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Amir Khan defends his WBA light-welterweight title with a unanimous points victory over Marcos Maidana in a thrilling fight in Las Vegas.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hashim Thaci faces a strong challenge Kosovo is holding its first parliamentary election since unilaterally declaring independence from Serbia almost three years ago.
The ethnic Albanian majority and small Serb minority remain largely estranged, more than a decade after a Nato-led conflict broke Belgrade’s control.
Serbia has not recognised Kosovo’s independence and most Serbs are expected to boycott the elections.
The EU says the election is important for Kosovo’s hopes of entry.
During the campaign, institutionalised corruption and the dire state of Kosovo’s economy have consistently topped lists of voter concerns.
Opinion polls have suggested that the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of the outgoing Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, is in the lead but is unlikely to win an outright majority.
Its former junior coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), is mounting a strong challenge.
“[Many young Kosovans] crave a strong, courageous government, prepared to rise to a very big challenge. ”
Mark Lowen BBC News, KosovoKosovo’s Serbs split by election
Polls are due to close at 1900 (1700 GMT) on Sunday.
An early election had to be called after the LDK pulled out of Mr Thaci’s government in October in a row over its then leader, Fatmir Sejdiu, who was also Kosovo’s president.
After Mr Sejdiu stepped down as president, he was ousted from the LDK leadership by the mayor of Pristina, Isa Mustafa.
Another party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, has been weakened because its leader, former rebel Ramush Haradinaj, is being retried by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Among Kosovo’s most daunting challenges are an unemployment rate of 45% – even higher among young people – and one of the weakest economies in Europe.
While recognised by many Western countries, Kosovo is still not a member of the UN and its ethnic Albanian majority are under pressure to show they can build peaceful relations with the Serb minority.
A sign displayed in northern Mitrovica reads “Serbian town” Serbs now only number around 120,000 out of Kosovo’s population of two million.
The vast majority of Serbs continue to live in enclaves guarded by Nato-led peacekeepers, and many are concentrated in the north, between the divided town of Mitrovica and the Serbian border.
Posters in Mitrovica have been calling on Serbs to boycott the election. “No to elections in the false state of Kosovo,” reads one.
The US ambassador in Kosovo, Christopher Dell, has warned that an attempt to partition the north could spark renewed ethnic violence across the region, according to a series of secret diplomatic cables released by the Wikileaks website on Thursday.
“Failure to act soon means losing northern Kosovo and will re-open the Pandora’s Box of ethnic conflict that defined the 1990s,” Mr Dell said.
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Amanda Knox tells an appeal court her conviction for murdering Meredith Kercher was an ‘enormous mistake’.
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HMS Astute is based at the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde A nuclear-powered submarine which ran aground off the Isle of Skye in October has had to return to port because of a defect, the Ministry of Defence says.
HMS Astute returned to its base in Faslane after breaking down last week on what was its first day back at sea, the Mail on Sunday reported.
The newspaper said a fault in the steam plant had been identified by experts.
“HMS Astute has been completing sea trials and has returned to have a minor defect corrected,” the MoD said.
The newspaper reported that the fault had affected the propulsion and desalination system that makes sea water drinkable.
HMS Astute ran aground on 22 October and was towed free after becoming stuck on a shingle bank for about 10 hours.
However, it was damaged during the rescue operation in a collision with a coastguard tug, the Anglian Prince, which had been sent to free it.
The £1bn submarine returned to its base at Faslane on the Clyde three days after the grounding.
Last month the naval officer in charge, Commander Andy Coles, 47, was relieved of his command.
He was replaced by Commander Iain Breckenridge.
The submarine was built by defence giant BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
It is the first in a fleet of seven which will replace the Trafalgar-class submarine.
The vessel can carry a mix of up to 38 Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes and Tomahawk Land Attack cruise missiles.
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The crowd outside the British embassy in Madrid wore Julian Assange masks as they called for his release Protests have taken place across Spain calling for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is facing extradition from the UK to Sweden for alleged sexual offences.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the British embassy in Madrid calling for him to be freed.
Wikileaks is publishing insights from hundreds of thousands of sensitive US diplomatic and military documents.
The demonstrators believe Mr Assange’s detention is politically motivated.
The whistle-blowing website has angered and embarrassed governments around the world through its publication in recent weeks of classified US diplomatic cables.
While supporters have mounted cyber-protests, Saturday’s protests were some of the first street demonstrations in support of Wikileaks.
Wearing Julian Assange face masks, the crowd in Madrid shouted for his freedom, outside the vast glass tower that houses the British embassy, says the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in Madrid.
Many of the demonstrators were angry at some of the revelations in the cables, our correspondent says.
These include the suggestion Spain came under pressure to stop a criminal investigation into the killing of Jose Couso, a Spanish cameraman who died when American soldiers fired a tank round into his hotel in Baghdad.
The Free Wikileaks website, which organised the demonstrations, said protests were also planned for other Spanish cities, including Barcelona, Valencia and Seville.
It called for the restoration of Wikileaks’ internet domain, which was cut off by Amazon after it began publishing the diplomatic cables two weeks ago.
And it demanded that Visa and MasterCard restore credit card services because, it said, no one had proven Mr Assange’s guilt.
Our correspondent says the issue of freedom of speech is sensitive for Spaniards, who only emerged from four decades of authoritarian rule in the 1970s.
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The man widely seen as winner of Ivory Coast’s presidential poll urges Laurent Gbagbo to resign as the stand-off continues.
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Kell Brook defends his WBO intercontinental welterweight title with an impressive stoppage of Philip Kotey in Liverpool.
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The recount was called after days of street protests Two of the three main candidates in the disputed presidential election in Haiti have rejected a proposed recount of the first-round votes.
The recount was announced after days of street protests by opposition supporters.
Front-runner Mirlande Manigat said the Haitian electoral council had not come up with clear procedures or a timetable.
The proposal was also rejected by Michel Martelly, who came third.
Mr Martelly said he would not accept a recount conducted by the same group that, he alleges, manipulated the results in the first place.
He had earlier said that the count was rigged to deny him a second-round run-off place.
Governing party candidate Jude Celestin, who came second and is therefore through to the next round, said he supported the proposal for a recount.
Election results announced on Tuesday gave 31% to the former first lady, Ms Manigat, and 22% to Mr Celestin.
Mr Martelly came third with 21%, about 6,800 votes short of Mr Celestin.
On Thursday, election officials announced they would hold an immediate vote recount in the presence of all top three candidates and international observers.
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One person has been killed and at least one other hurt as two explosions rocked the centre of the Swedish capital, Stockholm, reports say.
A car blew up near the busy shopping street of Drottninggatan, and another explosion hit nearby shortly afterwards, AP quoted police as saying.
A man’s body was discovered after the second blast, the agency reported.
Swedish Aftonbladet newspaper showed images of a burning white car. The cause of the blasts is not yet known.
Rescue services spokesman Roger Sverndal said the car which exploded had contained gas canisters, AP reported.
A former AP worker, Gabriel Gabiro, was close to the second blast.
“I saw some people crying, perhaps from the shock,” he told the agency.
“There was a man lying on the ground with blood coming out in the area of his belly, and with his personal belongings scattered around him.”
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Police are treating the death of a 21-year-old woman, whose body was found in a West Lothian street, as suspicious.
Lothian and Borders Police said the discovery was made by a member of the public in Brucefield Drive in Whitburn town centre at about 0255 GMT.
A post-mortem examination to determine how she died is due to take place.
Police have appealed for witnesses, in particular a group of youths seen in East Main Street in the early hours of Saturday, to get in touch.
The incident has resulted in the town’s main thoroughfare being cordoned off to allow forensic examiners to assess the scene.
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Alan Pardew’s first game as Newcastle boss ends in a well-deserved victory over Liverpool.
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Three men are arrested following the seizure of £1m worth of drugs in Northern Ireland.
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DJ Campbell’s goal proves enough for a fourth away win of the season for Blackpool
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Mr Holbrooke was named as envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan by President Obama Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been taken critically ill, the US state department says.
Mr Holbrooke, 69, was admitted to hospital on Friday and has undergone surgery to repair a tear in his aorta.
His family have joined him at his hospital bedside in Washington DC.
Mr Holbrooke is best known for brokering the Dayton peace accords in 1995, which ended the Bosnian war.
President Barack Obama named Mr Holbrooke as his special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan in January 2009.
Nicknamed “the Bulldozer”, Mr Holbrooke gained a reputation for confronting warring leaders to get them to come to the negotiating table.
Mr Holbrooke is one of the state department’s top diplomats, having served in Vietnam and at the United Nations.
He has clashed regularly with Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
After the disputed presidential elections in August 2009, Mr Holbrooke was widely reported to have confronted Mr Karzai about poll irregularities.
However, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Kabul denied there had been any shouting or that Mr Holbrooke had stormed out.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Stewart Stevenson apologised for his handling of the chaos brought on by the freezing weather Scotland’s beleaguered Transport Secretary Stewart Stevenson has resigned.
Mr Stevenson has faced days of pressure over the way he handled the chaos caused by the recent freezing weather.
Snow and ice brought much of central Scotland’s road network to a standstill earlier this week.
The SNP MSP said he “could have done much more to ensure that members of the public were better informed of the situation”.
Mr Stevenson, the MSP for Banff and Buchan, said: “I deeply regret that and for that reason I feel I should step down.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.