguese were the other surprise losers on the night.
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/ 11 October 2006
A passenger train from Luxembourg collided with a goods train in north-eastern France on Wednesday, killing about 12 people, state SNCF railways said. ”About 10 passengers have died as well as the two drivers of the trains,” SNCF said in a statement. Several other passengers were believed to be injured. Rail officials said the trains were travelling in opposite directions on the same stretch of track.
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/ 10 October 2006
It’s make-up time for two of Europe’s big guns as the latest round of Euro 2008 qualifiers get under way on Wednesday. England and France have it all to do to erase the memory of severely disappointing results on Saturday. Having limped to a feeble 0-0 draw at home to the anything but mighty Macedonia, England travel to Croatia for a considerably more testing examination.
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/ 10 October 2006
Louis Gallois, the newly appointed head of planemaker Airbus, warned on Tuesday that there would likely be ”painful” job losses at Airbus in the wake of delays to the A380 superjumbo and a profit warning at the company. Gallois was named late on Monday as the new head of Airbus after Christian Streiff resigned following a spell of just three months at the job.
Former teammates and coaches have hailed Fabien Barthez as a goalkeeping genius after he announced his retirement from football on Thursday. ”Fabien informed me of his decision 10 days ago. To me, he is the greatest goalkeeper France have had,” Toulouse coach Elie Baup, who gave Barthez his professional debut in 1990, told French sports daily L’Equipe on Friday.
A French lawyer is to contest Zinedine Zidane’s World Cup final red card in the French civil courts, a court source said on Wednesday. Mehana Mouhou, a lawyer in Rouen and Paris, wants the red card overturned on a technicality because he claims the fourth official watched video evidence of the French captain’s infamous head-butt on Italy defender Marco Materazzi, before bringing it to the referee’s attention.
Arsene Wenger, who has just celebrated 10 years as Arsenal manager, believes his side can beat champions and London rivals Chelsea to the Premier League title this season. ”It’s satisfying to think that Chelsea are not the only ones who can be successful, even with money,” the Frenchman told French sports daily L’Equipe in an interview on Tuesday.
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/ 25 September 2006
Portuguese clubs Benfica and Porto will try to put a dent in Manchester United and Arsenal’s hopes of reaching the second round of the Champions League on Tuesday. The Premiership giants will bid to regain some face for England after the country’s World Cup exit to Portugal.
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/ 23 September 2006
A French regional newspaper quoted a French secret service report on Saturday as saying that Saudi Arabia is convinced that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan last month. L’Est Republicain printed what it said was a copy of the report dated September 21 and said it was shown to President Jacques Chirac.
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/ 19 September 2006
The organisers of the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix were on Tuesday fined -million over their controversial decision to allow the leader of an unrecognised country to present the trophy at the end of this year’s race. A row erupted after last month’s Formula One event in Istanbul when Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat made the trophy presentation.
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/ 15 September 2006
Iran told the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, last weekend that it is prepared to discuss suspending its uranium enrichment programme, a French foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed on Friday. Solana met Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Vienna on Saturday and Sunday.
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/ 14 September 2006
English Premiership giants Arsenal and Manchester United enjoyed a successful night in their first group matches of the Champions League this season on Wednesday. Arsenal, last season’s beaten finalists, got a much needed morale-boosting victory ahead of Sunday’s clash with United, beating German outfit Hamburg 2-1 away.
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/ 13 September 2006
Spanish duo, titleholders Barcelona, and Valencia swept to victory in their opening Champions League salvoes on Tuesday. Barca blew away Levski Sofia 5-0 in a torrential downpour while Valencia recorded an impressive 4-2 away victory at Olympiakos with the rejuvenated Fernando Morientes scoring a hat-trick.
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/ 13 September 2006
Astronomers peering into deep space believe that the first big galaxies in the universe were forged around 700-million years after the Big Bang that initiated the cosmos. In a record-breaking scan of the skies, a team led by Japanese astronomer Masanori Iye found a galaxy whose light has taken 12,7-thousand million years to reach Earth.
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/ 7 September 2006
France gained a small measure of revenge for their World Cup final defeat by toppling Italy 3-1 in Paris in the heavyweight clash of the Euro 2008 qualifiers on Wednesday. But it was Germany who made most heads turn, recording the biggest victory on their travels with a 13-0 demolition of hapless San Marino.
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/ 5 September 2006
Industrialised economies are heading for growth of 3% this year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Tuesday, suggesting that interest rates in the eurozone and United States could rise further but that the Bank of Japan should be cautious.
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/ 1 September 2006
Only a week after Pluto was stripped of its status as a full-fledged planet of the solar system, rebel astronomers have launched a campaign to have it restored in pomp and glory. A petition already signed by more than 300 researchers is attacking the International Astronomical Union decision to expel Pluto from the solar system’s A-list and doom it to the status of ”dwarf planet”.
Formula One chiefs have launched a probe into how breakaway Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat managed to officiate at the prize-giving ceremony for the Turkish Grand Prix. The race in Istanbul on Sunday, won by Brazilian Felipe Massa in a Ferrari, was watched by an estimated viewing audience of 2,5-billion worldwide.
Newcastle and Marseille scraped into the Uefa Cup knockout round on Thursday but did little to raise the profile of a tournament slumbering in the shadows of the Champions League. Newcastle drew 0-0 with Latvian minnows Ventspils but went through having won the first leg of the second preliminary round tie 1-0.
French lovers of Bordeaux red wine are angry they cannot afford to drink the acclaimed 2005 vintage which is breaking price records before it has even been bottled. A case of the top end wine is on sale at more than double the previous record even though it will not be delivered until 2008 at the earliest.
World powers which backed a package to defuse a dispute with Iran over its nuclear ambitions are ready to respond to Iran’s call for talks but only if it first suspends uranium enrichment, France said on Wednesday. Iran replied to the incentives package offered by six nations on Tuesday, saying it contained ideas that would allow serious talks to start immediately.
It was a mixed night for former European Cup winners as Liverpool, AC Milan, Hamburg and Benfica progressed to the Champions League group stages but Red Star Belgrade bit the dust. The 1991 champions will have to settle for Uefa Cup football this season after they went down 2-1 at home to Milan, to lose 3-1 on aggregate.
Star signs and astrology charts — relied on by millions as a key to divining the future — would not be much affected if three new planets were added to the solar system, experts said on Friday. Leading astronomers meeting in Prague are planning next week to add three new planets to the nine known to children around the world.
Floyd Landis’s doping samples contained synthetic testosterone, indicating the Tour de France champion’s elevated levels were not produced naturally, the head of France’s anti-doping commission said on Saturday. The revelation could damage Landis’s defence prospects.
Tour de France champion Floyd Landis’s back-up urine sample confirmed high levels of testosterone, cycling’s governing body said on Saturday, raising the prospect that he could lose his title. Following the results of the ”B” sample, Landis was fired by his Swiss team, Phonak.