ROME

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.