The Watts Towers rise in Los Angeles like a strange evocation of Gaudi's monumental art nouveau church, the Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona. And to some Angelenos, they are just as sacred — even if the park surrounding the towers is an urban hodgepodge. From one side, a rudimentary concrete amphitheater glowers at the sleek new music center rising on the other. A snarl of barbed wire sits a few feet from a cluster of recently planted palm ...

Barcelona have confirmed captain Carles Puyol has signed a three-year extension to his current contract, keeping him at the Nou Camp until 2013.

Scientists have discovered the first confirmed Earthlike planet outside our solar system, they announced Wednesday. "This is the first confirmed rocky planet in another system," astronomer Artie Hatzes told CNN, contrasting the solid planet with gaseous ones like Jupiter and Saturn. But "Earthlike" is a relative term. The planet's composition may be similar to that of Earth, but its environment is more like a vision of hell, the project's lead astronomer said. It is so close to the star it ...

Barcelona and Real Madrid made it two wins from two in Spain as star signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored for a second successive match for their new clubs. Champions Barcelona won 2-0 at Getafe with second-half goals from forwards Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi, while Real crushed Espanyol 3-0 in their trip to the Catalan capital thanks to strikes from Granero, Guti and substitute Ronaldo. Barca coach Pep Guardiola started with Thierry Henry, Messi, Dani Alves and Andres ...

Rio de Janeiro's chances of becoming the first South American city to host the Olympics received a boost when the IOC published its evaluation of the four contenders for the 2016 Games on Wednesday. Rio is competing with Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo for the right to stage the 2016 Summer Olympics, with the final decision being made in Copenhagen on October 2. The IOC report is an important indicator ahead of the vote, making a series of judgments on ...

World-record signing Cristiano Ronaldo scored on his debut as Real Madrid kicked off the Spanish football season with a shaky 3-2 victory at home to Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday night. Real's new generation of "Galacticos" were preceded onto the pitch by the world's fastest man Usain Bolt, with the Jamaican sprint star dribbling a ball to the delight of a packed Bernabeu crowd. Coach Manuel Pellegrini fielded seven new signings against a team who stunned Real 2-1 on the ...

Holders Barcelona will face Inter Milan, pitting Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic against their former clubs, after the draw for the Champions League group stage was made in Monaco on Thursday. Barcelona, who beat Manchester United 2-0 in last May's final in Rome, and Inter will be joined by Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kiev and Rubin Kazan of Russia in Group F of the competition. Ten former champions and eight Champions League debutants go into action in the 32-team format split ...

New signing Samuel Eto'o scored but Serie A champions Inter Milan were beaten 2-1 by Lazio in the Italian Super Cup which was staged in the Bird's Nest in Beijing on Saturday night. The continued experiment of staging the curtain raiser to the Italian season overseas again proved a success with a near-capacity crowd in the Olympic stadium seeing an action-packed encounter. Jose Mourinho's Inter, with Eto'o going close several times, had largely dominated the game, but Lazio's Brazilian midfielder ...

Arsenal will face Celtic in a mouthwatering all-British tie later this month to decide who reaches the Champions League group stage. Scottish side Celtic went into the final qualifying round with a superb 2-0 away win over Dinamo Moscow earlier this week, overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg. Arsenal, who reached the semifinals of the Champions League last season where they lost to Manchester United, will be favorites to go through, but according to their former striker Charlie ...

American and Pakistani officials say it looked more and more likely that the man was Baitullah Mehsud, who had a $5-million bounty on his head. Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told reporters in Islamabad on Friday Aug. 7 that, "According to my intelligence information, the news is correct. We are trying to get on the ground verification to be 100% sure. But according to my information, he has been taken out." Local Pakistani media, citing "tribal sources" in ...