Wallabies flyhalf Quade Cooper has described the environment within the Australian team as "toxic" in the latest of a series of public comments which appear to challenge the authority of coach Robbie Deans and the Australian Rugby Union.

Cooper, who is sidelined for several weeks after knee surgery, began to post a series of Twitter comments from Thursday which appeared to criticize the conservative style the Wallabies have adopted under Deans. Cooper drew a contrast with the more open style he is able to play at the Queensland Reds Super 15 team, under former Wallabies assistant coach Ewen McKenzie.

AC Milan's woeful start to the season got even worse after having two players sent off in a 2-1 loss at struggling Udinese in Serie A on Sunday.

The loss heaped more pressure on Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri, although he remained defiant despite starting the season with just one win and three defeats in Serie A.

Robin van Persie's penalty kick gave Manchester United a 2-1 victory over 10-man Liverpool on Sunday, settling a heated Premier League meeting between the fierce rivals after emotional tributes were paid to the Hillsborough disaster victims.

Van Persie beat Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina in the 81st minute after Antonio Valencia was fouled by Glen Johnson to secure United's first win at Anfield since December 2007.

Hundreds of young Arabs joyfully screamed out obscenities, encouraged by the handsome, gay Lebanese lead singer at the concert in Jordan's capital. Police looked on worriedly. People outside asked what was going on.

It was a performance by the band Mashrou Leila, which uses a hybrid of velvety Lebanese slang and European instruments to address difficult, sometimes taboo issues of Middle Eastern societies. Lyrics of love and angst are intertwined with more difficult, sometimes taboo issues, with issues like poverty, premarital sex and homosexuality in this deeply homophobic region.

An avalanche swept away climbers on a Himalayan peak in Nepal on Sunday, leaving at least nine dead and six others missing, officials said.

Police official Basanta Bahadur Kuwar said the bodies of a Nepalese guide and German man were recovered and that rescue pilots have spotted seven other bodies on the slopes of Mount Manaslu in northern Nepal. The mountain is the eighth highest in the world.

A suicide bomber who tried to ram an explosives-packed car into a church in Nigeria on Sunday killed a woman and a child while badly wounding dozens more, the Red Cross said.

The attacker targeted the St. John's Catholic Church in the northern city of Bauchi, where tight security was imposed after a wave church bombings claimed by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.

The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour took its final flight Friday, making a spectacular series of flypasts over California before landing in Los Angeles where it will retire near its birthplace.

Riding piggyback on a specially fitted Boeing 747, the shuttle flew over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge before heading south to take in the Hollywood sign and Disneyland, later landing at LA international airport (LAX).

Advisers to European Union regulators have recommended approval of a new anti-clotting drug for use by adults with a common irregular heart rhythm that boosts risk of strokes or blood clots, drugmakers Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Pfizer Inc. said.

The drug, Eliquis, is a crucial one for the two companies, which have been slammed by new generic competition slashing sales of their top-selling drugs. Meanwhile, the partners are trailing competitors in a three-way race for global market share in a new class of anti-clotting drugs expected to be blockbusters, with sales well over $1 billion a year.

New research powerfully strengthens the case against soda and other sugary drinks as culprits in the obesity epidemic.

A huge, decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans has yielded the first clear proof that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person's risk of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone.

John Travolta says privacy laws should shield celebrities from the kind of exposure suffered by Kate Middleton.

Gossip magazines have published topless pictures of Prince William's wife taken during a private holiday.