SOCCER

Manchester United transfer news today focuses on speculation that United are scouting Serbian starlet Alen Stevanovic, one dubbed the new Cristiano Ronaldo.'

Kobe Bryant is the star of a new Nike Italy ad campaign, featuring a host of soccer stars, as the man brought in to help put an end to vigilantes overtaking the city of Milan.

The Knicks' burgeoning star has been subjected to racial comments from broadcasters for being Asian.

Avram Grant, manager of Partizan Belgrade, has claimed that Iranian side Sepahan Isfahan cancelled a friendly game with his team because he is Israeli.

Argentine soccer phenom Lionel Messi stormed into second behind Portuguese sensation Cristiano Ronaldo in the running for the European Golden Shoe award, following a stunning performance in Barcelona's 5-1 dominating victory over Valencia, where he racked up four goals in a row.

A prominent former soccer boss and a referees director were handed long jail terms for bribery and match-fixing in China on Saturday as part of a massive anti-graft drive aimed at cleaning up the corruption-blighted local game.

According to the Xinhua news agency, Lu Jun -- a referee at the 2002 World Cup -- was sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court in the northeastern city of Dandong to five years and six months for accepting bribes.

Following Arsenal's 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Milan yesterday, manager Arsène Wenger has slammed the occasion as his side's worst night in Europe.

An Egyptian parliamentary inquiry into the deaths of 74 people in a soccer stadium disaster has found both fans and lax security to blame for the worst incident of its kind in the country's history, the legislator leading it said on Sunday.

Suarez ignored Evra’s outstretched hands and chose instead to greet United goalkeeper David de Gea, at Old Trafford in Manchester.

Rafael Nadal has hit out at what he called a general campaign in France to discredit Spanish athletes by implying their success is due to the use of illegal drugs. The Spanish tennis federation (RFET) said it would sue French TV broadcaster Canal+.

CNN indefinitely suspended political pundit Roland Martin Wednesday over a series of tweets about David Beckham's Super Bowl underwear ad after gay rights groups interpreted it to be homophobic.

Journalist Roland Martin was suspended indefinitely from CNN today, after coming under criticism for a Super Bowl tweet that many found homophobic

Egypt's military-dominated government said Sunday it was preparing to move ousted President Hosni Mubarak to a Cairo prison hospital in an apparent bid to calm protests, but clashes continued with police firing tear gas at demonstrators hurling rocks and broken tiles.

The high-level diplomatic setback came after world leaders and Syrian opposition activists accused Assad's forces of a massacre in a sustained shelling of Homs, the bloodiest episode in 11 months of upheaval in the pivotal Arab country.

Wednesday's soccer riot in Egypt has was the fuel for the latest round of protests against the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Protesters laid siege to Egypt's Interior Ministry Friday, extending a rally against the military-led government into a second day in a show of anger triggered by the deaths of 74 people in the country's worst ever soccer disaster.

On Thursday, a riot broke out at a stadium in Port Said, Egypt following a soccer match between rivals Al-Masry and Al-Ahly. The home team, Al-Masry, earned a surprising 3-1 victory over Al-Ahly, the top team in Egypt's top professional league.

Seventy-four people were killed during riots following a soccer match in Egypt on Wednesday night, and furious Egyptians have again turned their anger to the ruling Supreme Council of the armed forces.

Egypt continues to feel the effects of the 2011 Revolution.

Egyptian activists and politicians are blaming Egyptian security for the chaotic riot at a soccer stadium in Port Said that killed 74 people and injured hundreds of others Wednesday night.