Ferrari's Fernando Alonso said Thursday he did not care about the race for second spot in the Formula One championship and would just try to enjoy the year's final events.

The two-time champion from Spain is third in the standings behind newly re-crowned champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull and Briton Jenson Button of McLaren, with four races remaining.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Thursday that an alleged Iranian-backed plot to kill the Saudi envoy to the United States is a "major escalation in Iran's sponsorship of terrorism."

Hague said London was in "close touch" with U.S. authorities and would work to agree an international response along with the United States, European Union and Saudi Arabia to the U.S. charges, which Tehran denies.

Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello Thursday said he is ‘talking to the whole paddock’ about extending his Formula One racing career, already the longest in the sport’s history.

While seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher, 42, may be the oldest driver in the field, Barrichello, 39, has started the most races in an unbroken career that began with Jordan at the South African Grand Prix in 1993.

Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez has agreed a new five-year contract with the English champions, the player's agent was quoted by several newspapers as saying here Thursday.

The Mexican international has been rewarded with a long-term deal at the Premier League giants after a dazzling first season at the club which saw him finish with 20 goals in all competitions.

Britain's Lewis Hamilton Thursday apologized to Felipe Massa for their latest collision and insisted he still had "respect" for the Brazilian despite a series of heated incidents.

Speaking before the Korean Grand Prix, the 26-year-old McLaren driver said he failed to see Massa's Ferrari in his mirrors at Suzuka last weekend, in an incident where the furious Brazilian lost part of his front wing.

Libya's new regime fighters retreated under heavy fire from loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday as their leaders backtracked on an announcement they had captured one of his sons.

The advancing fighters, who had been hoping to mop up the last pockets of resistance in two residential neighborhoods in the northwest of the city, withdrew at least two kilometers to the central police headquarters they had captured on Tuesday, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

The seven-month-old revolt in neighboring Syria has given hope to Lebanese families trying to find what happened to thousands of loved ones who disappeared during their country's civil war and are believed dead or held in Syrian jails.

"For the first time in many, many years, it's a win-win situation for us -- for all the families of the victims," said Ghazi Aad, head of SOLIDE, a group that for years has been lobbying for Lebanese political prisoners in Syrian jails.

Iran on Thursday urged Saudi Arabia "not to fall into the trap" of believing U.S. claims that Tehran was behind an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, saying the accusations only served the United States and Israel.

"I am asking Saudi Arabia not to fall into the trap, because any disturbance in relations between countries in the (Middle East) region will only benefit the United States and the Zionist regime," said Ali Ahani,Iran's deputy foreign minister in charge of Europe and America affairs, according to the IRNA news agency.

The U.S. embassy in Damascus has hit back at apparent glee in the Syrian state media over the Occupy Wall Street movement sweeping the United States, posting a Facebook lesson on democracy.

On its official Facebook page, the embassy took a thinly veiled jibe at the regime of Bashar Assad, saying that, while there is dissatisfaction in America over the economy, that did not translate into police shooting "thousands of protesters" or demonstrators being tortured.

The United States' special envoy for Middle East peace, David Hale, will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas during his visit to Paris, the U.S. embassy here said Thursday.

"Hale is going to meet with Abbas," embassy spokesman Paul Patin told Agence France Presse. He could not say when the meeting would take place or provide other details.