Kobe Bryant has been offered a one-year, $6.7 million contract to play for the Italian team Virtus Bologna. The offer would allow Bryant to return to the Lakers immediately if the N.B.A. lockout ended. SPORTS BRIEFING | BASKETBALL...
It was shaping up to be the kind of visit to New York that tourists from around the world dream of. The two Italian couples and their teenage sons -- all of them longtime friends -- stayed at the Paramount Hotel amid the sparkling chaos of Times Square. They shopped. They were having fun, they told the folks back home. A centerpiece of the trip --...

FOR centuries, the northwest corner of old Bologna was an industrial zone, home to slaughterhouses, salt works and tobacco factories. But now the once neglected neighborhood, a 15-minute walk from the city center, is churning out a new commodity: art. With a new museum, film center and concert hall, the wedge-shaped area -- bounded roughly by Via...
Bologna er hovedstad i Emilia-Romagna-regionen i det centrale Italien. Byen er grundlagt af etruskerne omkring 534 f.Kr. under navnet Felsina. I det 16. århundrede kom byen under Pavestaten.
Bologna er kendt for sit universitet, der er grundlagt i 1088 og dermed det ældste i Europa. Universitetet gjorde, at der var et stort behov for billige boliger i byen. Derfor opstod byens karakteristiske overdækkede fortove, idet det forøgede areal ved at bygge førstesalen større end stueetagen var "gratis".
Byen er kendt for sit fodboldhold og for at lægge areal til Lamborghini-fabrikkerne.
Bologna har i dag 374.000 indbyggere, heraf en stor del studerende.