German police on Thursday detained a Lebanese-German and a Gazan suspected of obtaining potential ingredients for a bomb and searched an Islamic center where the pair had spent time.

The arrests came three days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and followed a weekend statement by the interior minister that threats to Germany remained "real and intensive."

Dutch prosecutors are charging a 42-year-old woman with stalking after she allegedly called her ex-boyfriend 65,000 times in the past year.

The 62-year-old victim from The Hague filed a police complaint in August due to the persistent phone calls. Police arrested the suspected stalker Monday, seizing several cell phones and computers from her home in Rotterdam.

A little after 3 p.m. Tuesday, Rafael Nadal settled in at a table in the U.S. Open players' cafeteria and sprinkled some salt on his lunch of salmon and rice.

The day's work for the defending champion was complete, consisting of a 1½-hour practice session indoors at Flushing Meadows instead of his scheduled fourth-round match outdoors, because steady rain washed out all of Tuesday's action.

Spain and Italy sealed their places at Euro 2012 with two qualifying games to spare on Tuesday while England moved closer to next year's finals after beating Wales in a game at Wembley overshadowed by the death of a Wales fan.

David Villa and Alvaro Negredo scored twice as defending champion Spain thrashed Liechtenstein 6-0 to secure top spot in Group I, and substitute Giampaolo Pazzini's 85th-minute strike earned the Italians a narrow win in Florence that clinched them first place in Group C.

The embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad will seek to expand trade ties with markets in Asia and elsewhere to bypass European economic sanctions, Syria's finance minister said Wednesday at a meeting of Arab finance chiefs.

Mohammad Jleilati did not name specific countries for stronger economic bonds, but listed Russia, China and others in Asia as traditionally "friendly" to Syria.

Cowboy hats, costumes and saddles from actor John Wayne's estate are among the items that will go up for auction in Los Angeles next month.

Heritage Auctions spokesman Donn Pearlman on Tuesday said the auction will include more than 700 personal and professional items, including an eye patch Wayne wore in his Oscar-winning performance in "True Grit."

Thai police on Tuesday said they had arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly posting pictures, audio clips and messages deemed insulting to the royal family on the social networking site Facebook.

Surapak Phuchaisaeng was arrested in Bangkok on Friday, said a senior police officer at the Technology Crime Suppression Division.

A 36-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly broke into singer Celine Dion's home near Montreal, raided the fridge and even took the time to pour himself a bath, police said Tuesday.

He was nabbed by police in the Montreal suburb of Laval on Monday afternoon after the alarm system went off.

Yahoo Inc. fired Carol Bartz as CEO Tuesday after more than 2½ years of financial lethargy that had convinced investors that she couldn't steer the Internet company to a long-promised turnaround.

To fill the void, Yahoo's board named Tim Morse, its chief financial officer, as interim CEO. Bartz lured Morse away from computer chip maker Altera Corp. two years ago to help her cuts costs. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, said it is looking for a permanent replacement.

In the tradition of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson, and later Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg, Oscar is going back to its comedic roots with Eddie Murphy as host.

The actor and comedian will host the 84th annual Academy Awards, producers Brett Ratner and Don Mischer said Tuesday — and even they were surprised the reclusive star agreed to the gig.