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Rome - AC Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo Thursday denied through his club's website saying he could leave for Chelsea at the end of the season.

The 30-year-old Italian international had been quoted by an Irish newspaper as saying that he didn't know if he was going to stay at Milan.

Perhaps its possible that I could join (former Milan coach Carlo) Ancelotti in London," Pirlo was quoted as saying by the Irish Independent after Italy beat the US 3-1 in its opening Confederations Cup match in Pretoria, South Africa.

London, June 18 : Barcelona is set to launch a 17 million pound bid for Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina.

The news comes after the European champions saw their contract talks with current number one Victor Valdes break down.

Valdes, who has a year left on his contract, has been pushing for parity with Xavi, who is paid 150,000 pounds a week.

Barcelona is confident they can lure back the Anfield stopper, who began his career at the Nou Camp.

Harare - The failure by Zimbabwe's new power-sharing government to tackle the "grim and precarious" human rights situation in the country could lead to more violence in the run-up to the next elections, Amnesty International warned Thursday.

The head of the New York-based rights watchdog, Irene Khan, was speaking to reporters in Harare at the end of her six-day inspection visit to the southern African country - the first ever by an Amnesty secretary-general to Zimbabwe.

Islamabad, June 18 : Sindh Prosecutor General, Shahadat Awan, has told the Pakistan Supreme Court that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rightly been convicted in the plane hijacking case.

During the hearing of Sharif's appeal against his conviction in the October 1999 plane hijacking case, Awan told the apex court that the Sindh High Court was right while convicting the appellant, as there were ample evidence against him.

Frankfurt - Italian essayist Claudio Magris, 70, was picked Thursday as winner of one of Europe's most prestigious annual culture prizes, the 25,000-euro (34,750-dollar) German Book Trade Peace Prize.

Magris, a retired professor of German, has written fiction and a stream of books about 20th-century history, has translated many German authors into Italian and writes newspaper and magazine articles.

He is often seen as an Italian front-runner to win the Nobel Literature Prize.

New Delhi, June 18 : Pawan Kumar Bansal assumed charge as the Union Minister for Water Resources here today.

He was welcomed by Vincent Pala, Minister of State for Water Resources, U. N. Punjiar, Secretary and other senior officers of the Ministry.