African Immigrants in Italy: Slave Labor for the Mafia

Xenophobes in homogenous European countries often complain that immigrants will erase their most precious cultural norms. The race riots in southern Italy last weekend may be one indicator that change is inevitable, as African immigrants who don’t live by the country’s infamous omert code of silence violently protested against the powerful Mafia clans that control their lives, says Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah, an anti-Mob book that earned him both critical praise and a 24-hour police guard.

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Rio’s 2016 bid boosted by IOC evaluation

Rio de Janeiro’s chances of becoming the first South American city to host the Olympics received a boost when the IOC published its evaluation of the four contenders for the 2016 Games on Wednesday. Rio is competing with Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo for the right to stage the 2016 Summer Olympics, with the final decision being made in Copenhagen on October 2.

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Lorenzo capitalizes on Rossi’s U.S. crash

Jorge Lorenzo kept the MotoGP title race alive with victory at the Indianapolis Grand Prix on Sunday as world champion Valentino Rossi crashed out. Rossi saw his lead halved to 25 points with five races remaining as the Italian failed to finish for the first time since 2007. He went down on lap nine of 28 when battling for the lead with Yamaha teammate Lorenzo, and was able to remount — but then had to retire two laps later due to his damaged motorcycle

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Teen sailor breaks world solo record

The youngest person to sail solo around the world returned home Thursday from his 30,000-mile, 282-day ocean journey. Mike Perham, 17, sailed into Lizard Point in Cornwall, the southernmost point in Britain, at 9:47 a.m., his race team said. “It feels absolutely brilliant,” Mike told CNN by phone hours before crossing the finish line

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Bolt claims third gold in Jamaican relay win

Usain Bolt completed his hat-trick of sprint titles at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin as he helped the all-conquering Jamaican side power to victory in the men’s 4x100m relay final. Bolt ran the third leg, handing off to individual bronze medallist Asafa Powell, as Olympic champions Jamaica took gold in a new championship record of 37.31 seconds. Jamaica had rested Bolt and Powell in the heats and were always red-hot favorites to win

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Rejuvenated Hamilton leads McLaren one-two

World champion Lewis Hamilton claimed his first pole position of the season as McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for Sunday’s European Formula One Grand Prix in Valencia. The Briton, fresh from winning his first race of the season last time out in Hungary, posted a time of one minute 38.498 seconds to beat team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to top spot by less than a tenth of a second.

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Record-holder Radcliffe pulls out of marathon

Record-holder Paula Radcliffe has decided against trying to win back her marathon title at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Sunday. The 35-year-old has pulled out of the British team despite her victory in last weekend’s New York City half-marathon, which was supposed to test her fitness following her return from foot surgery

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