Wenger denies Arsenal interest in Morata and Pato

The Frenchman distanced himself from speculation he had approached Real Madrid over a loan deal for the Spain Under-21 star and also refuted reports of a bid for the brazilian

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has denied speculation linking the club with January moves for Real Madrid sensation Alvaro Morata or Corinthians star Alexandre Pato.

Recent reports suggested the Gunners had made a bid of £6.5 million for the Brazilian striker and also approached Los Blancos over the possibility of a loan deal for the Spain Under-21 starlet.

Morata has found first-team opportunities hard to come by at Real Madrid this season, while Pato's career has stalled since ending an injury-plagued spell with Milan to return to Brazil.

Arsene Wenger has made no secret of his desire to sign another striker to ease the burden on Olivier Giroud, but moved to quell the speculation ahead of Wednesday's Premier League clash with Hull City.

When asked whether he had enquired about the availability of Morata, Wenger replied: "There is no truth in that, that is all I can say. I have not been in touch with them."

Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League, four points ahead of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea.

Pellegrini rules out Dzeko exit in January

The striker has started nine of his 14 appearances in all competitions this season and is being tracked by a host of European clubs including Borussia Dortmund, Inter and Roma

Manuel Pellegrini insists he has no plans to allow Edin Dzeko to leave Manchester City in January.

Goal exclusively revealed in November that the club will not offer the Bosnian a new deal and are willing to listen to offers for the 27-year-old.

Dzeko, a £27 million signing from Wolfsburg in January 2011, has started just nine games under Pellegrini this season and has scored seven goals in all competitions.

With Arsenal targeting a striker in January, Dzeko is also being monitored by a host of European clubs including Borussia Dortmund, Inter and Roma.

"No, that is not the case [that Dzeko will be sold]," Pellegrini told the Daily Telegraph.

"I put my trust in him before the season and I have just as much trust in him now. It is very important for this club to have a good squad because we have a lot of games to play from now until April and, if we want to win trophies, we need important players.

"Maybe at the moment he is not playing as much as he would like, but he remains an important part of the squad

Breaking News: Manchester United plot bid for Marco Reus

Since Shinji Kagawa has been brought in Old Trafford, there have been slight problems regarding playing Robin van Persie, Rooney and Shinji Kagawa upfront. Wayne Rooney had showed discontent on playing him behind the striker while Shinji Kagawa doesn’t seem to settle when played on the left.

Marco Reus has been given comparisons to Gareth Bale when it comes to talent. Certainly Marco Reus isn’t behind Bale but both of them altogether different players in style. There was a bid lodged by Jurgen Klopp last summer for Shinji Kagawa but Kagawa decided against it.

United wingplay has been under serious pressure with both Nani and Valencia miss firing and it will be safe to say that Ashley Young has turned out a flop for Manchester United.

According to The Daily Mail, Manchester United has plotted a bid for Marco Reus. The Daily Mail reports that David Moyes want to activate his buy-out clause to bring him to Old Trafford when the transfer window opens.
Dortmund are currently trying to persuade the 24-year-old to sign a new contract in the meantime in an attempt to increase his release clause.

Manchester United can also offer Shinji Kagawa in a player + Cash deal which would be really hard for Klopp to deny as Kagawa was his main player before joining United.

Top Comet ISON watcher calls space rock officially DOA

The potential comet of the century grazed the sun last week, and it now appears it didn't survive to put on a once-in-a-lifetime Christmas show for us

comet ISON, as we once knew her...

(Credit: TRAPPIST/E. Jehin/ESO)

It appears there will be no once-in-a-lifetime celestial light show this month as Comet ISONstreaks past Earth trailed by a glorious tail of ice, water, rock, and dust.

On Monday, one of the leading ISON watchers, Karl Battams of the U.S. Navy's Sungrazer Comets citizen science project and the NASA-sponsored comet ISON observing campaign, posted a eulogy for ISON, which is now believed to have disintegrated into millions of fragments as it swung around the sun, coming within a million miles of the star's surface.

"Tragically, on November 28, 2013, ISON's tenacious ambition outweighed its ability, and our shining green candle in the solar wind began to burn out," Battams writes.

Last Thursday, as many Americans feasted with their families for Thanksgiving, Comet ISON reached perihelion -- its closest point to the sun before swinging around the star to pass us again on its way out of the solar system.

What followed was a confusing roller-coaster of uncertainty as to the fate of the comet. For hours there was no sign of ISON on images returned by solar observatories, leading some to jump to the conclusion that the space rock had been essentially vaporized by the heat of the sun.

Then NASA observations began to show something emerging from the other side of the sun that appeared to be a comet with at least a small surviving nucleus. It now appears that what we were seeing was the fragmented remains of ISON that will likely begin to rapidly fade away from view.

ISON was a big comet on its virgin trip through our solar system that first became visible toamateur observers earlier this fall, and was believed to hold the potential to become one of the most spectacular such visitors in decades, if not centuries, but only if it could survive its close encounter with the sun.

But don't despair, fellow super space nerds, such a historic event could still be in our future. As Battams points out, ISON was undiscovered until a little over a year ago and is "survived by approximately several trillion siblings

Microsoft set to move in to Nokia's Espoo headquarters

Nokia will move its remaining operations to another Finland-based campus where its networking business is based.

(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)

Microsoft isn't only taking over Nokia's Devices and Services business. It's kicking Nokia out of its offices.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Thursday, a Nokia spokesman confirmed that Nokia's remaining operations -- mapping, infrastructure, and licensing -- will move out of its Espoo headquarters to make room for Microsoft. The employees who are left with Nokia will head over to Nokia's other Finland-based campus.

Earlier this week, Nokia shareholders overwhelmingly voted to approve the $7.4 billion transaction that will see Microsoft acquire Nokia's Devices and Services business and license some of the mobile firm's patentsThe decision for Microsoft to take over Nokia's headquarters is perhaps both practical and telling. The Espoo headquarters was built in the 1990s when Nokia was near its height and signified its power over the mobile market. Now that Microsoft will be moving in, the site speaks to Nokia's decline and perhaps a rebirth with Microsoft and Windows Phone.

DOJ gives OK to Microsoft-Nokia deal

Microsoft's planned $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's devices and services business wins approval from the Justice Department, but it still has to face the European Union.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Nokia's Stephen Elop at an event in New York in 2012.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

The US Department of Justice has given its approval to Microsoft's pending acquisition of Nokia's mobile devices and services business.

The transaction got the DOJ nod on November 29, according to the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition notification on December 2.

"We look forward to the date when our partners at Nokia will become members of the Microsoft family, and are pleased that the Department of Justice has cleared the deal unconditionally," said a Microsoft spokesperson in a prepared statement.

The next hurdle for the deal will be the European Union. Antitrust regulators there are on tap to decide whether or not Microsoft's bid breaches the EU's competition rules. Reuters reported in October that the European Commission would decide by December 4whether or not to clear the acquisition. (It can extend the review by an additional 10 business days if needed to weigh possible concessions by Microsoft if there are any concerns.)Last month, Nokia shareholders gave their approval to the deal during an extraordinary general meeting in Helsinki. Indian authorities gave their approval to the Microsoft-Nokia deal earlier this fall.

Microsoft went public with plans to buy Nokia's devices and services business, plus license a number of its patents, for $7.2 billion in September. Microsoft officials have said they expect the transaction to be completed around the first quarter of 2014.

This story originally appeared as "U.S. Department of Justice gives Microsoft-Nokia deal the OK" on ZDNet.

Samsung Galaxy S5 coming sooner than later, says report

A Korean publication says the next-generation Galaxy flagship running Android KitKat could launch shy of the S4's first birthday

The Galaxy S4 and S3 could have a new sibling sooner than later.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

The latest round of rumors has the presumed successor to Samsung's Galaxy S4, a more powerful Galaxy S5, sporting unicorn-esque specs, perhaps some new flexible materials, and craziest of all: launching as little as 10 months after the Galaxy S4 was introduced.

A Korean site reports that "industry sources" say production of the Galaxy S5 could begin in January, with Samsung's next flagship phone shipping with Android KitKat and alongside a revamped Galaxy Gear 2 watch as early as February or March. That would be a few months ahead of many early-adopting Galaxy S4 owners' one-year anniversaries with their devices.

But more importantly, what kind of unicorn is Samsung's S5 team designing this time around?While this sounds like wishful thinking on the part of some overzealous reporter and a who-knows-how-well-informed supply chain source, it's also not a crazy plan for the likes of Samsung. The Korean monolith has the ability to make just about anything on a massive scale as quickly as it likes and likely has no qualms with cannibalizing sales of its zillions of other smartphone models, including the Galaxy S4.

The same report claims the phone could be available in a plastic case or a more premium model with a metal body, and will come loaded with some serious digital beef -- a 64-bit processor, 3GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel camera and a huge 4,000-mAh battery to power a 5-inch flexible display that could jam as many as 560 pixels into each inch of screen real estate.

Samsung had no immediate response to a request for comment, but certainly many Galaxy S4 owners won't be as speechless when the flagship phone they proudly brought home this year is eclipsed in less than the time it takes us all to make a single trip around the sun.

What do you think? Is it too soon for a new Samsung flagship or never soon enough? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @crave and @ericcmack.