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Consolation victory for hosts Switzerland

(CNN) — Hakan Yakin scored twice to give Switzerland a 2-0 win over Portugal in Basel, helping the co-hosts end Euro 2008 on a high with their first-ever finals victory.

With Portugal already through to the quarterfinals as Group A winners, and the Swiss eliminated after two defeats, neither team had anything apart from pride to play for.

But the Swiss were always in control and Yakin fired through the legs of goalkeeper Ricardo, after a flicked pass from fellow-striker Eren Derdiyok, to put them ahead in the 71st minute.

Yakin added his second from the penalty spot in the 83rd minute after Fernando Meira was adjudged to have fouled Tranquillo Barnetta.

It sealed Switzerland’s first win in three European Championship appearances, albeit against a Portugal team that rested eight starters including Cristiano Ronaldo and Deco.

Switzerland failed to win a match at the 1996 tournament in England and then in Portugal four years ago, gaining just one draw in each.

Until Yakin’s goals, Portugal winger Nani had missed the best chance in the 53rd minute when he shot wide when one-on-one with goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuehler, who started in place of regular Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio.

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Abbas: Israeli settlements ‘greatest obstacle’ to peace

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israeli plans to build 1,300 homes in East Jerusalem pose the greatest obstacle to Mideast peace.

His remarks followed a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has dubbed the Israeli settlement plans simply not helpful. Earlier Sunday, Rice said she would raise the issue during talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Rice met with Livni, then traveled to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet with Abbas. The U.S. is presently trying to prod Israeli and Palestinian leaders to forge a peace agreement.

The Bush administration has repeatedly said it believes a peace deal can be achieved by year’s end.

The Palestinian territories are divided, with Abbas’ Fatah movement holding power in the West Bank and Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist outfit, ruling Gaza.

Abbas emerged from his Sunday meeting with Rice saying that Palestinians remained committed to international legitimacy, as well as to the U.S.-backed roadmap, U.N. resolutions urging a peace agreement and the Arab-brokered peace initiative.

The U.S., U.N. and Arab frameworks form the foundation for a two-state solution where the two states will be living side by side in peace and security, Abbas said.

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Rice: Settlement plans ‘not helpful’ to peace efforts

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday said Israel’s plans to build 1,300 homes in East Jerusalem were simply not helpful to peace efforts in the region.

Israel announced plans for the settlement Friday, bringing the total homes planned in the area to more than 3,000.

The Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state.

In a statement she made before her meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem, Rice said she would raise the issue of settlements.

I’m very concerned that at a time when we need to build confidence between the parties, the continued building and the settlement activity has the potential to harm the negotiations going forward, she said.

We’ve said before that this is a time to try and build confidence, and this is simply not helpful to building confidence, Rice said on a plane trip to Tel Aviv from Paris, where she took part in a conference on aid to Afghanistan. It will certainly be a topic of conversation, and I expect to raise it with all of Israel’s officials and leaders.

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Cost for polygamist raid expected to top $14 million

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The cost of the April raid on a polygamist compound in West Texas is expected to top $14 million, about one-third of it in lawyers’ fees, according to a published analysis of state records.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram published its findings Saturday after reviewing more than 400 pages of invoices, e-mails and other state records that it obtained under an open-records law request.

More invoices for overtime, travel and professional services are expected to boost the final tab, the records indicate.

The biggest chunk of spending is expected to stem from court proceedings after the state seized about 460 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado, which is owned by the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

A state district judge in San Angelo first gave custody of the children to the state child protective services agency, but the Texas Supreme Court later ordered that decision reversed, saying the state had overstepped its authority.

The children were returned to their families early this month, about two months after the raid. Texas authorities are continuing investigations into allegations of child abuse. See a timeline of the FLDS case

The state expects to pay nearly $4.5 million in legal fees, including paying for lawyers who represented the state and others appointed by judges to represent the children. The state also expects to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for expert witnesses, visiting judges and office supplies.

The state attorney general’s office has been billed $110,000 for DNA testing of adults and children taken from the ranch in an effort to identify the parents of each child.

Another big chunk of spending, about $2.4 million, went to rent buses and facilities to house the children and some of the mothers after the early April raid, the newspaper reported.

Overtime for state employees, including workers in the state’s protective services agencies, was about $1.7 million, and travel another $1.2 million during the first month after the raid.

The Texas Department of Public Safety spent nearly $1.3 million, including $410,000 for overtime pay and about $82,000 for travel.

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1 million flee from China floods; 55 dead

BEIJING, China (AP) — State media are reporting that 55 people have been killed and seven are missing in flooding across a broad stretch of southern China.

A Sunday report by the official Xinhua News Agency says more than 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes across nine provinces, including Sichuan, which is still reeling from last month’s earthquake that killed almost 70,000 people.

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