Taj Jackson says his grandfather Joe Jackson is "doing a lot better" after having a stroke in late July while visiting Brazil.

"Prognosis is good," said Taj of the 87-year-old Jackson patriarch during an interview Tuesday at the family's Encino, Calif. estate.

A monkey that escaped its owner's home in an Orlando, Florida, suburb chewed on its neighbors' mail, pulled molding off a police car and rocked back and forth on a street sign.

Zeek was eventually caught when his owner returned home a short time later.

A New Jersey woman must get her two parrots to quiet down after the birds gave someone something to squawk about.

Elaine Scattergood was ticketed in May after someone complained that her birds, Edmund and Arthur, were too loud.

Two goals from fullback Filip Mladenovic powered Belarusian underdog BATE Borisov to a surprise 3-2 win over Roma in the Champions League on Tuesday.

BATE was three goals up after 30 minutes, helped by a dose of good fortune in the Group E match.

Maicon scored the winner as FC Porto beat Chelsea 2-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday and heaped more misery on Jose Mourinho's team.

Yacine Brahimi helped put Porto ahead in the 39th minute when he beat Branislav Ivanovic on the left, and goalkeeper Asmir Begovic could only push away his shot as far as Andre Andre, who volleyed into the net.

A goalkeeping blunder by David Ospina helped Olympiakos beat Arsenal 3-2 in the Champions League on Tuesday and leave the Gunners in real danger of its first group-stage exit in 16 years.

Ospina fumbled a corner over his line to give the visitors a 2-1 first-half lead, and substitute Alfred Finnbogason scored the winner in the 66th minute — almost immediately after Alexis Sanchez had drawn Arsenal level.

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta has hurt a leg muscle and will join Lionel Messi on the European champion's injured list.

Iniesta asked to be replaced in the 60th minute of Barcelona's 2-1 comeback win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Syria has already been shattered by more than four years of civil war, and with no solution in sight, some players on the ground and observers outside have concluded its fate will be to break up along sectarian or regional lines — in a best-case scenario, tenuously held together by a less centralized state.

A true partition would risk yet more mayhem, including ethnic or sectarian cleansing and battle over every bend in the border. But so spectacular is Syria's disaster that many wonder whether its disparate groups can share a unifying national sentiment again.

The U.N. chief's Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Philippe Lazzarini, has lamented that the response of the international community to the needs of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and other countries is weak.

In an interview with An Nahar daily published on Wednesday, Lazzarini said: “The response does not meet the needs.”

The G7 group of leading economies and Gulf states pledged $1.8 billion in funding Tuesday for U.N. aid agencies helping Syrian refugees in camps near Mideast areas of turmoil .

The commitment came after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders at the opening of the General Assembly debate that U.N. humanitarian agencies were "broke."