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World champs Italy snatch last-8 Euro berth

(CNN) — World champions Italy eliminated 10-man France from the European Championships on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory in Zurich that sent them into a quarterfinal clash against Spain.

Andrea Pirlo fired Italy in front following a 25th minute penalty award that saw Eric Abidal red-carded and they wrapped up second place in Group C thanks to Daniele De Rossi’s deflected 62-minute freekick.

Italy started the night bottom of their section, but Romania’s dreams of going through as runners-up were destroyed by the Netherlands who maintained their 100 percent record with a 2-0 win.

However, Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso are both ruled out of the Spain game in Vienna on Sunday after picking up their second bookings of the tournament.

France suffered a huge blow after seven minutes when Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery was carried off after landing awkwardly on his left ankle when challenging Gianluca Zambrotta.

Marseille playmaker Samir Nasri came on as a replacement, with Ribery clearly in a lot of pain.

Moments later, Les Bleus had Claude Makelele to thank for clearing Christian Panucci’s header off the line following an Andrea Pirlo corner.

The impressive Pirlo was orchestrating Italy from midfield and it was he who put the world champions in front in the 25th minute from the penalty spot with France reduced to 10-men.

Pirlo’s ball down the middle to Luca Toni was inch-perfect but the striker was brought down by Eric Abidal’s clumsy challenge in the box.

The Barcelona defender was the last man and was given a straight red card — and French misery was compounded when Pirlo drove home from the spot.

Abidal had been drafted into the starting line-up in place of Barcelona defender Lilian Thuram, France’s most capped player, who had reportedly asked to be left out of the side.

Abidal’s sending-off forced coach Raymond Domenech into another change, Nasri — whose substitute’s appearance lasted all of 18 minutes — being replaced by centre-back Jean-Alain Boumsong.

France were struggling to cope and Toni should have been making them pay. First, he flicked Daniele De Rossi’s right-wing cross just wide and then dragged a shot off target when well placed 15 meters out.

Henry was ploughing a lonely furrow up front, with strike partner Karim Benzema now operating on the left wing. But the Barcelona striker came close to levelling the scores when he ran on to Jeremy Toulalan’s through-ball before sending an angled shot just wide.

Fabio Grosso came within inches of doubling Italy’s lead in the 43rd minute when Coupet brilliantly tipped the left-back’s free-kick against the post.

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Frings and Podolski are German Euro doubts

TENERO, Switzerland (AP) — Germany could be without top scorer Lukas Podolski and key midfielder Torsten Frings when they face Portugal in the European Championship quarterfinals on Thursday.

Podolski, arguably Germany’s best player so far at the tournament, has a calf injury. Frings suffered a fractured rib, the German football federation said Tuesday.

There is a big question mark over Lukas, coach Joachim Loew said Tuesday at Germany’s training base in southern Switzerland.

Podolski has three goals in the finals, but failed to find the target in the 1-0 win over Austria on Monday that secured Germany’s place in the last eight and was eventually substituted.

Frings was injured in the second half but finished the match. After complaining of pain, he went for X-rays at the nearby Lugano hospital later Tuesday.

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Iraq war sends refugee numbers soaring, U.N. warns

(CNN) — The Iraqi and Afghan conflicts have spurred an increase in refugees, and the number of Iraqis internally displaced has grown, according to a U.N. refugee agency survey.

After a five-year decline in the number of refugees between 2001 and 2005, we have now seen two years of increases, and that’s a concern, said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.

The number of refugees under the responsibility of the UNHCR rose from 9.9 million at the end of 2006 to 11.4 million by the end of 2007, according to the annual report issued Tuesday.

There are 3 million Afghan refugees, mostly in Pakistan and Iran, and 2 million Iraqi refugees, mostly in Syria and Jordan, the UNHCR said in its Global Trends annual survey. They account for nearly half of all refugees under UNHCR care.

Much of the increase in refugees in 2007 was a result of the volatile situation in Iraq, the agency said.

The agency said the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center shows that the number of people internally displaced has increased from 24.4 million to 26 million. The UNHCR provides help or protection for 13.7 million of them.

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China’s flood death toll grows

BEIJING, China (CNN) — The death toll from floods in China’s south climbed to 169 on Tuesday, as the government warned that torrential rains would continue through the week.

The weekend flooding has affected 38.5 million people in 20 provinces and caused economic losses of $1.5 billion (10.6 billion yuan), according to state-run media.

Authorities said torrential rain was expected to pound the region for another 10 days, raising water levels further, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. The storms will likely flood the 5,500-km (3,417-mile) Yellow River and hinder rescue efforts across China, state newspaper China Daily reported.

The flood has hit nine provinces the hardest — including Sichuan, which is still reeling from the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck southwestern China on May 12.

Floods have destroyed 45,000 houses, damaged 140,000 more and ruined crops on 920,000 acres, state media said. Watch the devastating effect of the floodwaters

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Chiquita stock plunges 29 percent

CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) — Shares of Chiquita Brands International Inc. tumbled 29 percent Monday after the banana and fresh fruit producer projected bleak third-quarter results.

The Cincinnati-based company said it expects to report a significant loss in its third quarter as the cost of fuel and fertilizer continues to rise.

It did not say how big the loss will be, but analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting a profit of 3 cents a share for the third quarter.

Chiquita’s stock dropped $6.68 to $16.65. Chiquita shares earlier this month hit a 52-week high of $25.77; their low for the year is $13.31.

The company said its product supply costs have increased substantially just as prices have begun to moderate in Europe and reflect normal seasonal trends.

Volumes for the past two months have either been flat or down because of bad weather in Central America and Ecuador, which has constrained supply and increased sourcing costs.

We expect these factors to result in a difficult third quarter, which is likely to reflect a significant loss, and a more normal fourth quarter, Fernando Aguirre, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

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