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Villarreal lose ground after draw

MADRID, Spain — Villarreal, lying third in the Spanish Primera Liga, failed to make up ground on second-placed Barcelona when they were held to a goalless draw at home to Racing Santander on Sunday.

They had long periods of domination but their wastefulness was exemplified by a 49th minute penalty miss by striker Giuseppe Rossi.

Villarreal now trail Barca by eight points on 43 and the Catalans are still five behind leaders Real Madrid.

Real saw their advantage trimmed on Saturday when they lost 2-1 at Real Betis while Barcelona beat Real Zaragoza 2-1.

Bottom club Levante claimed their fourth win of the season when they came from behind to defeat Osasuna 2-1, but they are still seven points adrift of the rest.

Racing’s draw at Villarreal enabled Almeria to climb above them to seventh by extending their unbeaten run to seven matches with a 1-0 win over struggling Real Murcia.

Uruguayan defender Martin Caceres headed an 88th minute winner for Recreativo Huelva, who came from a goal down to beat Deportivo Coruna 3-2 . E-mail to a friend

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UK crisis bank Northern Rock to be nationalized

LONDON, England (CNN) — Troubled British bank Northern Rock, which has been hit hard by the credit crunch, is to be nationalized UK finance minister Alistair Darling confirmed Sunday.

Darling, speaking at a hastily convened press conference in London Sunday afternoon, said he would introduce legislation to implement the temporary public ownership in UK parliament Monday. Shares in the bank are to be suspended before markets open Monday morning.

Northern Rock — Britain’s fifth-largest mortgage lender — got into difficulties last September after becoming especially vulnerable to the fallout from the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis.

It received an emergency loan from the Bank of England, leading worried Northern Rock customers to withdraw more than $4 billion in Britain’s first bank run in more than a century.

So far Northern Rock has received loans and guarantees totaling more than 55 billion ($108 billion) from the UK government.

Darling said that two private sector bids — an in-house management team and a consortium led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group — did not deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

The decision means that the bank will now be taken into public ownership — but Darling said that the bank would be managed at arm’s length and still operate as a normal commercial business.

He added that Goldman Sachs had recommended that in the circumstances a temporary period of public ownership was the best option. He also said that UK financial watchdog the Financial Services Authority had said that the business was solvent and that its mortgage book was of good quality. E-mail to a friend

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Kosovo prepares for first independence day

PRISTINA, Kosovo (CNN) — Kosovo’s parliament meets Sunday afternoon to officially declare the province’s independence from Serbia, a move opposed by Serbia and Russia but supported by many western governments.

CNN’s Alessio Vinci, reporting from the Kosovar capital Pristina, said that the plan is for Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci to read out the independence declaration, which is written in Albanian, Serbian and English, to parliament before lawmakers pass it unanimously.

Vinci added that Kosovo’s Albanian population were already singing and dancing in the streets as well as lighting firecrackers ahead of the much anticipated vote. It’s been like this for several hours now, he said.

President George Bush said Sunday that Kosovo’s status must be resolved before the Balkans can become stable and that the United States supports the Ahtisaari plan which calls for a form of supervised independence.

The European Union decided Saturday to launch a mission of about 2,000 police and judicial officers to replace the United Nations mission that has been controlling the province since the end of the war with Serbia in 1999.

Kosovo has been under U.N. supervision and patrolled by a NATO-led peacekeeping force since the end of the three-month war, in which NATO warplanes pounded Serbia to roll back a campaign of ethnic cleansing of the province’s Albanian population under former then-President Slobodan Milosevic.

The disputed province is dear to the Serbs, Orthodox Christians who regard it as Serbian territory. But it is equally coveted by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, Muslims who have a 90 percent majority, and two years of talks on its final status ended in failure last December.

Its status must be resolved in order for the Balkans to be stable, President Bush told reporters during a news conference in Tanzania Sunday.

Bush said the Ahtisaari plan — named after former Finnish President Marti Ahtisaari — is the best option. The proposal would give Kosovo limited statehood under international supervision.

President Bush added that it’s in Serbia’s interest to be aligned with Europe and the Serbian people can know that they have a friend in America. Watch the changing political climate in the Balkans

We are heartened by the fact that the Kosovo government has clearly proclaimed its willingness and its desire to support Serbian rights in Kosovo, Bush said.

Thaci said Thursday he would establish a new government office for minorities and it would protect the rights of minorities after the province declares independence.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has promised his country will refrain from using force against Kosovo after independence, though he has warned that Serbia will take punitive diplomatic, political, and economic measures against the province.

Russia — Serbia’s historic ally — has remain opposed to Kosovo’s independence. Russia, which has fought two wars against separatist rebels in its southwestern republic of Chechnya, has Monday that U.S. and European support for Kosovo’s independence could lead to an uncontrollable crisis in the Balkans.

The EU said Saturday that around 1,900 international police officers, judges, prosecutors and customs officials and approximately 1,100 local staff will be based in headquarters in Pristina or located throughout the judicial and police system in Kosovo.

The EU mission’s objective is to support the Kosovo authorities by monitoring, mentoring and advising on all areas related to the rule of law, in particular in the police, judiciary, customs and correctional services, it said.

In 1999 the international, NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) began providing security for the Serbian province.

KFOR is fully determined to maintain a safe and secure environment for the times to come. KFOR is almost fully deployed and we will still increase our level of activities for the next couple of days, said Lt. Gen. Xavier Bout de Marnhac, KFOR commander.

I just want to state very strongly that KFOR will react and will oppose any kind of provocation that might happen during these days, wherever they come from — either from the Albanian or the Serbian side. And we will react very strongly to any kind of those provocations, he said Saturday.
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Car bomb kills 37 ahead of Pakistan vote

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A car bomb killed 37 people and wounded 93 Saturday in northern Pakistan when it exploded in front of an election office of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, the Pakistani Interior Ministry said.

The bombing comes two days before Pakistan’s much-delayed parliamentary elections.

Some of those killed were workers for the PPP, which opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto led before her assassination in December.

The blast occurred in Parachinar as a PPP rally was ending and people were gathering for refreshments, said retired Brig. Gen. Javed Iqbal Cheema, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

PPP parliamentary candidate Riaz Hussein was using the office, according to party spokesman Nazir Dhoki. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A series of other blasts rocked Pakistan’s northwest tribal region Saturday. Injuries were reported but no deaths.

Pakistani voters are to go to the polls Monday to choose a new parliament in an election delayed, first by an emergency declaration in early November, then by Bhutto’s slaying. Watch how distrust pervades Pakistan’s election process

A string of suicide bombings has plagued the election season, including one in Rawalpindi late last year that killed Bhutto.

Parachinar is in the Kurram district of one of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, long havens for foreign fighters. The town is about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the Afghan border.

Also Saturday, two bombings in Khar, a town also in the region, caused no deaths or injuries, police said.

In Mingora, two explosions targeting a police station and the front gate of the army’s media center wounded seven people Saturday, military and police said.

And two blasts from roadside bombs occurred in western Pakistan’s Quetta near the Afghan border, police said.

President Pervez Musharraf’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q is losing ground in opinion polls while the opposition is building a large lead, The Associated Press reported.

Opposition candidates fear Musharraf will rig the vote results to head off an opposition majority that could impeach him, according to the AP.

Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog group, said last week that the election can’t be considered impartial because Pakistan’s Election Commission hasn’t acted on allegations of irregularities.

The structure of the commission, which has wide powers to investigate complaints and take action, also suggests it will not rule fairly in the election, the group’s report said.

Musharraf has said that no post-election protests will be tolerated, but he has tried to reassure voters, saying that despite all rumors, insinuations and every type of apprehension, these elections will be free, fair, transparent and peaceful, according to the AP.
found here.

Car bomb kills 37 ahead of Pakistan vote

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A car bomb killed 37 people and wounded 93 Saturday in northern Pakistan when it exploded in front of an election office of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, the Pakistani Interior Ministry said.

The bombing comes two days before Pakistan’s much-delayed parliamentary elections.

Some of those killed were workers for the PPP, which opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto led before her assassination in December.

The blast occurred in Parachinar as a PPP rally was ending and people were gathering for refreshments, said retired Brig. Gen. Javed Iqbal Cheema, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

PPP parliamentary candidate Riaz Hussein was using the office, according to party spokesman Nazir Dhoki. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A series of other blasts rocked Pakistan’s northwest tribal region Saturday. Injuries were reported but no deaths.

Pakistani voters are to go to the polls Monday to choose a new parliament in an election delayed, first by an emergency declaration in early November, then by Bhutto’s slaying. Watch how distrust pervades Pakistan’s election process

A string of suicide bombings has plagued the election season, including one in Rawalpindi late last year that killed Bhutto.

Parachinar is in the Kurram district of one of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, long havens for foreign fighters. The town is about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the Afghan border.

Also Saturday, two bombings in Khar, a town also in the region, caused no deaths or injuries, police said.

In Mingora, two explosions targeting a police station and the front gate of the army’s media center wounded seven people Saturday, military and police said.

And two blasts from roadside bombs occurred in western Pakistan’s Quetta near the Afghan border, police said.

President Pervez Musharraf’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q is losing ground in opinion polls while the opposition is building a large lead, The Associated Press reported.

Opposition candidates fear Musharraf will rig the vote results to head off an opposition majority that could impeach him, according to the AP.

Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog group, said last week that the election can’t be considered impartial because Pakistan’s Election Commission hasn’t acted on allegations of irregularities.

The structure of the commission, which has wide powers to investigate complaints and take action, also suggests it will not rule fairly in the election, the group’s report said.

Musharraf has said that no post-election protests will be tolerated, but he has tried to reassure voters, saying that despite all rumors, insinuations and every type of apprehension, these elections will be free, fair, transparent and peaceful, according to the AP.
found here.