I'm not competing against Cristiano: Lionel Messi refused to be compared with Cristiano Ronaldo

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has refused to be drawn into comparing himself with Real Madrid counterpart Cristiano Ronaldo, insisting that he only focuses on improving his own game.

Messi, 27, scored his 68th Champions League goal in Barcelona's 3-2 Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday to close in on Raul's record tally of 71, though Ronaldo responded with a goal of his own in Real Madrid's 2-1 win at Ludogorets Razgrad on Wednesday to leapfrog the Argentine into 69.

The four-time Ballon d'Or winner is expected to contest Ronaldo for the 2015 title in January's ceremony but Messi insists that he is more concerned about winning trophies for Luis Enrique's side, rather than individual honours.

Asked whether he felt he was the best in the world at Barcelona's official presentation with new sponsor Gillette, Messi said: "I do not know what my place in the history of the game will be, neither do I even think about it. I'm just focused on continually improving and winning more.

"I'm not competing against Cristiano or anyone. I just do my job -- I want to win titles."

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Chelsea Captain 'John Terry' and wife 'Toni Poole' go on mammoth shopping spree... requiring two assistants to assist

Footballer John Terry and wife Toni Poole shopped up a storm in upmarket store Smythson on Wednesday after spending a while browsing the luxurious items on offer there.

The pair were such fans of the brand that it took two friendly assistants to carry their bags out of the Bond Street store and into their taxi home.

The Chelsea Captain held his wife's hand as they enjoyed some quality time together. John had dressed down in blue jeans, a grey T-shirt and brown suede shoes for the occasion.

John had a purposeful look on his face as he strode slightly ahead of his 32-year-old wife who looked chic in ripped black jeans, nude court shoes and a white floaty silk top.

The WAG's hair appeared freshly blow-dried into a sleek do and she wore a pale pink lipgloss. Visible under her perfect blowdry was a pair of diamond earrings.

The lucky lady also carried a coveted Céline bag on her arm in black.

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Beyonce swinging with daughter Blue Ivy in new family snaps

Doting mother Beyoncé had a swinging good time with her daughter Blue Ivy in the family snaps she shared on her website Wednesday.

The 33-year-old pop diva was wearing the same pearl-embellished bikini she donned in her Tuesday snaps.

The 17-time Grammy winner dressed her two-year-old toddler in a lavender bikini top and white ruffled skirt as they played on a swing-set.

Little Blue also joined father Jay Z atop matching mini-ATVs in what appeared to be the backyard of their $200,000 a month rented Bel Air mansion.

The privileged youngster already had a pint-sized blue Lamborgini and pink Cadillac, which she received at her second birthday bash.

'I imagine I'll take things I learned from my mom and things I've learned from raising my nephews and apply that,' the 44-year-old rap mogul said on Oprah's Master Class in 2012.

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ISIS group behead five Kurdish fighters, including three women

Islamic State fighters beheaded seven men and three women in a Kurdish area of northern Syria, a monitoring group reports.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, among them three women, and four Syrian Arabs were beheaded near the town of Kobani.

The Kurdish fighters were taken prisoner during the battle for the mainly Kurdish town, also known as Ayn Arab, which is close to the Turkish border and has been besieged by Islamic State forces.

Dozens of militants and Kurdish fighters were killed in the fighting, said SOHR.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory, said a Kurdish male civilian was also beheaded. 'I don't know why they were arrested or beheaded. Only the Islamic State knows why. They want to scare people,' he said.

Images posted on social media networks show women's heads placed on a cement block, said to be in the northern Syrian city of Jarablous, which is held by militants.

Women fight alongside men in the Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as the YPG, which is the official armed wing of the main Kurdish political group in Syria.

Kurdish forces have been locked in fierce clashes with Islamic State militants in and around Kobani since the extremist group launched an assault in mid-September.

The fighting has created one of the single largest exoduses in Syria's civil war, with more than 160,000 people fleeing into Turkey, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said yesterday.

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Champions League: Danny Welbeck was delighted to help Arsene Wenger celebrate 18 years at Arsenal with a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Galatasaray

The Frenchman was celebrating his 18 years anniversary at the Emirates and Welbeck's treble alongside a strike from Alexis Sanchez sealed a comfortable win with Burak Yilmaz responding from the penalty spot as Wojciech Szczesny was sent off.

Some eyebrows were raised when Wenger shelled out 16 million pounds for Welbeck in January but the former Manchester United striker is happy to be repaying that faith.

"He's shown a lot of faith in me and I'm delighted to pay him back tonight,'' he told Sky Sports 1. "Just giving me the chance to play football up front in my preferred position, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that he's happy.''

He added: "I think we've set the benchmark now and we've really got to try to go on that. From now on we want to get the three points every single game.''

Welbeck was pleased to notch his first first-team hat-trick and is hoping that more of the same tactics can bring more goals.

"I'm obviously delighted to get the goals but I think the most important thing was that we got our three points on the board tonight,'' he said. "I'm playing up front, trying to score goals and getting into goalscoring opportunities and tonight it paid off, I got the three goals.''

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Report: Five new Ebola cases every hour in Sierra Leone

A leading charity has warned that a rate of five new Ebola cases an hour in Sierra Leone means healthcare demands are far outstripping supply.

Save the Children said there were 765 new cases of Ebola reported in the West African state last week, while there are only 327 beds in the country.

Experts and politicians are set to meet in London to debate a global response to the crisis.

It is the world's worst outbreak of the virus, killing 3,338 people so far.

There have been 7,178 confirmed cases, with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea suffering the most.

'Massively unreported'

Save the Children says Ebola is spreading across Sierra Leone at a "terrifying rate", with the number of new cases being recorded doubling every few weeks.

It said that even as health authorities got on top of the outbreak in one area, it spread to another.

The scale of the disease is also "massively unreported" according to the charity, because "untold numbers of children are dying anonymously at home or in the streets".

Earlier this month, Britain said it would build facilities for 700 new beds in Sierra Leone but the first of these will not be ready for weeks, and the rest may take months.

But Save the Children said that unless the international community radically stepped up its response, people would continue to die at home and risk infecting their family and the local community.

"We are facing the frightening prospect of an epidemic which is spreading like wildfire across Sierra Leone, with the number of new cases doubling every three weeks," said Rob MacGillivray, the charity's country director in Sierra Leone.

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Steven Gerrard: Liverpool deserved nothing from Basel.. we were too soft

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard offered up a savagely honest assessment of his side's disappointing efforts as they went down to a 1-0 Champions League defeat against Basel in Switzerland.

Gerrard did not hold back as he provided a cutting appraisal of his side's display at the St Jakob Stadium, which leaves qualification from Group B in the balance ahead of a back-to-back with Real Madrid.

"We didn't deserve anything out of this game," he told Sky Sports. "I thought we were too soft all over the pitch and I though they wanted it more, which is very disappointing. It hurts [to say that], but it's true.

"I thought we were second best at times against an OK team. I wouldn't say we were played off the park, but we made it easy for them. We wanted something out of this game, at least a draw. I came here expecting us to win, so it's very disappointing.

"Conceding again from a set-piece isn't good enough, so we have to get it right. You are not going to win football matches if you keep conceding from set-pieces.

"We will discuss it and analyse it like we always do. There were signs against Everton [last Saturday] that we are getting back to where we want to be. We were aggressive without the ball against Everton, but we went back to where we have been for most of the season today which is not good enough."

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