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United top again as Ronaldo strikes

LONDON, England — Cristiano Ronaldo finally converted after a string of chances to lift Manchester United back to the top of the English Premier League with a 1-0 win at rock-bottom Derby County on Saturday.

With his ninth of an astonishing 11 chances overall in the game, and in the 76th minute, Ronaldo finally broke Derby’s brave resistance as he scored expertly from a Wayne Rooney pass.

It left United leading on goal difference from Arsenal who were held 1-1 at home by Middlesbrough in the late kick off.

Jeremie Aliadiere scored in the 26th minute against his old club to put Boro ahead with Kolo Toure heading a last-gasp equalizer from a Cesc Fabregas corner with four minutes remaining.

Middlesbrough had striker Mido sent off for a high challenge on Gael Clichy but Arsenal could not take advantage in the dying moments.

Arsenal, who have drawn their last four league games, have played a game more than United.

The result is disappointing and I don’t think we got the result we deserved, said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

We played against a side who ed very deep and defended very well. We were caught on the first goal and then it became very difficult, he added.

Chelsea scored a 1-0 win at relegation-haunted Sunderland with captain John Terry grabbing the only goal of the game after 10 minutes.

It leaves Avram Grant’s men only three points adrift of champions United and firmly in the title race.

Liverpool, the final member of England’s ‘big four’, came from a goal down to beat battling Reading 2-1 at Anfield.

Relegation-battlers Reading took the lead at Anfield after five minutes when Czech Marek Matejovsky scored from a brilliant volley.

Liverpool equalized in the 19th when Javier Mascherano lashed a similarly superb effort into the top corner for his first goal for the club.

Spanish striker Fernando Torres scored his 27th goal of the season and 20th in the league in the 48th minute, heading in from a free kick from Gerrard to wrap up the three points.

They lead Merseyside rivals Everton, who play at Fulham on Sunday, by three points having played a game more but with a far superior goal difference.

Elsewhere, Portsmouth continued their good run of form since beating Manchester United in the FA Cup quarterfinals by beating Aston Villa 2-0 in the battle for UEFA Cup places.

Jermain Defoe scored his sixth goal for Portsmouth since moving from Tottenham in January in the 11th minute, when he chipped the ball over advancing Villa goalkeeper Scott Carson.

Portsmouth went up 2-0 in the 38th through an own-goal from Nigel Reo-Coker.

West Ham had lost their three previous league games by a 4-0 scoreline, but beat Blackburn 2-1 with youngster Fred Sears’ marking his senior debut with the winner in the 81st minute.

Derby, who have won just one Premier League game all season after their surprise promotion, rode their luck at Pride Park as United duly dominated the opening proceedings.

Ryan Giggs sent a header into the arms of Derby goalkeeper Roy Carroll and sent another two shots wide, Ronaldo curled a chance wide and struck the post and Wayne Rooney had a shot saved.

But Derby forced United goalkeeper Ben Foster into two saves near the end of the half, stopping shots from Mile Sterjovski and Kenny Miller.

It was Foster’s first start since he joined the club in July 2005 because Edwin van der Sar was sidelined with a groin injury and second-choice Tomasz Kuszczak was suspended.

Carroll, who played at United between 2001 and 2005, stopped Ronaldo’s free kick and a header in the space of a minute in the second half and the Portuguese winger then sent a free kick wide before he finally scored.

He took a cross from Rooney and volleyed the ball past Carroll for his 22nd league goal and 31st overall this season

I think the league now is bubbling up very nicely, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said before Arsenal played. It should be a fantastic finish to the season. E-mail to a friend

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4 dead, 170 injured in Albania blast

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A massive explosion at an Albanian army ammunition dump near Tirana has killed at least four people and injured more than 170 people, including many children. The country’s prime minister says he believes there could be many dead.

The office of Prime Minister Sali Berisha says that four people have been found dead near the site of the explosion. Earlier, Berisha said that it seems the number of the dead is considerable.

The initial blast set off a series of explosions, and ammunition is continuing to detonate. Health Minister Nard Ndoka says about 170 people, including many children, have been injured.

Berisha, a cardiologist, visited victims in hospitals in Tirana and said at least four of those injured were in serious condition. He said most of the injured were suffering from burns and psychological shock.

The army depot, which is used as a site for destroying excess ammunition, is at Gerdec village, about six miles north of the capital, Tirana. The blast was heard more than 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, and people fled from nearby villages.

Flights were suspended at Mother Teresa Tirana International Airport for at least 30 minutes.

The problem of ammunition in Albania is one of the gravest, and a continuous threat, Berisha said. There is a colossal, a crazy amount of them since 1945 until now. I do not exclude human error, he said about Saturday’s blast, but added that the ammunition could have exploded spontaneously because of its age.

Interior Minister Bujar Nishani said 25 people living near the depot had taken shelter in a tunnel used to store tanks, and that army and police armored vehicles were sent to rescue them.

We are closely following the situation and everything is under control, Nishani told reporters.

President Bamir Topi, speaking on Albanian television, called for calm, to avoid panic and chaos.

Albin Mecaj, 22, who works at the depot, told the AP by telephone that about 80 people had been working on destroying ammunition at the time of the explosion. Mecaj, who was badly burned in the blast, said that usually about 120 people are working there.

Houses more than a mile away were damaged by the blast, an AP photographer at the scene said. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Hardliners surge ahead in Iranian vote

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hardliners allied with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the lead in Iran’s parliamentary elections, according to partial results early Saturday, but reformists showed strength in some cities where the clerical leadership allowed them to compete.

Reformist leaders pushed for Iranians to vote Friday, hoping to prevent a sweep by Ahmadinejad allies after the country’s clerics threw many liberal candidates out of the race.

Results early Saturday from 32 contests — a fraction of the 290 seats at stake — showed the hard-liners winning 19 seats, reformists eight and moderate conservatives five, according to results compiled from local officials speaking to The Associated Press and reports from the official IRNA and semi-official Fars news agencies.

Nearly half the seats won by hard-liners so far were in districts where no reformist candidates were running — a sign of the impact after reformist ranks were dramatically cut by the cleric-led Guardian Council. The returns, mostly from smaller towns, were insufficient to determine any solid trend. Watch Iranians vote for new parliament .

Reformist candidates were running in only about half of the races nationwide, according to nationwide lists of candidates, though some reformist leaders earlier said they were in 90 races. The unelected Guardian Council rejected some 1,700 candidates, most reformists, on grounds of insufficient loyalty to Islam or Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Many Iranians who support liberal reforms spent Friday deliberating with friends and family, going back and forth between two options: vote and give legitimacy to an election many of them saw as unfair, or boycott and ensure an even stronger conservative domination of parliament.

In the end, Hesam Javadi, a 30-year-old computer technician, voted.

We can’t stop the rain, he said after casting his ballot for reformists at a north Tehran polling station. But we can at least put an umbrella over our heads in self-defense.

IRNA quoted Interior Ministry officials as saying that the turnout was estimated between 55 to 65 percent, up from the 51 percent in 2004 elections. Some 44 million Iranians of over 18 years of age across the country were eligible to vote.

Reformists are hoping a strong turnout can win them a large enough minority bloc in parliament to at least have an impact. The outgoing parliament has about 40 reformists.

Perhaps the more crucial test will be of Ahmadinejad’s support among conservatives. Some have become disillusioned with the president since he came to office in 2005 and have formed a slate of candidates competing against a list of supporters of the president.

If they do well, it could raise the chances Ahmadinejad will face a challenge from moderate conservatives in presidential elections next year. Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, often touted as a possible candidate for president, is said to back the list of Ahmadinejad’s critics.

In one key race, Ali Larijani — the former top nuclear negotiator, who stepped down after differences with Ahmadinejad — won a seat in the clerical city of Qom, the Fars news agency said. Some have speculated the conservative Larijani will run for president in 2009.

Conservative critics say Ahmadinejad has fumbled efforts to fix the economy of this oil-rich nation — hit by high inflation and unemployment and fuel shortages. They blame his fiery manner for worsening the standoff with the West, bringing on U.N. sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program. They say he too harshly rejects input from moderate conservatives.

Ahead of the vote, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who holds final say in all state matters in Iran — appeared to give his support to the Ahmadinejad camp. He urged Iranians to elect the candidates the United States opposes and whose loyalties are to Islam and justice.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack criticized the elections, saying in essence the results … are cooked. They are cooked in the sense that the Iranian people were not able to vote for a full range of people.

We urge Iranian leaders to end interference in future elections, including the 2009 presidential election, McCormack added.

Some 4,500 candidates nationwide are running for parliament’s 290 seats in Friday’s vote. Despite the partial returns early Saturday, final results will take days. Watch one observer call the race one among conservatives

Voting in Tehran appeared slow for much of the day, until the evening when it seemed to step up considerably. Authorities kept polls open an extra five hours to let in more voters.

Mohammad Sadri, a stationery store owner in Tehran’s historic bazaar, said he voted for Ahmadinejad for president in 2005, and now I’ve voted for his allies to help him to continue his plans effectively.

The 74-year-old said he and his wife were voting to protect the blood of martyrs who sacrificed themselves for Iran’s Islamic revolution.

Ahmadinejad’s allies are largely running on a slate known as the United Front of Principlists, referring to their adherence to the revolution’s principles. Their ranks include some of the top figures of the conservative movement, including the current parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel and his deputy Mohammad Reza Bahonar, who is widely seen as the brain behind Ahmadinejad’s rise to power.

After sunset, significant lines appeared for the first time at dozens of polling stations, particularly in the better-off districts of northern Tehran, seen as a stronghold for reformists.

I was undecided up to the last minute because all the best candidates were disqualified. But I’m voting for reformers to keep out those who lead a dictatorship in the name of Islam, said Homa Foroughi, who voted late in the day.

Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a member of the clerical leadership seen as a top rival of Ahmadinejad, tried to convince those discouraged by the disqualifications to vote.

To be reluctant and say ‘Why should we participate in the election?’ is a kind of self-destruction, said Rafsanjani, according to the state news agency. This will lead to the absence of their favorite candidates in the council.

Khamenei and other top clerics and government officials have said a strong turnout will be a blow to the United States, Iran’s enemy No. 1, showing that Iranians support their system.

But historically, when turnout has been higher, reformists have done better. In 2004, many reformists were barred from running and hard-liners swept the election. Turnout was 51 percent, low compared to 2000 when around 80 percent participated, sweeping reformists into parliament.

Many people Friday were more concerned with shopping to prepare for the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, next week. Shoppers on Tehran’s main streets could be seen coming out of shops with plates of herbs and bowls of goldfish — symbols of the spring holiday.

If I get to the polls, I’ll vote for reformists. They don’t bother women, said Sherine Faraji as she shopped. She wore a tight-fitting jacket and a colorful head scarf that showed much of her hair — a far looser dress code than conservatives support.
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Possible tornado hits Atlanta

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — A possible tornado swept through downtown Atlanta on Friday night, disrupting a college basketball game and damaging the building that houses CNN.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for the area, in effect until 10 p.m. The storm came through at about 9:45 p.m.

Inside CNN Center, water poured through damage in the ceiling into the building’s atrium. Glass shattered, and parts of the building filled with dust.

Next door at the Georgia Dome, the SEC conference basketball game between Alabama and Mississippi State was halted. The storm visibly rippled the ceiling of the dome and caused some damage, video of the arena showed. Scaffolding holding the facility’s scoreboard swayed 15 minutes after the storm hit.

Outside, construction cones and newspaper boxes were shoved into the street. E-mail to a friend

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Venezuela dares U.S. to put it on terror list

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez dared the U.S. on Friday to put Venezuela on a list of countries accused of supporting terrorism, calling it one more attempt by Washington to undermine him for political reasons.

Chavez said the threat to include us on the terrorist list is Washington’s response to his government’s successes in the region.

U.S. lawmakers including Reps. Connie Mack and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Florida Republicans, have called for the State Department to add Venezuela to its list of terror sponsors, which includes North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba. They have expressed concerns about what they call Chavez’s close ties to Colombia’s leftist rebels.

Let them make that list and shove it in their pocket, Chavez said in a televised speech.

We shouldn’t forget for an instant that we’re in a battle against North American imperialism, Chavez said. On this continent, they have us as enemy No. 1.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday during a visit to Brazil that all U.N. nations, including Venezuela, have an obligation to go after terrorists and keep them from operating within their borders.

The comment was largely a warning for Chavez, who U.S. officials suspect has lent support to Colombian rebels. In recent days, Rice and President Bush have sharpened their rhetoric against Chavez while praising Colombia and other Latin American allies.

Chavez said Rice’s visit to Brazil and Chile this week is aimed at mounting pressures against our government and against me.

Chavez also responded to barbs from Bush, who on Wednesday accused Venezuela of squandering its oil wealth internationally to promote its hostile, anti-American vision.

The heated exchanges with the U.S. came as Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe pledged to smooth over differences after their worst-ever diplomatic spat, provoked by a deadly Colombian attack on a rebel camp in Ecuador.

Chavez said he called Uribe on Thursday in part because the statements (against Venezuela) continue, and because the U.S. keeps trying to make us fight.

He said he told Uribe he wants to rebuild relations after the March 1 cross-border strike, which killed 25 people including a rebel leader.

After Colombia’s assault in Ecuador, Chavez and Ecuadorean leader Rafael Correa sent troops to their borders. Colombia released documents found on rebel laptops, saying they link Chavez and Correa’s administrations to leftist Colombian rebels.

Correa on Thursday delivered an angry response to Bush’s strong support for Colombia in the wake of the raid, challenging the U.S. president to send troops to Ecuador’s border with Colombia.

Bring your soldiers Mr Bush, Correa said in the speech. Let it be your soldiers who die along the southern border with Colombia. We’ll see if the Americans, the citizens of the United States, will accept tremendous atrocity.

If not, shut your mouth and understand what is happening in Latin America.

Ecuadorean authorities are still angry over the Colombian raid and have delayed restoring diplomatic relations until at least the end of the month.

Meanwhile on Friday, three Mexican students in their late 20s were confirmed killed in Ecuador during Colombia’s raid on the rebel camp.

Five Mexicans — three men and two women — apparently were at the camp near the border with Colombia during the attack.

Mexican student Lucia Morett Alvarez, 26, was wounded but survived, and parents of another missing Mexican woman were awaiting forensic tests.

Fellow students in Mexico have described the victims as activists who sympathized with Latin America’s radical left, which has gained some backing on college campuses in Mexico.
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