Telecom Italia agrees broadband test deal with Swisscom unit

Telecom Italia has signed an agreement with Swisscom unit Fastweb to test technologies that can bring ultra high speed broadband connections into Italian households using copper wires. Telecom Italia's current investment plan is centered on upgrading its existing network and the company has been resisting calls by government officials to develop a wholly new fiber optic network.

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Orange in talks with buyers of fiber assets to get Jazztel deal approved

By Leila Abboud and Gwénaëlle Barzic PARIS (Reuters) – Orange has begun talks with several potential buyers for parts of Jazztel's fiber network, which it has agreed to sell to get regulatory approval for the takeover of the Spanish broadband company. Nicolas Laederich, an executive who handles regulatory affairs and competition issues for the French telecoms group, said the divestment would be paired with a promise to rent out capacity on the company's fixed network to whoever buys the fiber assets

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Texas gunman had happy childhood in Pakistan but struggled in U.S.

By Katharine Houreld ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Nadir Soofi, a gunman shot dead after opening fire at a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, was a popular schoolboy in Pakistan but struggled to adjust to the United States after moving there as a teen, friends said on Tuesday. Soofi’s story appeared to trace a familiar arc for some Western Islamists – disappointment, alienation, and a search for belonging that ended with the embrace of militancy. Friends in Pakistan, who studied with Soofi at the elite International School of Islamabad, were stunned to discover that police had identified him as was one of the attackers.

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Sonia Gandhi slur prompts call for penalties against India’s sexist politicians

(This story corrects date of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in second paragraph to 1991) By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Indian politicians who make bigoted comments should be punished by their parties, activists said on Thursday, after a government minister became the latest parliamentarian to be accused of racism and sexism. Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh has under fire for remarks made in reference to Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of the opposition Congress party and widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991

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Tweet on Altera-Intel talks came after options trades

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK (Reuters) – A March 27 tweet sent the same minute as news broke that chipmaker Intel Corp was in talks to buy Altera Corp appeared to come after very timely trades in Altera's options by several seconds, according to Thomson Reuters data.

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