SETimes.comCulture and Sports: Albania honours Italian singer
10/06/2009
Albania honoured Italian singer Al Bano with the "Mother Teresa" award. Also in cultural news: a Romanian tennis player wins at doubles in the 2009 French Open, and Pristina is marking the 10th anniversary of NATO troops in Kosovo.
SOURCE
Italian singer Albano Carrisi, known as Al Bano, received Albania's "Mother Teresa" award on Monday (June 8th). Al Bano was awarded for promoting the values of humanity and freedom through his music. President Bamir Topi also presented him with an Al Bano statue as a symbol of Albanian friendship.
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Romanian tennis player Elena Bogdan, paired with Thailand's Thai Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, won the Girls' Doubles final at the 2009 French Open at Roland Garros on Saturday (June 6th). Bogdan and Lertcheewakarn won the final 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 against Timea Babos of Hungary and Heather Watson of the UK.
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Pristina will host the first edition of Freedom Festival to mark the 10th anniversary of the deployment of NATO troops to Kosovo on Friday (June 12th) and Saturday. Various local and international bands will perform in the suburbs of the capital, including Method Man and Redman, Zenzile from South Africa, Spasulati Band from Italy, GusGus from Iceland, and UK's Banco De Gaia.
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Macedonian actor Nikola Ristanovski and director Aleksandar Popovski won top honours at the Theatre Festival held between May 23rd and Friday (June 5th) in Novi Sad. Ristanovski was named the best male actor for his role of Ahmet Nuredin in the play "Dervish and Death". Popovski was acknowledged for his work in "Candid or Optimism".
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Magdalena Dzhanavarova, 21, won the third Bulgarian edition of the Music Idol singing talent contest Monday (June 8th). In the final, she beat out Bojan Stojkov, from Bitolja, Macedonia.
(Various sources – 03/06/09-10/06/09)