The lineup for the European Championship could become clearer Friday when the playoffs for the final four places at next year’s tournament get under way.

While already qualified Germany, France and the Netherlands are in friendly action, the Czech Republic hosts Montenegro as it tries to maintain a record of reaching every European Championship since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

Ivory Coast trio Yaya Toure, Didier Drogba, and Gervinho were among 10 footballers nominated for the African Player of the Year award on Wednesday.

The three English Premier League players were joined by 2010 winner Samuel Eto’o and Ghanaian internationals Andre Ayew, Asamoah Gyan and Kevin-Prince Boateng on a list announced by the Confederation of African Football.

Mario Balotelli insists he’s not crazy, although he does acknowledge that he “can do strange things” from time to time.

For example, Balotelli recently had to evacuate his house in England after fireworks were let off in his bathroom. And he has been questioned by Naples prosecutors over a visit with the Camorra crime syndicate.

Novak Djokovic dismissed Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-3 in the Paris Masters second round on Wednesday amid concerns about the shoulder injury which bothered him last weekend at the Swiss Indoors.

The top-ranked Djokovic complained of shoulder pains in his semifinal loss to Kei Nishikori in Basel. He said he was fine after practice on Tuesday.

Angry Syrian protesters pelted a group of opposition leaders with eggs outside Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Wednesday, preventing them from entering the building for talks with the organization's chief about the violence in Syria.

The scuffle highlights the deep divisions within the Syrian opposition, which is struggling to overcome infighting and inexperience eight months into the uprising against President Bashar Assad's autocratic regime.

It has masterpieces, media frenzy, a contested gem — everything but the "Mona Lisa." London's latest blockbuster art show confirms Leonardo da Vinci as a Renaissance rock star.

A new exhibition of the artist's paintings at London's National Gallery is opening amid A-list levels of hype and anticipation.

Reality TV star Brody Jenner says he was hit with a bottle outside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and girlfriend singer Avril Lavigne tweeted that she was also attacked.

Los Angeles police Sgt. Keith Green said Monday that Jenner filed a police report of assault with a deadly weapon after being hit early Sunday outside the popular nightspot.

A smirking horned devil exists in the frescoed clouds of a Giotto work in the famed Assisi basilica, an Italian art historian said Tuesday — a tantalizing detail that apparently went unnoticed by scholars for centuries.

The discovery was reported in the online edition of this month's issue of the Franciscan religious order publication San Francesco Patrono d'Italia.

The expansion, announced on Monday, is the latest feature on Google's Plus service to imitate what's already available on Facebook, the leading website for sharing with family, friends and businesses.

Google Inc. unveiled Plus in late June to counter Facebook's popularity and learn more about people's interests. It hopes to gain insights that will help its dominant Internet search engine spit out more compelling results that keep people coming back to click on ads.

Joe Frazier had to throw his greatest punch to knock down "The Greatest."

A vicious left hook from Frazier put Muhammad Ali on the canvas in the 15th round in March 1971 when he became the first man to beat him in the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden.