It is a sign of the changed days at Stamford Bridge that Chelsea go into a Champions League clash with Valencia on Tuesday as the example of stability and long-term planning.
The Europa League winners return to European football's top tier under new management in Frank Lampard and having ushered in a new era where youth will be given its chance to shine rather than depending on the deep pockets of Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
There have been a few early bumps in the road for Lampard, a returning hero for the fans after scoring a club record 211 goals and winning 13 trophies, including Chelsea's only Champions League crown, as a player.
A 4-0 opening day defeat to Manchester United and blowing a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at home to newly-promoted Sheffield United exposed the frailties in relying on an inexperienced core of players.
But Lampard's faith in youth has largely been justified.
Led by a hat-trick from Tammy Abraham, Chelsea thrashed Wolves 5-2 on Saturday to move level with ...

Chelsea's new project bearing fruit as Valencia self-destruct

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Jurgen Klopp has warned Liverpool that retaining the Champions League will be even harder than their incredible march to victory in Madrid last season.
Klopp's side start their bid to win a seventh European Cup with a trip to Napoli for their Group E opener on Tuesday.
The Reds have reached the last two Champions League finals, beating Tottenham in the Spanish capital in June after losing to Real Madrid 12 months earlier.
But Klopp believes Liverpool face a daunting task to make it to the final in Istanbul's Ataturk Stadium -- a venue which carries extra resonance for the club after they won the 2005 Champions League with an astonishing comeback against AC Milan in the same stadium.
Before Liverpool can dream of emulating Steven Gerrard and company's triumph by the banks of the Bosphorus, Klopp knows they will have to run the gauntlet in what he expects to be a fiercely contested tournament.
Napoli are expected to pose the sternest test to Liverpool in a group which also includes ...

Klopp expects daunting ride as Liverpool eye Istanbul return

World number one Novak Djokovic will begin his 2020 season in Brisbane, Rafael Nadal in Perth and Roger Federer in Sydney after Monday's draw for the ATP Cup, the new world tennis team event.
The championship, which will take place from January 3-12 in the  lead-up to the year's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open in Melbourne, will feature 24 nations split into six groups across Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
Eight teams -- with up to five players each -- will emerge from the round-robin stage to compete in the knockout phase in Sydney until one is left standing Most of the world's top 30 men will take part, with ties comprising two singles and one doubles match.
At the draw in Sydney, Djokovic's Serbia were pitted against France, South Africa, Germany, Greece, Canada and wildcard entry Australia in Brisbane.
Nadal's Spain will face Japan, Georgia, Russia, Italy and the United States in Perth while Federer's Switzerland take on Belgium, Austria, Croatia, Argentina and the Andy ...

Djokovic in Brisbane, Nadal in Perth as ATP Cup draw made

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host his Russian and Iranian counterparts on Monday for their latest summit on Syria, with attention focused on Damascus's push on the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani will join Erdogan in the Turkish capital Ankara for their fifth summit on the conflict since 2017.
Iran and Russia have been staunch supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey has called for his ouster and backed opposition fighters.
But with Assad's position looking increasingly secure, Turkey's priority has shifted to preventing a mass influx of refugees from Idlib in Syria's northwest.
Turkey is concerned by the steady advance of Syrian forces into the region, backed by Russian airpower, despite a series of ceasefires.
Turkey has 12 observation posts in Idlib to enforce a buffer zone agreement struck a year ago with Russia to prevent a full-scale Syrian offensive.
But the posts look increasingly threatened, ...

Erdogan hosts Putin, Rouhani for Syria summit

At least seven people were killed and another three injured when a small plane crashed in southwestern Colombia on Sunday, a firefighter said.
"Nine people were on board the plane. Seven died, while two are seriously injured," Juan Carlos Ganan, the commander of firefighters in the area, told AFP.
The third person injured was a child on the ground in the area where the plane crashed, Ganan said.
Firefighters were trying to stop fuel leaking from the aircraft, Ganan added.
The plane, which crashed at 2:11 pm (1911 GMT), was headed from Popayan to Lopez de Micay, both in Cauca department.
The cause of the crash was not known and an investigation was under way, Ganan said.

Colombia plane crash kills seven

Six Cameroonian soldiers were killed Friday in an attack by Boko Haram jihadists in the far north of the country, authorities said on Sunday.
Nine other soldiers were injured in the attack carried out on a military post at Soueram near Fotokol in the Lake Chad region by armed men, an army officer and two high-ranking officials in the local administration told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Five soldiers died during the attack and a sixth succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, one of the officials told AFP.
The toll was confirmed by the other official, as well as an army officer, who also said the killers were members of Boko Haram.
Soueram is very close to the border with Nigeria in the restive Lake Chad region.
On June 10, 17 Cameroonian soldiers were killed in an attack in the same region.
The jihadist uprising which started in 2009 has killed more than 27,000 people, displaced some two million, and spilled over into neighbouring countries, sparking a dire humanitarian ...

Six Cameroon soldiers killed in Boko Haram attack: authorities

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pleaded for patience during a visit Sunday to leaders of the latest ethnic group pushing to form a breakaway region.
The bid by the Kafficho ethnic group to form a new federal state risks further destabilising Ethiopia's diverse southern region, which just two months ago was rocked by violence stemming from a similar campaign by the Sidama ethnic group.
Ethiopia is currently partitioned into nine semi-autonomous regions. The constitution requires the government to organise a referendum for any ethnic group that wants to form a new entity.
At least 11 groups have submitted such bids in the south, and Abiy is at pains to prevent further tensions ahead of elections next year.
"If you think that statehood will solve your problems, that's a shortcut," Abiy told a packed town hall Sunday in Bonga, the main town in Kaffa, the zone where the Kafficho are concentrated.
Officials in Kaffa passed a resolution in favour of breaking away last November, claiming .

Ethiopia's Abiy tries to temper new push for breakaway region

A car bomb near a hospital in a town held by Turkey-backed Syrian rebels in northern Syria killed 11 civilians on Sunday, a monitor said.
The blast struck in Al-Rai near the Turkish border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing near the town's entrance, the second such deadly blast in the wider rebel-held area since June.
A member of the rebel security forces, Osama Abu al-Kheir, told AFP that a refrigerator truck blew up outside a healthcare centre.
Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels launched a military operation against both the Islamic State group and Kurdish fighters in northern Syria in 2016, seizing Al-Rai and the nearby town of Azaz.
In June, another car bomb killed 19 people near a bustling market and mosque in Azaz.
Ankara keeps Turkish troops and intelligence forces in the area, and it backs Syrian rebels serving as police officers.
Turkish troops and Syrian rebels also seized the ...

Car bomb kills 11 civilians in northern Syria: monitor

Algeria -- whose ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned in April following mass protests -- is to hold a presidential election on December 12, his interim successor announced Sunday.
"I have decided... that the date of the presidential election will be Thursday, December 12," said Abdelkader Bensalah, who is precluded from standing himself, in a televised address.
The announcement comes after army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah, seen as the strongman in Algeria since the fall of Bouteflika, insisted that polls be held by the end of this year, despite ongoing protests demanding the creation of new institutions ahead of any elections.

Algeria poll on December 12: interim president

Tropical storm Humberto gained strength Sunday and was expected to return to hurricane force by evening, but its track now puts it far from the Bahamas and the US coast, the US National Hurricane Center said.
As of midday, Humberto was 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of Great Abaco Island, which was devastated two weeks ago by the passage of Hurricane Dorian, and 165 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, the NHC said in an update at 15H00 GMT.
It had maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour, slightly below hurricane strength, but was expected to gain power through the day.
"Humberto is expected to become a hurricane by tonight," the NHC said.
It warned beachgoers in the US states of Florida and North Carolina that heavy swells "could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions."
But its peripheral winds were not expected to pose any danger to land.
On Monday, Humberto is expected to take a sharp turn to the northeast, moving it even farther from land.
On ...

Storm Humberto strengthens but moves away from Bahamas and US

The United Auto Workers union called a nationwide strike against General Motors Sunday, with some 46,000 members set to walk off the job beginning at midnight amid an impasse in contract talks.
The decision, which the Wall Street Journal described as the first major stoppage at GM in more than a decade, came a day after the manufacturer's four-year contract with workers expired without an agreement on a replacement.
Local union leaders met in Detroit "and opted to strike at midnight on Sunday," the UAW said on its Twitter account.
"This is our last resort," Terry Dittes, the union's lead negotiator with GM, told a news conference after the meeting.
"We are standing up for the fundamental rights of working people in this country."
UAW officials said the two sides remained far apart in the contract negotiations, with disagreements on wages, health care benefits, the status of temporary workers and job security.
"Our members have spoken; we have taken action; and this is a decision we ...

General Motors auto workers call strike in US

Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman starred respectively with bat and ball as Afghanistan thrashed Bangladesh by 25 runs in their second match of the tri-nation Twenty20 international tournament in Dhaka on Sunday.
Nabi hit an unbeaten 84 off 54 balls under pressure to guide Afghanistan to 164-6 before Mujeeb claimed a career best 4-15 to help his side dismiss Bangladesh for 139 in 19.5 overs for their world record 12 successive Twenty20 international win.
Mujeeb took three wickets in his opening spell to reduce the home side to 32 for four before Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman put a little resistance with 58 runs for the fifth wicket.
Gulbadin Naib broke the partnership by removing Mahmudullah, who made 44 off 39 balls for Bangladesh before Mujeeb ended Sabbir's innings at 24 in his final over to surpass his previous best of 3-17 against Ireland.
Naib claimed 2-27 while skipper Rashid Khan and left-arm pacer Fareed Malik also took two wickets each.
Nabi earlier helped Afghanistan ...

Nabi, Mujeeb shine in record Afghanistan win

The White House said on Sunday President Donald Trump may still meet his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, despite the US accusing Iran of masterminding drone attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway did not rule out the possibility in a television interview broadcast as Saudi Arabia raced to restart operations at oil plants hit by drone attacks that slashed its production.
Tehran-backed Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen claimed Saturday's strikes on two plants owned by state giant Aramco, but US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran, saying there was no evidence the "unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply" was launched from Yemen.
Conway told "Fox News Sunday" that Trump would "consider" following up on his suggestion of a meeting at the upcoming UN General Assembly session in New York, adding that "the conditions must always be right for this president to make a deal or take a meeting."
Arch-foes Tehran and Washington have ..

Trump may meet Iran leader despite Saudi attacks: White House

Foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Sunday condemned a drone attack against Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure which the US has blamed on Iran.
The Tehran-backed Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bogged down in a five-year war, have claimed Saturday's strikes on two plants owned by state giant Aramco.
The OIC, a 57-member pan-Islamic body, counts Iran as a member but it was not clear whether it attended the meeting, originally called to respond to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge to annex part of the West Bank.
Instead, a statement from the group's Secretary General Yousef al-Othaimeen, a former Saudi minister of social affairs, focused on the assault on the oil facilities, which has temporarily slashed the kingdom's crude output by half.
"The ministers expressed their condemnation of this terrorist attack and welcomed statements from regional and international organisations which have rejected this ...

OIC ministers condemn strike on Saudi oil network

The artist whose solid gold toilet was stolen from Britain's Blenheim Palace said he hoped it had been taken in a "Robin Hood-inspired action", as police scrambled Sunday to locate it.
Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan told the New York Times that when he first heard news of Saturday's pre-dawn theft of his fully-functioning work "America", he thought it was a prank.
"Who's so stupid to steal a toilet? I had forgotten for a second that it was made out of gold," he said, adding: "I wish it was a prank."
Cattelan has described the 18-carat gold work, famously once offered on loan to US President Donald Trump, as "one-per cent art for the 99 per cent".
"I hope it still is. I want to be positive and think the robbery is a kind of Robin Hood-inspired action," he said, referring to the character of English folklore who stole from the rich to give to the poor.
Blenheim Palace chief executive Dominic Hare meanwhile revealed that the toilet, which was only put on display at the English stately .

Artist hopes gold toilet taken by 'Robin Hood' types

The remains of former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe will be taken to his village for a wake on Monday, a family member said, as his final burial is prepared in about a month.
Mugabe died a week ago aged 95 in Singapore, nearly two years after he was ousted in a 2017 coup that ended nearly four decades of increasingly autocratic rule.
After a state funeral on Saturday in the capital Harare attended by African leaders, his body will go to his rural village of Kutama, 90 kilometres (55 miles) to the west, to allow villagers to pay tribute and bid farewell.
"He is going to come tomorrow," his nephew Leo Mugabe told AFP on Sunday.
Leo Mugabe said the body will spend Monday night in a village area and was expected to be driven back to Harare on Tuesday.
"It will be taken for preservation. I am not sure where," he said.
Mugabe's final burial arrangements were mired in a dispute between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the family over where and when the former leader should be ...

Mugabe's body heads for wake in home village

Saudi Arabia raced on Sunday to restart operations at oil plants hit by drone attacks which slashed its production by half, as Iran dismissed US claims it was behind the assault.
The Tehran-backed Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bogged down in a five-year war, have claimed Saturday's strikes on two plants owned by state giant Aramco.
But United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed the finger squarely at Tehran, saying there was no evidence the "unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply" was launched from Yemen.
"The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression," the top US diplomat added.
That drew an angry response from Tehran, where a foreign ministry spokesman said: "Such fruitless and blind accusations and remarks are incomprehensible and meaningless."
The remarks were designed to damage Iran's reputation and provide a ...

Saudi races to restore oil supply after strike blamed on Iran

Steve Smith was dismissed for just 23 as England closed in on a series-levelling victory against Australia in the fifth Test at the Oval on Sunday.
While the former captain was at the crease, Australia retained a faint hope of chasing down a daunting target of 399 to seal their first Ashes series win in England since 2001.
But when Ben Stokes dived to his left at leg slip to catch Smith off paceman Stuart Broad, England knew they had removed the last serious obstacle in their victory charge.
At the tea interval Australia, who have already retained the Ashes, were 167-5, with the final session of the fourth day to come plus a full day on Monday.
Matthew Wade was not out 60 and captain Tim Paine unbeaten on 10.
Smith, who scored an astonishing 774 runs in just seven innings, was out for a score of less than fifty for the first time in the series.
The Oval crowd gave him a standing ovation as he walked back to the dressing room in the September sunshine, with Australia in deep trouble at 

Smith out as England close on Ashes-levelling win

US President Donald Trump mounted an angry defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday as the controversial judge faced calls for an investigation over fresh allegations of sexual misconduct.
Trump blasted the media and "Radical Left Democrats" after a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh alleged that the jurist - one of the most senior judges in the land - exposed himself at a freshman year party before other students pushed his genitals into the hand of a female student.
The latest allegation in The New York Times came after Kavanaugh denied sexual misconduct accusations levelled against him by two women during his confirmation to the Supreme Court last October.
"Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favourite word, impeachment," Trump tweeted.
"He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!" The new ...

Trump defends Supreme Court justice over fresh misconduct claim

More than 160 firefighters on Sunday battled to contain a large fire near Athens blazing for a second day amid gale force winds, officials said.
And in another emergency, authorities evacuated dozens of people from two villages and a hotel on the island of Zakynthos after a new fire broke out on Sunday.
The fire department said the blaze near Athens burned in the mountains above Loutraki, a coastal resort some 60 kilometres (35 miles) west of Athens.
"The fire is burning near the top of the mountain," Stefanos Kolokouris, the fire department's deputy chief of operations, told state TV ERT.
"We are trying to create a perimeter but the terrain is very difficult, with ravines," he said.
Four water bombers and six helicopters were participating in operations. Given a lack of roads in the area, two squads of firefighters had to be carried to the mountaintop by Super Puma helicopter, state agency ANA said.
Officials had already evacuated 50 people from a local monastery when the fire broke .

Large forest fire blazing near Athens

Rarely has the outcome of an election been so uncertain in Tunisia, the cradle and partial success story of the Arab Spring, as some seven million voters head to the polls Sunday to choose from a crowded field.
Key players include media mogul Nabil Karoui, behind bars due to an ongoing money laundering probe, Abdelfattah Mourou, who heads a first-time bid for Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha, and Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.
The premier's popularity has been tarnished by a sluggish economy and a high cost of living, and he has found himself having to vehemently deny accusations that Karoui's detention since late August is politically inspired.
Some 13,000 polling booths opened across Tunisia at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) on Sunday, with two dozen candidates vying for a five-year mandate.
The election follows an intense campaign characterised more by personality clashes than political differences.
It had been brought forward by the death in July of 92-year-old president Beji Caid Essebsi, ...

AFP

AFP

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