Sunday, July 9, 2006

Italy converted five immaculate penalties to win the 2006 FIFA World Cup after a drawn game and thirty minutes of extra-time in the spectacular arena of the Olympiastadion Berlin, Sunday.

French captain Zinedine Zidane did not help his team when, 20 minutes into extra time, he lost control of his emotions and got a red card after ramming his head into the chest of Italian player Marco Materazzi.

The game was closely contested with the play makers on both sides – Andrea Pirlo and Zidane, on his last game before retirement – not getting much space with which to dominate the play. For Italy and France Gennaro Gattuso and Claude Makelele tackled hard.

However; both creative midfield stars made important contributions to the only goals of the game. Zidane converted a chipped penalty after five minutes while Pirlo’s magnificent corner, a quarter of an hour later, thundered into the net off Marco Materazzi’s head.

Materazzi had previously conceded the penalty when he tapped Florent Malouda on his ankle as he ran past him in the penalty area.

In the first half Italy’s left and right defensive backs Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Grosso penetrated down the French flanks. But after the break France came out the strongest. The flow of the game was disrupted when Patrick Viera pulled-up injured and Marcello Lippi made two substitutions on the hour. A deadlock resulted as teams tired and individuals battled for every ball without thinking too hard about constructing team attacks.

Materazzi was never far from the action in the final and though Italy had 55 percent of ball possession was one of the busier players on the pitch. France were slightly more potent offensively with 13 shots – out-shooting the Azzurri by eight attempts.

In Extra Time France came closest to a goal – Zidane, unmarked, headed to goal from 12 yards but was tipped over one-handed by Gianluigi Buffon.

Zidane’s next contribution to the game was not so graceful and appeared to be sparked by the close marking of the ubiquitous Materazzi. After a verbal altercation the 34-year-old turned around and drove his head violently into the Italian’s upper chest.

Materazzi was knocked backwards on the floor but the incident occurred off the ball and was not immediately noticed by the referee or his assistants. Buffon soon ran out of his penalty area to an assistant referee and the game was stopped.

Horacio Elizondo ran to the touchline to consult with officials and returned waving a red card for the violent conduct of Zidane. It is likely FIFA used information from fourth and fifth official to confirm the decision. However FIFA denied video evidence claims alleged by France team’s coach Raymond Domenech^[1].

The headbutt and red card was Zidane’s last action in football as he had said he would retire after the tournament.

A penalty shootout was necessary to decide the winner. Eight shots went in; David Trezeguet missed the one that mattered. His shot hit the crossbar and unlike Zidane’s penalty in the first half, bounced down inches the wrong side of the goal line.

While Zidane was hanging his boots up Marco Materazzi scored Italy’s third. Grosso, who in the second round had won a last minute penalty against Australia, powered in the fifth to give Italy the cup.

The only goal Marcello Lippi’s Italy conceded during free play in the tournament proved to be an own goal from Cristian Zaccardo against the United States of America.

Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro, on the occasion of his 100th cap, was instrumental in their defensive achievement. Amid wild scenes of joy on the pitch he jumped onto the podium and lifted the trophy, the fourth of Italy’s history.

Post match celebrations

Following the match the streets and plazas of Italy were filled with celebrating fans, with flags waving from thousands of cars and motorbikes.

• Celebrations in Florence for the winning penalty
• Celebrations on the streets of Florence after the win by Italy

[edit]

Thursday, September 13, 2012

London, England — The Australia national wheelchair rugby team defeated Canada 66–51 to win Australia’s last gold medal of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

The Canadian team had no answer to Ryley Batt, who scored 37 goals. Ryley out-paced, out-maneuvered, and out-scored his opponents. Before the game he skylarked by riding his wheelchair on one wheel. The commentator called him “Houdini” for escaping any attempt to restrain him. He did share the ball with the rest of the team. Australia’s Chris Bond contributed 15 goals towards Australia’s scoreline.

By contrast, the Australian defenders held Canada’s Garett Hickling to just seven goals. At one point two Australian defenders trapped him in a corner, unable to move, which he appeared to find very frustrating.

Spectators included the Australian Chef de Mission, Jason Hellwig, and his deputies, Michael Hartung and Kate McLoughlin. The rugby team’s gold medal brought Australia’s count to 32, and the total medals to 85, putting Australia in fifth place.

The team’s gold medals were presented by HRH The Earl of Wessex. The Canadian team received flowers from Stephen Fry.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Apple Inc. today has introduced the much-anticipated iPhone at the Macworld Conference in San Francisco.

The iPhone is claimed to be “a revolutionary mobile phone” as stated on the Apple website. The device appears to be running a mobile version of the Apple operating system Mac OSX. It is approximately the same size as a 5th generation iPod, it has a 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen display that is used to access all features of the phone including number dial, as well as making phone calls. The iPhone plays music, movies, displays pictures and is able to connect to a wireless network.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the device by walking onto the stage and taking the iPhone out of his jeans pocket. During his 2 hour speech he stated that “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone, We are going to make history today”.

Today Apple also released their Media Center device – Apple TV. It will directly compete with Microsoft’s Media Center operating system. Apple has taken a different approach to the media center market; rather than storing content (such as movies, music and photos) on the device, Apple TV connects to a computer (Mac and Windows) over a wirless network connection and plays all content stored on that computer. This makes it substantially easier for users to organize their media content.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Homebush Bay, New South Wales — Last night, the Australia men’s national wheelchair basketball team beat Japan 80–49 in their final game of pool play at the Rollers & Gliders World Challenge taking place at at the Sport Centre at the Sydney Olympic Park and are through to the first place match.

The contrast between the two teams was seen in their wheels: almost every Australian player had a four wheeled chair that gave them increased stability while every single Japanese player had three wheels, which gave them great maneuverability. Japan played the aggressor throughout the match, with several players aggressively blocking with wheelchair on wheelchair contact. Both sides were loud, chanting defense, defense, defense when their side was on that side of the court.

The first quarter was closely fought, with Japan racking up 5 by 5:54 left in the first. They successfully took a lead of 17–16 by the end of the first quarter. They were unable to hold the lead, with Australia holding a 40–24 lead at the end of the first half. Australia’s lead at the end of the third was 61–34. While Japan increased their total points in the fourth quarter, they failed to defend against Australia who continued to answer back basket for basket for the game to end 80–49.

Australia plays in the first place match later today. Their London Paralympic campaign starts on August 30 against South Africa.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Wikinews interviewed Australian painter Pricasso on his unique artwork created using his penis, and how his art relates to freedom of expression and issues of censorship. He is to be featured at the upcoming adult entertainment event Sexpo Australia in Melbourne this November 5 to November 8.

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Recently emerging evidence seems to contradict a statement by United States President George W. Bush during Hurricane Katrina. He stated in an interview with ABC on September 1st that, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees”.

One of the first items to emerge, a video obtained by the Associated Press, shows footage of Bush during a video-conference received at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on August 29, 2005, 19 hours before landfall of Hurricane Katrina. During the briefing, Director of the National Hurricane Center Max Mayfield warned, “I don’t think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether levees will be topped or not, but there is obviously a very, very great concern”.

In addition, Michael D. Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), reported that he had spoken with President Bush twice in the morning and that the president was asking about reports that the levees had been breached.

Brown would state later on CNN that, “There’s no question in my mind he probably had those reports (about breaches in the levees), because we were feeding in the Homeland Security Operations Center, into the White House sit room, all of the information that we were getting. So he had to have had that information. Plus, I think the president knew from our earlier conversations that that was one of my concerns, that the levees could actually breach”.[1]

In July 2004, the Federal Emergency Management Agency completed an exercise called “Hurricane Pam”, which, dealt with the scenario of a direct hit on New Orleans by a hurricane with 120 mph winds (a Category 3). It resulted in “10 to 20 feet of water within the City of New Orleans,” according to January 24 congressional testimony by the president of the company that designed the Hurricane Pam exercise.[2]

A report FEMA sent to the White House Situation Room on August 29th, they cited death and destruction anticipated by the “Hurricane Pam” exercise and warned that Katrina was likely to be worse. “Exercise projection is exceeded by Hurricane Katrina real-life impacts,” they stated. Furthermore, “The potential for severe storm surge to overwhelm Lake Pontchartrain levees is the greatest concern for New Orleans. Any storm rated Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson (hurricane) scale will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching. This could leave the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months”.[3]

When the report was released, Hurricane Katrina was thought to be a Category 4 as of landfall (though after analysis, it’s power at landfall would be downgraded to a Category 3).[4]

White House officials previously clarified Bush’s earlier comment, saying that the president was referring to the hours after Katrina swept through and news reports as of August 30th suggested the city had “dodged a bullet”, which led to surprise when reports reached them of the levee breaches.[5][6] Contrasting this was the August 30th broadcast of NBC’s Today, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams reported at 7:05 a.m. ET, “There has been a huge development overnight … the historic French Quarter, dry last night and it is now filling with water. This is water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain; the levees failed overnight.”[7]