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/ 7 December 2007
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu urged European Union (EU) leaders on Friday to confront Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on his human rights record, saying
their silence would be interpreted as condoning violations. ”I am deeply saddened by what has happened,” said Tutu.
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/ 27 November 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said he will attend a European Union-Africa summit in December in Lisbon, triggering a boycott of the meeting by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. ”Yes, I’m going,” Mugabe was quoted on Tuesday as telling Portugal’s Lusa news agency in Mozambique.
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/ 25 November 2007
Two weeks from hosting the second-ever summit between Europe and Africa, Portugal is scrambling to ensure that Zimbabwe’s contentious presence does not eclipse the chance for a true partnership between the European Union and the world’s poorest continent.
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/ 19 October 2007
Former British prime minister Tony Blair would be a good choice as the European Union’s first full-time president, French and British leaders said on Friday while stressing that the job is not yet on offer. Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, praised Blair’s current role as international Middle East envoy, and said he would be a strong candidate for any similar high-profile role.
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/ 19 October 2007
European Union leaders voiced relief at clinching a deal on Friday on a treaty to reform the 27-nation bloc’s institutions, replacing a defunct constitution and ending a two-year crisis of confidence in Europe’s future. ”It’s an important page in the history of Europe,” Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said on arriving to chair the second day of an EU summit.
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/ 15 October 2007
The European Union should tell British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to ”shut up” on democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe ahead of an Africa-EU summit in December, Zimbabwe’s information minister said on Monday. Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said that Brown had no right to lecture Zimbabwe when he himself was ”running away” with power.
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/ 21 September 2007
Gordon Brown or Robert Mugabe? One won’t go to a summit between Europe and Africa in December, but the Portuguese hosts say the potential rewards of closer ties between the two continents outweigh the antagonism between the leaders of Britain and Zimbabwe.
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/ 18 September 2007
Sir Alex Ferguson will let Wayne Rooney off the leash as Manchester United start their Champions League challenge at Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday. Rooney has been sidelined since breaking a metatarsal bone in United’s first match of the season against Reading, but he is set to feature at the Jose Alvalade Stadium.
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/ 16 September 2007
Seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi, on a Yamaha, kept title-chasing Australian Casey Stoner on tenterhooks with victory in the Portuguese MotoGP on Sunday. Rossi came over the finish line just ahead of Dani Pedrosa after a tense battle with the Spaniard to claim just his fourth victory of the season.
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/ 13 September 2007
The European Union (EU) executive plans to encourage legal migration into Europe to plug labour shortages caused by a declining, ageing population, EU officials said on Thursday. Prime Minister José Sócrates of Portugal, urged support for the proposal, saying it was crucial to meet labour shortages and curb illegal immigration and people trafficking.
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/ 8 September 2007
Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter’s disappearance has riveted Europe, are shocked to have been declared suspects by Portuguese police, a spokesperson for the family said on Saturday. After questioning on Friday, police named both British parents as suspects in four-year-old Madeleine’s disappearence on May 3.
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/ 8 September 2007
Britain has warned fellow European Union nations that Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend a planned Europe-Africa summit if Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe does, diplomatic sources said on Saturday. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made London’s position clear on Friday during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers
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/ 7 September 2007
The mother of missing British girl Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in Portugal four months ago, will be formally declared a suspect on Friday, a spokesperson for the family said. The sudden shift in the investigation came after authorities received forensic evidence from the holiday apartment in the Algarve, where four-year-old Madeleine vanished on May 3.
The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan and Brazil’s statue of Christ the Redeemer are among the modern day seven wonders of the world chosen in a poll of 100-million online voters. The other four are Peru’s Machu Picchu, Mexico’s Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in India.
Portugal’s Foreign Minister Luis Amado said on Monday Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would not be welcome at a European Union-African Union summit being held in November in Lisbon. ”Personally I have no interest in Mugabe coming to Lisbon,” Amado said.
Portuguese authorities searching for missing girl Madeleine McCann have placed a British man under formal investigation in the case, Lusa news agency said on Tuesday. It quoted police as saying the suspect was Robert Murat (32), who was questioned late on Monday along with an unidentified German woman and a Portuguese man.
Portugal’s president on Tuesday ratified a new law permitting abortion up until the 10th week of pregnancy, but recommended a raft of measures that would discourage the procedure in the mostly Roman Catholic country. Parliament voted overwhelmingly last month to legalise abortion, scrapping previous tight restrictions.
The United States-based internet governing body rejected a proposal on Friday to create an adults-only zone on the internet, or a .xxx domain. Supporters of an .xxx domain argued it would make it easier to confine sex sites and filter them out. Opponents argued it would make pornography on the internet easier to find.
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/ 23 February 2007
At dawn exactly five years ago on Thursday, the founder and leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), Jonas Savimbi, was shot down in an ambush by the Angolan army. Five years later, Unita is a legal political party holding 70 seats in the 220-member Parliament.
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/ 22 February 2007
Chelsea emerged from a Champions League battle with FC Porto as favourites to reach the quarterfinals after a pulsating 1-1 draw in the first leg at the Estadio do Dragao. But the English champions’ night was marred by the sight of their captain and defensive lynchpin John Terry being stretchered off with what looked like a serious injury.
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/ 20 February 2007
The strength of Chelsea’s recent revival faces its first real test when the English champions take on their Portuguese counterparts, FC Porto, on Wednesday. Jose Mourinho returns to the club he guided to 2003 Uefa Cup and 2004 Champions League triumphs with a Chelsea squad that has put together a run of six successive wins.
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/ 13 February 2007
Portuguese midfielder Luis Figo said Monday that he plans on ending his top-level career when his Inter Milan contract runs out at the end of the year. ”My top-level career will end in Italy,” he told the media. ”That was my intention when I arrived in Italy two years ago. It’s my decision. I decided a long time ago not to come back to play in Portugal.”
Spain’s Carlos Sainz won the second stage of the Dakar Rally on Sunday, ahead of Mitsubishi’s Nani Roma and Luc Alphand. Sainz, driving for Volkswagen, clocked 59 minutes and 26 seconds, while Roma and Alphand both timed 59:55 to finish second and third respectively.
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/ 29 November 2006
A Portuguese pensioner caused mild commuter chaos in the city of Oporto this week when he unwittingly drove his car into the underground train network, Portuguese newspapers reported on Tuesday. Trains were suspended after security cameras clocked the disoriented driver sailing past a station through the railway tunnels meant for underground trains.
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/ 26 October 2006
More than 600kg of cocaine of unknown origin has washed up on Portuguese and Spanish beaches in the past month, the Lusa news agency reported on Thursday, quoting a Portuguese navy spokesperson. About 30 packages of 22kg each have been found, Commander Bras e Melo said, adding that they were thought to have been thrown overboard by drug-smugglers who panicked.
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/ 24 October 2006
A plane from Angolan state airline TAAG made an emergency landing on Monday in Lisbon just 15 minutes after taking off from the Portuguese capital due to technical problems, officials said. The Boeing 747, which was bound for the Angolan capital Luanda, landed safely at Portela airport, Portugal’s busiest, just before 7am (6am GMT).
Two teams planned to play Benfica on Sunday after a series of clashing soccer federation and court rulings threw the Portuguese league into chaos on its opening weekend. Benfica was originally scheduled to play Belenenses but Gil Vicente said on Saturday it would also show up at the Stadium of Light.
FC Porto striker Benni McCarthy is close to signing with English Premiership side Blackburn Rovers for three years, the South African international forward said in a newspaper interview. ”I’m sad because I’m leaving many friends behind at FC Porto … It was at FC Porto that I experienced success,” he told Tuesday’s daily newspaper Jornal de Noticias in Portugal.
Portuguese police on Tuesday captured a kangaroo that had been on the loose in suburban Lisbon for three days after escaping from a farm where it was being held illegally as a pet. Police received the first report that a kangaroo had been spotted on the streets of Sintra, about 30km north-west of Lisbon, on Sunday morning.
Michael Owen has declared himself fit to play in the World Cup after scoring twice in a practice match at England’s pre-tournament training camp in Portugal. Owen, who has played only one game since breaking a bone in his foot on New Year’s Eve, has been an injury doubt for the last five months.
A 62-year-old retired man plans to travel from his hometown in Portugal to Germany by bicycle in order to attend the 2006 World Cup, which gets underway on June 9. Jose Fortunato left Vila Franca de Xira, some 30km north-east of Lisbon, on Sunday and he expects to arrive in Munich, which will host the opening game of the 64-match tournament, on June 8.
With its unpaved roads often strewn with litter, the Cova da Moura slum on the outskirts of Lisbon has long been seen as Portugal’s byword for crime and decay — and a place to be avoided. But a local youth group is offering guided tours of the community in the hope of improving its reputation and bringing much-needed business to area shops and restaurants.