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A fugitive on the run for years is arrested when he turns up at the Olympics to watch hockey

ROME (AP) — A Slovak fugitive who had been on the run for 16 years was finally arrested when he turned up in Milan to support his national ice hockey team at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, police said Friday.

The 44-year-old man, who was not named, was wanted by Italian authorities for a series of thefts committed in 2010.

The carabinieri managed to track down and arrest the man Wednesday after he checked into a campsite in the outskirts of Milan, thanks to an automatic alert from the campsite reception.

The fugitive was then taken to Milan’s San Vittore prison to serve a pending sentence of 11 months and 7 days, according to the carabinieri, Italy’s military police.

The man did not manage to see the opening game in which Slovakia’s hockey team beat Finland with a sound 4-1 at Milan’s Santagiulia Arena on Wednesday.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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