Liberec, Czech Republic - Justyna Kowalczyk attacked on the final turn to win a first cross-country skiing world title for the Polish women on Saturday, in the
15-kilometres pursuit.

Kowalczyk, 26, passed long-time leader Kristin Stoermer Steira of Norway and crossed the finish line in 40 minutes 55.3 seconds.

Steira trailed by 1.7 seconds as she missed out on a major individual title yet again despite setting a fierce pace. Thursday's 10km world champion Aino Kaisa Saarinen of Finland came third, 8.0 seconds behind the winner.

Prague - The European Union condemns Israeli plans for settlement expansion in the West Bank, the Czech EU presidency said in a statement delivered on behalf of the 27-member bloc.

The EU called on Israel in the statement issued late Friday to reconsider plans for construction in the vicinity of the Adam settlement in the West Bank, as it would violate international law and Israel's commitments made to the Palestinians in the Annapolis peace talks.

The union said that expansion of the settlements "is a major obstacle to peace in the Middle East."

Liberec, Czech Republic - Justyna Kowalczyk attacked on the final turn to win a first cross-country skiing world title for the Polish women on Saturday, in the
15-kilometres pursuit.

Kowalczyk, 26, passed long-time leader Kristin Stoermer Steira of Norway and crossed the finish line in 40 minutes 55.3 seconds.

Steira trailed by 1.7 seconds as she missed out on a major individual title yet again. She has a relay gold from the 2005 worlds, a 30km silver 2007, plus pursuit bronze 2005 and 2007 to go with Saturday's silver.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Ski-jumper Lindsey Van and Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick of the United States beat German rivals for two historic world championship titles on Friday.

Van, 24, won the inaugural ski-jumping competition for women when she beat Ulrike Graessler and Norwegian Anette Sagen.

Lodwick, 32, came out of retirement to win the only Nordic combined mass start event to be contested at the worlds, with Tino Edelmann second and Frenchman Jason Lamy-Chappuis third.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Todd Lodwick of the United States capped his return to Nordic combined skiing on Friday when he won the world title in the mass start event.

Lodwick, 32, soared 100.5 metres and 97.5 metres for a winning total of 296.0 points from the jumps and Thursday's 10-kilometres cross-country mass start race win.

Prague  - French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis is set to take control of the Czech generics maker Zentiva as smaller shareholders agreed to sell their stakes in the company.

Czech financial group J&T, which holds a 7.6 per cent stake in Zentiva through a subsidiary, said Friday it had accepted Sanofi- Aventis' buyout offer of 1,150 koruny (51 dollars) per share.