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■ SOCCER

City invite Iraqi for trial

Manchester City have invited Iraq international midfielder Nashat Akram for a 10-day trial, the club said on Wednesday. Akram was cleared to try out for Sven-Goran Eriksson's side by his club al Ain of the United Arab Emirates and will join Asian Player of the Year Yasser al-Qhatani who has also secured a trial at Eastlands. The 23-year-old Akram was runner-up to Saudi Arabia skipper al-Qhatani, who arrived in Manchester last week, in this year's Asian soccer awards.



■ BASEBALL

Padres seal deal with Prior

The San Diego Padres have agreed on a one-year contract with right-handed hurler Mark Prior, who became a free agent when the Chicago Cubs chose not to sign him for next year. The move will be a homecoming for San Diego native Prior, whose career has been disrupted by a series of injuries. "Mark is a competitor and is working hard to regain the form that made him one of the great young pitchers in the game," Padres general manager Kevin Towers said. Last year, he made only nine starts and he missed all of last season after underdoing arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder in March.



■ SOCCER

Families criticize Maradona

Families of victims of a deadly 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish center have hit out at Diego Maradona after the Argentine legend said he wanted to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Relatives of the 85 people who died in the attack on the Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association community center in Buenos Aires in July 1994 have fought a long battle to bring the killers to justice. Iran has been accused of being behind the attack which Jewish groups insist was carried out by Islamic militants. The Tehran government has vehemently denied any involvement. "I believe Maradona is wrong and I would like it a lot for him to meet us," said Sergio Burstein, a member of the victims support group formed in the aftermath of the blast.



■ WINTER OLYMPICS

Environmentalists pan plans

Environmentalists said on Wednesday that the Russian government has ignored their concerns in planning for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and three planned construction projects would cause irrevocable harm to the mountainous area on the Black Sea. Igor Chestin of the World Wildlife Fund expressed the most alarm about plans for the bobsled and luge tracks, which would require leveling a wide swath of forest. Environmentalists said construction of an Olympic village and a skating complex also threatened the ecosystem of the area. The Sochi 2014 organizing committee defended the chosen site for the bobsled and luge tracks, saying in a statement on Wednesday that it had studied the environmental impact and found it acceptable.



■ BASEBALL

Lawyers probe allegations

Allegations linking Roger Clemens to doping are being investigated by his lawyers, the superstar pitcher's lead attorney told the New York Times on Wednesday. Rusty Hardin said his firm had begun an investigation into how the charges came to be made in the Mitchell report on doping in baseball. Clemens has denied the allegations. "We are convinced the conclusions in Mitchell's report are wrong and are investigating the findings ourselves," Hardin told the newspaper.
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