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Barça go to Mestalla tonight (22.00h CET) for the first of a series of tough away matches. Xavi and Alves are back after missing the Mallorca game, and Guardiola will also travel.

With the aim of fostering vocational training in Catalonia, the Catalan Government approved a decree to modify it today. All students will have to learn foreign languages. Combining studies and a job will be easier. Programmes’ curriculum will be adapted to sector needs and student requirements.

Spain saw 2010 end with 9.24% of public deficit; 4.97% corresponds to the Spanish Government, 3.39% to the autonomous communities and 0.64% to the local administrations. According to the Spanish Government, half of the autonomous communities saw the year come to an end far away from the objective of 2.4% - Catalonia included. The Catalan Government emphasised that the Spanish Government cut down the revenues of the autonomous communities.

Thanks to exports, 2010 was a great year for the Catalan cava industry. The total revenue reached 1,031 million euros, 10.87% more than 2009.

Tito Vilanova, the FC Barcelona assistant coach, has confessed to a press conference that Barça never find it easy to travel to Mestalla. “We have always found Valencia hard. We’ve never won there” he said.

The festival consolidates its position in the animation movies industry. Chinese professionals bought Catalan-made products. A documentary film on the score composers of Disney movies kicked off the festival. The festival was held in Lleida from Thursday evening to last Sunday.

The Islamic intellectual, Tariq Ramadan was interviewed by CNA. “We are afraid of the arrival of immigrants, but the best thing to do is develop the countries of origin”. The grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder criticised Europe’s lack of commitment with the democratization of the Muslim world as revolts go on and racism grows in countries like Switzerland and Spain.

The industrial holding of the main Catalan savings bank, ‘la Caixa’, made 1,823 million euros of net profit in 2010. Criteria will be the embryo of La Caixa’s new private bank, which will be called CaixaBank.

FC Barcelona may have been without Valdés, Alves, Puyol and Xavi for the game in Mallorca, but they again demonstrated the depth in talent that Guardiola has at his disposal. Messi, Villa and Pedro were on target in the 3-0 win and Montoya made his first team debut.

The Mediterranean Railway Corridor has been constantly overlooked even though it is a key infrastructure for Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia, Andalucía,and also for Spain and even the European Union. In the last few years, the Socialist Spanish Government was constantly pushing for the Central Pyrenees Corridor (going through the Pyrenees in Aragon) for electoral and regional equilibrium reasons but the Mediterranean one was hardly mentioned. Is the EU going to include the Mediterranean Railway Corridor in its agenda?

The Spanish Government gave eight autonomous communities the green light to issue a fixed amount of new debt in order to refinance old loans. With this, Catalonia will be able to issue new debt of 1,866 million euros. However, 1,090 million of this will be used on old healthcare payments from 2006.

Top chefs such as Ferran Adrià, Carme Ruscalleda and the Roca brothers gave talks at the cuisine and gastronomy congress. The Fòrum Gastronòmic held in Girona is one of the top fairs of its kind in Europe.

Pep Guardiola has full faith in the players in the FC Barcelona squad and doesn’t think it will matter that five of them are out for the game in Mallorca on Saturday.

The Catalan company, which manages transport infrastructures, increased its net profit by 6.1% in comparison to 2009. Abertis announced yesterday it would split its business in two different companies.

Xavi Hernandez downplayed the seriousness of the injury that will keep him sidelined for between 7 and 10 days. The midfielder hopes to be available for next Wednesday's match with València.