Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has warned his players few of them can count on their place in his team after his understudies took centre-stage.

Fulham 3 Charlton 0

Team news for the Second Round of the Capital One Cup.

Geneva authorities are investigating the disappearance of a pink diamond estimated to be worth around €41m from a reputable storage firm for gems, according to a news report.

Arsenal 4 Coventry 0

Tottenham Hotspur 3 Coventry City 0

Scott Parker made his first start of the season as Tottenham looked to avoid an upset against Coventry in the third round of the FA Cup.

Arsenal 6 Coventry 1

Arsenal 6 Coventry 1

Egypt’s presidential race is boiling down to a contest between Hosni Mubarak’s former foreign minister and two Islamists with strong bases of support after the election commission released the final list of 13 candidates today.

Wigan’s great escape last season has given manager Roberto Martinez the confidence they can pull themselves out of their current horrendous run of form.

Libya’s rebel administration wants Niger to stop providing refuge to senior figures of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, according to the country’s ambassador.

A police commander who agreed to give evidence backing claims that Egypt’s former government ordered protesters to be shot went back on his word today.

Sharp divisions prevented Nato from adopting a plan for military airstrikes against Libya today, with Turkish opposition blocking the alliance from approving a strategy.

WESTERN forces pounded Libya’s air defences and patrolled its skies yesterday, but their intervention hit a serious diplomatic setback as the head of the Arab League condemned the “bombardment of civilians”.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi tightened his grip on the coastal road linking his territory to the rebel-controlled east today, pushing forward the front line in Libya's gruelling internal conflict.

The Arab League asked the UN Security Council today to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians from air attack by forces of Muammar Gaddafi's embattled government, giving crucial backing to a key demand of the rebel forces battling to oust the Libyan leader.

Fulham striker Moussa Dembele will be out for only two to three weeks, manager Mark Hughes confirmed this morning.

Fulham boss Mark Hughes hopes Moussa Dembele will fill the void left by Bobby Zamora’s injury-enforced absence.

Fulham have signed 28-cap Belgium striker Moussa Dembele from AZ Alkmaar on a three-year contract, the Premier League club announced this afternoon.

Hamas security forces killed the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip today in a shootout that claimed the lives of 22 people, Hamas said.

Islamic radicals from an al-Qaida-inspired group battled Hamas security in the Gaza Strip today in shootouts that killed at least 13 people.

MINISTER for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, said there is an urgent need for a settlement in the Middle East and the establishment of an independent, democratic, Palestinian state, which is one of Ireland’s strong foreign policy objectives.

Doncaster 5 Southend 1

Syrian President Bashar Assad questioned how long Arab nations can keep offering Israel a land-for-peace proposal, as the Arab League chief today called for Arabs to meet later this year to evaluate negotiations with Israel.

Saudi authorities today beheaded an Ethiopian woman convicted of killing an Egyptian man over a dispute, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The Iraqi government and Arab countries are engaged in bitter squabbling on the eve of a Baghdad conference that America hoped would finally unite them in efforts to stabilise the war-torn nation.

President Vladimir Putin and Arab League chief Amr Moussa today called for an international conference on the Iraq conflict and the Middle East, according to reports.

Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo today to promote a plan to revive the deadlocked Middle East peace process amid wide Arab fears the recent war in Lebanon helped boost the influence of Iran and the militants it supports.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said today that Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut would discuss the possibility of holding an emergency summit on Lebanon later this week.

The annual Arab League summit was sharply divided even before it began in Sudan today, with late-night wrangling over the wording of the final declaration and the absence of a number of key leaders at a meeting meant to tackle the region’s tricky problems.

Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni ex-military men from the Saddam Hussein regime and abducted 50 hostages.

Israel’s Cabinet today approved an immediate freeze on the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority, in a first response to Hamas militants’ takeover of the Palestinian parliament.

Syrian Prosecutor-General Ghada Murad has invited the chief UN investigator into the assassination of Rafik Hariri for talks on co-ordinating his probe with Syria’s newly appointed investigation.

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, arrived in Baghdad today on his first visit to Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein to discuss plans for an Iraqi reconciliation conference.

Iraq faces the imminent threat of civil war as it approaches next week’s constitutional referendum, the secretary general of the Arab League warned today.

THE frail baby boy she cradles has arms no thicker than her finger. His belly has hollowed and his skin has sagged as his weight has dropped.

AIDES of a radical Shi’ite cleric met yesterday with a key Sunni group seeking to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq, while gunmen killed a top trade ministry official as a spree of violence that followed the announcement of a new government entered its fourth week.

The director general of the Iraqi Trade Ministry and his driver were killed by gunmen today in western Baghdad.

SYRIAN president Bashar Assad made moves to assuage protesters in Beirut and western governments yesterday and said he will “soon” take steps to withdraw his army from Lebanese areas.

Syria will “soon” take steps to withdraw its army from Lebanese areas in accordance with a 1989 agreement, the Arab League chief said today.

Iraq’s election was a step in the right direction for peace and stability in the Middle East but it was only a first step, the head of the Arab League has said.

Arab countries say that the Sudanese government needs more time to end the crisis in its troubled western Darfur region, where purportedly state-backed Arab militias are accused of killing thousands of African villagers.

THE Arab League chief pledged support for Sudan's government before an emergency meeting on the violence that has killed thousands in that country's Darfur region.