Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has signed a new two-year contract on the eve of a Premier League season that was expected to be the Chilean's last with the club.

Pellegrini, 61, was going into the last year of his original three-year agreement, with speculation rife that City were planning to replace him with Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola next summer.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal says he will not play goalkeeper David De Gea in the opening English Premier League game against Tottenham on Saturday.

De Gea has been strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Alzain Tareq led the parade of swimmers to the starting blocks for the first heat of the 50-meter butterfly at the world championships.

Carrying a white towel, the 10-year-old girl from Bahrain was dwarfed by the taller and much older girls in her heat. A buzz quickly built among spectators in the stands at Kazan Arena, startled at the sight of the tiny figure on the blocks.

Divided politically and geographically, Palestinians made strides toward unity with the first football match between a West Bank club and a Gaza Strip team in 15 years on Thursday.

Gaza's Shijaiyah United played Hebron's Al-Ahly to raucous cheers in a packed stadium. The match ended 0-0.

While Argentina may have expected to be in this position, South Africa didn't.

Both go searching for a desperately needed first win in the Rugby Championship when they meet on Saturday, knowing the Rugby World Cup is just around the corner and three straight losses will be pretty tough to get over, especially for the South Africans.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. began promoting his final fight by doing what he does best.

Fending off every attack with defense that looks effortless.

The Italian tennis federation has banned Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace for life for match-fixing.

The federation performed its own investigation after a probe by judicial authorities in Cremona that used intercepted phone and internet conversations to show the players fixed matches.

Spain has scaled back the search for world free diving champion Natalia Molchanova who went missing during a weekend dive near the holiday island of Ibiza as hopes faded on Thursday that she will be found.

"You can't search indefinitely. We will search on the surface until Sunday," a police spokesman on Spain's Balearic islands said.

El Hadji Diouf's reputation for sublime footwork and turbulent tantrums is known around the globe, but after glory at the World Cup and in England's Premier League the veteran striker now wants political success in his native Senegal.

The 34-year-old, who made his name in the Senegal side that beat World Cup holders France in the opening game of the 2002 tournament in South Korea, is now close to the end of his career with Sabah FC in Malaysia's second division.

River Plate clinched their third Copa Libertadores title here Wednesday with a 3-0 victory over Tigres to shatter the Mexican side's dream of winning South America's most prestigious club tournament for the first time.

Goals from Lucas Alario, Carlos Sanchez and Ramiro Funes Mori sealed a 3-0 aggregate victory for the Argentine giants after last week's first leg in Mexico had finished in a 0-0 draw.