Now, Haryana khap bans disc jockeys

HISAR: A khap panchayat in Hisar, Haryana banned disc jockeys on Tuesday for "creating noise in marriages and other functions" in 42 villages of the district.

Phool Kumar, a spokesperson of the Satrol khap panchayat, said that the violators would have to pay a fine of Rs 5100.

On Sunday, one man was shot dead while five others were injured following the clash after few villagers objected to the presence of a DJ in Khurda village of Kaithal district.

Addressing the panchayat, Inder Singh, a khap leader, said, "The DJ system is causing noise pollution and is also harmful to the animals kept by farmers. Due to high volume of music, people can't milk buffaloes and cows in the morning as the animals are unable to sleep at night."

"With DJs around, youngsters dance under influence of liquor and sometimes misbehave with women. Because of this women can't participate in celebrations, preferring to stay indoors. It's a waste of money, especially when the villagers are facing financial crisis," Singh added.

There are more than 100 villages in Rohtak, Mahendergarh, Rewari and Bhiwani districts where khap panchayats have prohibited DJs in the last five years.

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APNewsBreak: DA investigating Texas cancer agency

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas prosecutor responsible for investigating public corruption among state officials said Tuesday that he has opened an investigation into the state's troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting agency.

Gregg Cox, director of the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unit, told The Associated Press that an investigation has begun into the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The agency also is under investigation by the Texas attorney general's office after an $11 million grant to a private company did not receive the proper review.

Cox said his unit, which prosecutes crimes related to the operation of state government, is beginning its investigation not knowing "what, if any, crime occurred" at CPRIT.

His announcement came on the same day that CPRIT said its executive director had submitted his resignation letter and amid escalating scrutiny over the management of the nation's second-biggest pot of cancer research dollars.

CPRIT has not been able to focus on fighting the disease due to "wasted efforts expended in low value activities" during the past tumultuous eight months, Executive Director Bill Gimson wrote in a resignation letter dated Monday. Gimson offered to stay on until January, and the agency's board must still approve his request to step down.

Gimson has led the state agency since it launched in 2009. But he fell under mounting criticism over the recent disclosure that an $11 million award to a private company was never reviewed. It was the second time this year that a lucrative taxpayer-funded grant instigated backlash and raised questions about oversight.

"Unfortunately, I have also been placed in a situation where I feel I can no longer be effective," Gimson wrote.

The Texas attorney general's office has said it is looking into CPRIT's $11 million grant to Dallas-based Peloton Therapeutics. An internal audit performed by the agency revealed that Peloton's proposal was approved for funding in 2010 without being reviewed by an outside panel.

Gimson said last week that Peloton's funding was the result of an honest mistake that happened when the agency was still young and in the process of installing checks and balances. Agency emails surrounding the Peloton grant are no longer available, Gimson said, and state investigators said they will work to find them.

Only the National Institutes of Health doles out more cancer research dollars than CPRIT, which has awarded more than $700 million so far. The agency's former chief science officer, Nobel laureate Alfred Gilman, resigned earlier this year over a separate $20 million award that Gilman claimed received a thin review. That led some of the nation's top scientists to accuse the agency of charting a politically-driven path.

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

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Video of Columbus Circle Killer Released

The hunt for New York's Columbus Circle killer took on a new impetus today as police released surveillance video showing the killer moments before he calmly walked up to Brandon Lincoln Woodard and put one bullet from a silver colored handgun into the back of the Los Angeles man's head in full view of holiday shoppers.

The video confirms the details of the hit man's calculated wait for his victim as first reported on ABCNews.com on Monday.

"In the video, the gunman wanted in the shooting death yesterday of Brandon Lincoln Woodard, 31, of Los Angeles, is seen 10 minutes before the shooting," Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne said in a statement today.

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Woodard, who is described by police as linked to the hip hop part of the Los Angeles entertainment industry, was strolling down 58th Street near the southern end of Central Park when he was gunned down.

"The shooter, who appears to be bald and may have a beard, exited a late model Lincoln sedan, initially bare-headed, but soon pulled the hood of his jacket over his head. Ten minutes later, at approximately 2 p.m., the shooter walked up behind Woodard and fired," Browne said.

In a grainy still image also released, the gunman is seen behind Woodard a moment before the shooting, pulling the weapon from his jacket.

Just before he was shot, Woodard turned "instinctively almost," then turned back to his portable electronic device, police told ABC News.

Sources tell ABC News that Woodard was arrested in 2009 in connection with a robbery in California.

Woodard was raised in Los Angeles' Ladera Heights neighborhood and attended the private Campbell Hall High School, they said. He attended college and law school at Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles, law enforcement sources and friends said.

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Cairo faces rival protests over constitution crisis

CAIRO (Reuters) - Opponents and supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's plans to vote on a new constitution will take to the streets in central Cairo later on Tuesday, risking more violent confrontation after last week's deadly clashes.

Leftists, liberals and other opposition groups have called for marches to the presidential palace in the afternoon to protest against the hastily arranged referendum planned for Saturday, which they say is polarizing the country.

Islamists, who dominated the body that drew up the constitution, have urged their followers to turn out "in millions" the same day in a show of support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning and that critics say could put Egypt in a religious straitjacket.

Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and opponents besieging Mursi's graffiti-daubed presidential palace.

The elite Republican Guard has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the palace, now ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades, but a decree issued by Mursi late on Sunday gives the armed forces the power to arrest civilians during the referendum and until the announcement of the results.

Leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahy, one of the most prominent members of the National Salvation Front opposition coalition, said Mursi was driving a wedge between Egyptians and destroying prospects for consensus.

As well as pushing the early referendum, Mursi has angered opponents by taking sweeping temporary powers he said were necessary to secure the country's transition to stability after a popular uprising overthrew autocratic former president Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago.

"The road Mohamed Mursi is taking now does not create the possibility for national consensus," said Sabahy.

If the constitution was passed, he said: "Egypt will continue in this really charged state. It is certain that this constitution is driving us to more political polarization."

The National Salvation Front also includes Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

The opposition says the draft constitution fails to embrace the diversity of 83 million Egyptians, a tenth of whom are Christians, and invites Muslim clerics to influence lawmaking.

But debate over the details has largely given way to noisy street protests and megaphone politics, keeping Egypt off balance and ill equipped to deal with a looming economic crisis.

Lamia Kamel, a spokeswoman for Moussa, said the opposition factions were still discussing whether to boycott the referendum or call for a "no" vote.

"Both paths are unwelcome because they really don't want the referendum at all," she said, but predicted a clearer opposition line if the plebiscite went ahead as planned.

Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman, said the opposition could stage protests, but should keep the peace.

"They are free to boycott, participate or say no; they can do what they want. The important thing is that it remains in a peaceful context to preserve the country's safety and security."

The army stepped into the conflict on Saturday, telling all sides to resolve their disputes via dialogue and warning that it would not allow Egypt to enter a "dark tunnel".

The continuing disruption is also casting doubts on the government's ability to push through tough economic reforms that form part of a proposed $4.8 billion IMF loan agreement.

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Will Waterman)

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US stocks edge up amid hopes for 'cliff' deal

NEW YORK: US stocks ended slightly higher Monday amid hopes that a political deal over the looming fiscal cliff was in the works.

Markets showed little effect from the fresh turmoil in the eurozone, after Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said he would resign in the coming days and Silvio Berlusconi threatened a comeback on an anti-austerity platform.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 14.75 points (0.11 percent) to 13,169.88.

The broad-market S&P 500 added 0.48 (0.03 percent) to 1,418.55, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 8.92 points (0.30 percent) to 2,986.96.

Trade was light and in a narrow range, with transportation, technology and basic materials shares strongest, while consumer goods slipped.

Troubled Hewlett-Packard surged 2.6 percent on rumors that raider Carl Icahn was moving on the company.

Canadian energy firm Nexen added 13.8 percent after Canadian regulators approved its takeover by Chinese state oil giant CNOOC late Friday.

Excepting Apple (-0.6 percent), big tech stocks were higher: Facebook 1.3 percent, Google 0.2 percent, Cisco 2.4 percent and STMicroelectronics, which said it was leaving a joint venture with Ericsson, added 3.4 percent.

Bond prices edged higher. The 10-year US Treasury yield slipped to 1.62 percent from 1.63 percent late Friday, while the 30-year fell to 2.80 percent from 2.81 percent.

Bond prices and yields move inversely.

-AFP/ac

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Is SC right in shutting our legal rights, asks 2G scam accused

NEW DELHI: A 2G scam accused on Monday questioned the Supreme Court's strict monitoring of the CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation in 2008 under then telecom minister A Raja and challenged its orders asking other courts not to entertain appeals against trial court decisions.

Accused Asif Balwa's writ petition also questioned the legality of a two-judge bench's November 9 order, by which the SC had issued notices to all accused asking why their petitions in the Delhi High Court against the decision of the trial court to frame charges against them be not transferred to the apex court.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani mentioned the petition before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and sought an urgent hearing on the ground that precious rights of the accused facing trial were being breached by the two-judge bench's orders. The CJI-headed bench said it would examine the contents of the petition and consider giving a hearing to the petitioner.

Balwa, who was a director of Swan Telecom (now known as Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd), also questioned the two-judge bench's method of monitoring the investigation, during which the judges had looked into the draft chargesheet of the CBI against the accused. "The role of constitutional courts in monitoring investigation and the jurisdiction to adjudicate issues arising there from have to be dealt with, in order to ensure that the prosecutor, investigator and the judge are not seen to be same person," he said.

Balwa said it was well-settled in law that on filing of chargesheet by the investigating agency, the monitoring by a constitutional court must come to an end to allow the trial to proceed under the statutory provisions.

"Merely because the Supreme Court has monitored the investigation does not mean that all the remedies available to the accused as well as the prosecution in accordance with law has been subverted," he said questioning the apex court's orders asking the HC not to entertain pleas of the accused facing trial in the case relating to alleged irregular allocation of spectrum.

Balwa also said the special bench, which monitored the 2G scam, had passed orders against the accused on a petition in which they were not even included as parties. "Thus, there is a complete failure of principle of natural justice as the orders and directions have been passed without giving an opportunity of hearing to the affected parties including the petitioner," he added.

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Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers.

Employee benefits lawyer Chantel Sheaks calls it a "sleeper issue" with significant financial consequences, particularly for large employers.

"Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for it," said Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary.

Based on figures provided in the regulation, employer and individual health plans covering an estimated 190 million Americans could owe the per-person fee.

The Obama administration says it is a temporary assessment levied for three years starting in 2014, designed to raise $25 billion. It starts at $63 and then declines.

Most of the money will go into a fund administered by the Health and Human Services Department. It will be used to cushion health insurance companies from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems. Under the law, insurers will be forbidden from turning away the sick as of Jan. 1, 2014.

The program "is intended to help millions of Americans purchase affordable health insurance, reduce unreimbursed usage of hospital and other medical facilities by the uninsured and thereby lower medical expenses and premiums for all," the Obama administration says in the regulation. An accompanying media fact sheet issued Nov. 30 referred to "contributions" without detailing the total cost and scope of the program.

Of the total pot, $5 billion will go directly to the U.S. Treasury, apparently to offset the cost of shoring up employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees.

The $25 billion fee is part of a bigger package of taxes and fees to finance Obama's expansion of coverage to the uninsured. It all comes to about $700 billion over 10 years, and includes higher Medicare taxes effective this Jan. 1 on individuals making more than $200,000 per year or couples making more than $250,000. People above those threshold amounts also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on their investment income.

But the insurance fee had been overlooked as employers focused on other costs in the law, including fines for medium and large firms that don't provide coverage.

"This kind of came out of the blue and was a surprisingly large amount," said Gretchen Young, senior vice president for health policy at the ERISA Industry Committee, a group that represents large employers on benefits issues.

Word started getting out in the spring, said Young, but hard cost estimates surfaced only recently with the new regulation. It set the per capita rate at $5.25 per month, which works out to $63 a year.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group for health insurers, says the fund is an important program that will help stabilize the market and mitigate cost increases for consumers as the changes in Obama's law take effect.

But employers already offering coverage to their workers don't see why they have to pony up for the stabilization fund, which mainly helps the individual insurance market. The redistribution puts the biggest companies on the hook for tens of millions of dollars.

"It just adds on to everything else that is expected to increase health care costs," said economist Paul Fronstin of the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The fee will be assessed on all "major medical" insurance plans, including those provided by employers and those purchased individually by consumers. Large employers will owe the fee directly. That's because major companies usually pay upfront for most of the health care costs of their employees. It may not be apparent to workers, but the insurance company they deal with is basically an agent administering the plan for their employer.

The fee will total $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion in 2016. That means the per-head assessment would be smaller each year, around $40 in 2015 instead of $63.

It will phase out completely in 2017 — unless Congress, with lawmakers searching everywhere for revenue to reduce federal deficits — decides to extend it.

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Royal Hoax: DJs 'Shattered' After Nurse's Suicide

The two Australian radio DJs who prank-called the London hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated last week said they were "shattered" and "gutted" after the nurse who answered their call apparently killed herself.

Shock jocks Mel Greig, 30, and Michael Christian, 25, cried as they spoke to Australia's Channel 9 overnight in their first public interview since Jacintha Saldanha, 46, the nurse who last week connected the pair to the duchess' room, was found dead Friday morning.

"I'm shattered, gutted, heartbroken," Christian said. "Mel and myself are incredibly sorry for the situation and what's happened. I had the idea. … It was just a simple harmless phone call. It was going to go on for 30 seconds. We were going to get hung up on."

FULL COVERAGE: Royal Baby

The host of the "2Day" FM radio show pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, asking for an update on Middleton's condition when they called up King Edward VII Hospital in central London. With no receptionist on duty overnight, Saldanha answered the prank call and put it through.

"It was just something that was fun and light-hearted and a tragic turn of events that I don't think anyone had expected," Christian said.

A Current Affair/ABC News

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Saldanha was found dead Friday morning after police were called to an address near the hospital to "reports of a woman found unconscious," according to a statement from Scotland Yard.

Investigators have not said how she might have killed herself.

Greig cried today when asked about the moment she heard of the death of Saldanha, a mother of two.

"It was the worst phone call I've ever had in my life," she said through tears. "There's not a minute that goes by that we don't think about her family and the thought that we may have played a part in that is gut-wrenching."

The DJs said they never expected to get through to Middleton's nurse and assumed "the same phone calls had been made 100 times that morning," Christian said.

Grieg said, "We wanted to be hung up on with our silly voices and wanted a 20-second segment to air of us doing stupid voice. … Not for a second did we expect to even speak to Kate or even have a conversation with anyone at the hospital. We wanted to be hung up on."

The global backlash against the duo has been fierce, from online death threats to calls for prison time. Their radio station has announced it is banning phony phone calls altogether, and suspending advertising indefinitely.

Max Moore-Wilton, the chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, said in a letter Sunday to Lord Glenarthur, chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital, that the company is reviewing the station's broadcast policies, the AP reported.

"I can assure you we are taking immediate action and reviewing the broadcast and processes involved," Moore-Wilton said in the letter. "As we have said in our own statements on the matter, the outcome was unforeseeable and very regrettable."

Greig and Michael have been taken off the air, silenced indefinitely.

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Egypt's opposition rejects constitutional referendum

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's main opposition coalition rejected on Sunday Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's plan for a constitutional referendum this week, saying it risked dragging the country into "violent confrontation".

Mursi's decision on Saturday to retract a decree awarding himself wide powers failed to placate opponents who accused him of plunging Egypt deeper into crisis by refusing to postpone the vote on a constitution shaped by Islamists.

"We are against this process from start to finish," Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the National Salvation Front, told a news conference, calling for more street protests on Tuesday.

The Front's main leaders - Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and leftist Hamdeen Sabahy - did not attend the event.

Hundreds of protesters milled around Mursi's palace, despite tanks, barbed wire and other barriers installed last week after clashes between Islamists and their rivals killed seven people.

"Holding a referendum now in the absence of security reflects haste and an absence of a sense of responsibility on the part of the regime, which risks pushing the country towards violent confrontation," a statement from the Front said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Mursi from obscurity to power, urged the opposition to accept the referendum's verdict.

Islamists say the vote will seal a democratic transition that began when a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago after three decades of military-backed one-man rule.

Their liberal, leftist and Christian adversaries say the document being fast-tracked through could threaten freedoms and fails to embrace the diversity of Egypt's 83 million people.

"ACT OF WAR"

Mursi had given some ground on Saturday when he annulled the fiercely contested decree issued on November 22 that gave him extra powers and shielded his decisions from judicial review.

But some measures taken under the decree remain in force and the president has insisted the referendum go ahead on December 15.

Liberal opposition leader Ahmed Said earlier described the race to a referendum as an "act of war" against Egyptians.

Egypt is torn between Islamists, who were suppressed for decades, and their rivals, who fear religious conservatives want to squeeze out other voices and restrict social freedoms. Many Egyptians just crave stability and economic recovery.

Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said the scrapping of Mursi's decree had removed any reason for controversy.

"We ask others to announce their acceptance of the referendum result," he said on the group's Facebook page, asking whether the opposition would accept "the basics of democracy".

The cancellation of Mursi's decree, announced after a "national dialogue" on Saturday boycotted by almost all the president's critics, has not bridged a deep political divide.

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, a technocrat with Islamist leanings, said the referendum was the best test of opinion.

"The people are the makers of the future as long as they have the freedom to resort to the ballot box in a democratic, free and fair vote," he said in a cabinet statement.

But opposition factions, uncertain of their ability to vote down the constitution against the Islamists' organizational muscle, want the document redrafted before any vote.

"A constitution without consensus can't go to a referendum," said Hermes Fawzi, 28, a protester outside the palace. "It's not logical that just one part of society makes the constitution."

DIALOGUE

Egypt tipped into turmoil after Mursi grabbed powers to stop any court action aimed at hindering the transition. An assembly led by the Brotherhood and other Islamists then swiftly approved the constitution it had spent six months drafting.

Opponents, including minority Christians, had already quit the assembly in dismay, saying their voices were being ignored.

After the dialogue hosted by Mursi, a spokesman announced that the president had issued a new decree whose first article "cancels the constitutional declaration" of November 22. He said the referendum could not be delayed for legal reasons.

The decree ignited more than two weeks of sometimes violent protests and counter-rallies in Egypt. Mursi's foes have chanted for his downfall. Islamists fear a plot to oust the most populous Arab nation's first freely-elected leader.

Islamists reckon they can win the referendum and, once the new constitution is in place, a parliamentary election about two months later. The Islamist-led lower house elected this year was dissolved after a few months by a court order.

Investors appeared relieved after Mursi rescinded his decree, sending Egyptian stocks 4.4 percent higher on Sunday. Markets are awaiting approval of a $4.8 billion IMF loan later this month designed to support the budget and economic reforms.

The military, which led Egypt's transition for 16 turbulent months after Mubarak fell, told feuding factions on Saturday that only dialogue could avert "catastrophe". But a military source said these remarks did not herald an army takeover.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Yasmine Saleh; editing by David Stamp)

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Football: Barca legend Messi beats Mueller record

MADRID: Lionel Messi surpassed Gerd Mueller's record of 85 goals in a calendar year with a first-half double that helped his side to an important 2-1 win at Real Betis on Sunday.

The Argentinian moved up to 86 goals in 2012 but was only given the go-ahead to play against Betis before the game after injuring his knee in the midweek Champions League game against Benfica.

He beats the German legend's record set in 1972, and now has 23 in the league this season, six more than Radamel Falcao who hit five goals for Atletico in their win.

It did not take long for Messi to equal Mueller's record with his side's first real attack on 16 minutes, making a diagonal run across the Betis defence before hitting a left footed shot into the right hand corner.

His history-making moment came nine minutes later when he struck from almost an identical position after good play from Adriano and Andres Iniesta.

Betis had started and finished the better side in Seville, Salva Sevilla had a header well saved by Victor Valdes on three minutes and they hit the woodwork on three occasions in the second-half.

Adrian in the Betis goal then made an acrobatic save to deny Xavi Hernandez, and the home side appeared out of the game until substitute Alvaro Vadillo played a clever pass to Ruben Castro who finished coolly to reduce Barca's lead before the interval.

Valdes saved Barca six minutes into the second period, plucking a left-wing volley from Sevilla from under the crossbar.

The game continued from end-to-end at a frantic pace without many clear-cut chances until Barca's Javier Mascherano struck his own post whilst trying to clear a corner with twenty minutes remaining.

Jorge Molina then hit a post with a fierce shot while at the other end Adrian blocked well from Pedro Rodriguez before Jordi Alba hit the bar when he should have scored.

Barca were in danger of conceding until the end but held on for a vital three points where rivals Real Madrid lost 1-0 only two weeks ago.

The win keeps Barca six points ahead of Atletico Madrid at the top of La Liga who had earlier thrashed Deportivo La Coruna 6-0.

Falcao became the first La Liga player in a decade to score five to keep the pressure on Barca.

He had already hit a double along with a Diego Costa header to put Atletico out of sight by half-time, his second smashed on the half-volley direct from a throw-in.

He completed his hat-trick with a second-half penalty before hitting two more to make him the first player to hit five in a La Liga game since Fernando Morientes for Real Madrid against Las Palmas in 2002.

It was Atletico's eighth straight home win of the campaign.

A hapless looking Deportivo side remain bottom of the table on 11 points, level with Espanyol.

Also on Sunday, Levante thrashed Mallorca 4-0 with goals from Obafemi Martins, David Navarro, Ruben Garcia and Vicente Iborra to move into sixth position.

A first-half header from Aritz Aduriz, his ninth of the season, was enough for Athletic to edge a competitive encounter with Celta Vigo.

On Saturday Real Madrid kept in touch with a 3-2 win at Valladolid, but remain five points behind Atletico in third.

-AFP/ac

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