Obama's UN General Assembly speech condemns extremism

Mr Obama said it was the obligation of all leaders to speak out forcefully against violence and extremism, as he framed his speech with references to the US ambassador murdered in Libya.

Unrest across the Middle East is set to dominate discussion at the summit.

Mr Obama also again stressed the US would not allow Iran nuclear weapons.

He said the US would "do what we must" to stop Tehran acquiring nuclear arms. Six weeks before the US election, the president said a nuclear-armed Iran was "not a challenge that can be contained".
'Marginalise hatred'

Iran's nuclear programme and the 18-month conflict in Syria have featured strongly in Tuesday's speeches at the Assembly, as have the recent protests across the Muslim world in response to a US-made video mocking the Prophet Muhammad.

The US president condemned the violence that erupted over the "disgusting" anti-Islam video as "an attack on UN ideals".

Referring to the US envoy who was killed in Benghazi on 11 September during protests sparked by the video, Mr Obama challenged the UN to affirm that "our future will be determined by people like Christopher Stevens, and not by his killers".

"It is time to marginalise those who - even when not resorting to violence - use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as a central principle of politics," said Mr Obama.

"That brand of politics only makes it harder to achieve what we must do together: educating our children and creating the opportunities they deserve; protecting human rights and extending democracy's promise." Continue reading

Roberto Mancini angered by touchline spat with Lambert

Mancini clashed with Lambert during City's 4-2 Capital One Cup defeat.
"I am tired with these managers," said Mancini. "I didn't say nothing to him [Lambert]. There are some managers it is better to shut up.
"I asked only the fourth official if there was a yellow card, without moving my hands, and he comes over to me."

Mancini was upset by a tackle from Villa's Joe Bennett on City midfielder Gareth Barry, which led to his confrontation with Lambert. 

"I didn't speak with him," said Mancini. "I asked the fourth official if it was a yellow card because I thought the referee had forgotten his yellow cards in the dressing room.

"I don't know what is the reason. I can understand if I was talking to him but I didn't say nothing."
The Italian has had previous run-ins with Manchester United counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson, who accused Mancini of "haranguing the officials" during a Manchester derby.

City's boss has also been involved in spats with Everton coach David Moyes and Fulham manager Mark Hughes.

"I am very tired with their behaviour," added Mancini. "Sometimes these managers go to the big stadiums and the other manager says everything and they say nothing.

"When they go to [Old] Trafford, they say nothing. When other managers talk about the referee they always sit on the bench.

"I don't like this type of behaviour."
Lambert refused to get drawn into a slanging match with Mancini as he shrugged off the comments.

"If that's what he said then fine," said the Scot. "I respect him as a manager and an ex-player.

"It wasn't really a spat. It was nothing."

City twice led through goals by Mario Balotelli and Aleksandar Kolarov against Villa, who equalised each time through a Barry own goal and Gabriel Agbonlahor strike.

Charles N'Zogbia and Agbonlahor then scored in extra time to leave Premier League champions City without a win in four games.

"We don't play well and this is my fault because I am the manager," said Mancini. "Now I shall find the solution quickly as we have important games
.
"We can improve. We can get out of this situation by hard work."

He added: "Our problem is that we don't play very well and our play is too slow.

"It is the fourth [most important] competition clearly but we are disappointed because it is the only trophy I have not won."

Nemanja Vidic: Manchester United defender has knee surgery

Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic has been ruled out for eight weeks following a knee operation.

Vidic missed Sunday's Premier League win at Liverpool after complaining of tightness in his right knee.
However, further tests revealed the problem to be more severe than initially expected and the centre-back was forced to undergo surgery.

The 30-year-old Serb missed the final five months of last season with a ruptured cruciate knee ligament.

"Nemanja Vidic has had a meniscus operation on his right knee and will be out for around eight weeks," read a club statement. 
 
"Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson rested Vidic as a precautionary measure at the weekend after he complained of tightness in his knee. However, further medical investigation revealed the underlying problem.

"The central defender was operated on this week and will be sidelined for about eight weeks."
It is the latest defensive blow for United, who have suffered injuries to fellow centre-backs Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.

Smalling was sidelined for 10 weeks in July with a broken metatarsal and Jones for eight weeks in early September with a knee complaint.

Vidic joined United from Spartak Moscow in 2006 and has scored 17 goals in 246 appearances for the Old Trafford club.

John Terry's FA disciplinary hearing goes into third day

The Chelsea captain, 31, is facing an independent hearing into the incident which occurred in October 2011.

 Terry attended the hearing on Tuesday before leaving early to lead Chelsea in their Capital One cup win over Wolves .

 Blues defender Ashley Cole is expected to give evidence to the hearing on Wednesday.

 Chelsea assistant manager Eddie Newton said Terry had been eager to lead the side against Wolves, even though a final decision on his selection was only made on Tuesday afternoon.

“John has been very positive and wanted to play and do what he does for the team” Eddie Newton Chelsea assistant manager "We wanted John to start," Newton said. "Obviously, with everything happening with the FA, we had to see how it panned out.

 "We had a phone call (saying) he was making his way back from the FA nice and early, so it wasn't last minute. "We'd covered all the bases, all the scenarios, and the best one happened. We've been talking to John and seeing what his mindset is.

 "He's been very positive and wanted to play and do what he does for the team." Meanwhile, former Chelsea coach Ray Wilkins has said he is prepared to go to the FA hearing to support the player. He said: "I gave evidence on his behalf at the magistrates' court and I would do so again at the FA hearing, if they wish me to.

" This hearing is different to the court case earlier this summer which was open to the media, with all witnesses and proceedings known in advance.

 "This one is not so transparent," explained BBC Sport's Richard Conway. "Perhaps the reason for this is keeping things confidential in terms of the FA procedures but we're not entirely sure where things are and whether the defence has finished their case. "But the expectation is that the hearing should have ended by the end of the week and we may have a verdict shortly after that."
  

Arsene Wenger backs 'unhappy' Andrey Arshavin

The Russia international, 31, has made just one substitute appearance this season but could start in the Capital One Cup match at Emirates Stadium.

"He's unhappy he doesn't play because he deeply loves football and practises with 100% commitment," said

"I'm happy to give him some competition on Wednesday night." 

Arshavin joined Arsenal from Zenit St Petersburg in February 2009 and has scored 30 goals in 137 games for the club.

He enjoyed a spectacular start to life in England, scoring all of his side's goals in their 4-4 draw at Liverpool that season.

Arshavin netted 22 times over the next two campaigns, but only twice in 2011-12 before being loaned back to Zenit in February.

He returned to Arsenal in the summer and came on after 77 minutes of their 0-0 draw with Sunderland on the opening day of the season.

"I have personally a great respect for Andrey because sometimes some wrong ideas circulated about him - that he doesn't care, but it's completely the opposite," explained Wenger.

"He's a 200% professional who works very hard every day in training. At the moment he's a victim of the high level of competition that exists for places.

"I think he has huge respect from everybody in the dressing room, and especially from the staff."
The Frenchman said left-back Andre Santos is another experienced player who will be involved against League One strugglers Coventry in the third-round clash.

Youngsters Hector Bellerin, Kris Olsson, Serge Gnabry, Nico Yennaris, Craig Eastmond and Ignasi Miquel are also expected to play a part.

"Serge Gnabry is a great hope for the future," Wenger added. "He has had some injuries [but] if he continues his development, I think he could play in the first team this season.

"He is in the category of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott - guys who have great power, great pace and good dribbling skills. [He has] goal-scoring potential and good vision as well for the final ball."

Arsenal secured their first victory of the season in impressive style at Anfield as they won comfortably against a desperately poor Liverpool.

Arsene Wenger's summer signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla scored their first goals for the club either side of the interval to leave new manager Brendan Rodgers presiding over Liverpool's worst start since 1962-63.

Arsenal had the game's outstanding performers in Cazorla and Abou Diaby and a third successive clean sheet will also have delighted Wenger and his new right-hand man Steve Bould.
The difficulties are mounting swiftly for Rodgers. He has to deal with a shortage of attacking resources after Liverpool failed to replace Andy Carroll following his loan move to West Ham United.

 

Rodgers seeks 'technical' improvement

Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal
And to make matters worse, the decline of goalkeeper Pepe Reina continues as he was again badly at fault for Cazorla's second goal that settled the destiny of the points.

That followed his mistake that allowed David Templeton's shot to go through him against Hearts in the Europa League on Thursday.

These are crucial early days for Rodgers and their next league test is a difficult trip to Sunderland.
Raheem Sterling, just 17, offered moments of hope for Liverpool but they were few and far between as more experienced and illustrious team-mates failed to exert any influence over affairs.

Arsenal were dominant in all areas, with Diaby ruling midfield and Cazorla proving what a bargain he is after a £15m move from Malaga.

For two managers who pride themselves on the passing game, Rodgers and Wenger will have been aghast at the number of careless passes and errors that littered an undistinguished first period.

And it was from one such moment of careless, with Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard the culprit, that Arsenal took the lead after 31 minutes.

Gerrard conceded possession as he tried to find Luis Suarez, allowing Cazorla to surge forward and play in Podolski for a clinical finish that the German striker took with great expertise.Continue reading

You can doubt other athletes all you want. They will fail, if only occasionally. They will bend to the laws of physics and physiology.

The same rules do not apply to Usain Bolt.
In retaining his Olympic 100m title in 9.63 seconds despite being, by his own admission, only 95% fit and after a season in which he has been beaten, injured and questioned like never before, the 25-year-old Jamaican reminded the watching world of something we were in danger of forgetting: he is not like the rest of us.

Bolt beats Blake to win 100m gold

Bolt does not just make the impossible real; he can make it almost mundane.
His time of 9.69 seconds in the 2008 Olympic final once blew minds and reset parameters seemingly forever. Now that time is relegated to the footnotes, a metre down on his London calling card and more than 0.1 secs off his wondrous world best.
Sunday night's unequivocal excellence, however, was not about the numbers. Bolt came to these Olympics with a simple, singular aim: to confirm his status, once and for all, as a legend of the sport.
You might reasonably think he had already done enough. Bolt, a student of sprinting and its history, did not.
To him, his Beijing sprint double was a task only half completed. Only by retaining both titles, something no other man in history has ever done, would he be satisfied.
Even as the afternoon hours ticked away, there were still grave misgivings about his chances. Yohan Blake had beaten him - twice - at the Jamaican trials just a few weeks ago.
Bolt had not run since. Instead he had sought treatment from sports doctor Hans Muller-Wohlfahrt, his back and hamstrings said to be as unreliable as his summer form.
When Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion, won the night's first semi-final in 9.82 secs, the quickest ever showing at that stage of a competition, the doubts swelled further. With fellow American Tyson Gay, the second fastest man in history, also going to his blocks, this was the highest quality field ever assembled in a major global final.

"He wasn't the best out of the blocks but he didn't need to be. He has got so much more than the rest of these guys. It is the strongest field there has ever been in this event but they cannot touch Usain Bolt."

Oh ye of little faith.

Bolt not only got out fast - quicker than either Blake or Gatlin - but he left his rivals behind as if sucked away by a jet-engine's thrust.
Blake's 9.75 secs for silver was nowhere. Neither was Gatlin's 9.79 secs for bronze. Both were personal bests, yet in a narrative written by Bolt's brilliance, these things are reduced to afterthoughts.
London, stunned and screaming, had witnessed the quickest 100m final ever.
Seven men went under 10 seconds, beating the previous record of six, achieved at both the 1991 World Championships and 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The times for the athletes finishing from third to seventh were the fastest ever registered for those positions.
Had Asafa Powell not popped his groin and limped over the line, all eight finalists would have gone under 10 seconds for the first time in history. Since Powell's nominal 11.99 seconds would have won the 100m final at the first Olympics in 1896, there was neatness regardless.
With Bolt away in a golden blur, none of it mattered anyway.

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Bolt's joy after retaining 100m title

You could lose yourself in arguments about how Sunday's time compared to his Berlin best - a tailwind of 1.5 m/s here to 2009's 0.9 m/s, the comparatively fresh 17 Celsius of London less conducive to record-breaking than Germany's mid-summer warmth.
To do so would be to neglect the impact this man has on the wider world.
There is good reason one million people applied for tickets for Sunday night's session at the Olympic Stadium. This is not just the biggest single contest in the planet's biggest sporting occasion, but one of a finite number of opportunities to witness the greatest sprinter that has ever lived do what no athlete has ever done before.
Every Olympic 100m champion in the last 32 years was there to watch - Maurice Greene, Donovan Bailey, Linford Christie, Carl Lewis and Alan Wells.
Since Bolt is more than just athletics, it did not stop at sprinters. At one point, I looked around to see Lennox Lewis, John McEnroe and Kobe Bryant all within hailing distance.
Bolt worked for this win. The strength of the field meant he could not celebrate from 15 metres out as he had four years ago.
It merely made for a superior script. Only in Gatlin's bronze, after two long doping bans and a reputation at rock-bottom within the sport, could there be displeasure.

Bolt clowns around after winning his gold

That Gay, universally liked by his peers and undervalued by the public at large, should miss out on his first Olympic medal by 0.01 secs to a man like Gatlin and leave the track in tears was a sad sub-plot.
Gay has run two of the five fastest 100m races of all time - 9.69 secs in Shanghai three years ago and 9.71 secs in Berlin the same summer. Because he has done so in the era and races of Bolt, only the aficionados will pay sufficient dues.
Bolt, as ever, was in the mood for partying - cavorting, clowning, delighting the capacity crowd with his full range of showman celebrations.
"People can talk," he shrugged afterwards, in a brief moment of sober reflection. "All they can do is talk. I brought it. I know what I need to do."
That may well have been Bolt's last ever Olympic 100m. Few sprinters maintain a physical peak across eight years or a mental desire to stay at the top once they have conquered every challenge confronting them.
By the time the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro come around, Bolt will be approaching his 30th birthday. If track still holds his focus, it is more likely to be over one lap than the single straight, the goal an unprecedented domination of three distances should the pain of 400m running not turn his sated stomach.

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"To be the second-fastest man in the world behind Bolt is an honour. He is the fastest man in the world and I've got a silver medal. What more can I ask for?"
Yohan Blake, Olympic 100m silver medallist

In case any of us were feeling a little wistful for that reason, or that a contest so eagerly anticipated for so long is over in such a beautiful blink of the eye, Bolt gave us a little reminder before he left the stadium that something even more stunning may be just round the curve.

"I really want to do something special in my 200m," he said, teasingly, to reporters waiting to interview after his 100m triumph.
His own world record of 19.19 seconds? Incredibly, impossibly, the 19-second barrier itself?
"It's been on my mind for years and years," he said, with as straight a face as he ever could.
"This season, on this track, feeling confident... we'll see."