Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso says the team still expects to fight for the Formula One title this season despite acknowledging the scarlet cars are likely to struggle in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

Alonso said Thursday that this year's car is still not a finished product heading into Friday's first practice session and that the team is behind the likes of Red Bull and McLaren in development.

Vietnam says an ongoing outbreak of a common childhood virus has killed 11 and sickened more than 12,000 mostly under 3-year-olds this year.

The Health Ministry says the infection rate of the hand, foot and mouth disease from January 1 to March 9 was seven times higher than the same period a year ago and is expected to rise further in coming months.

Australia said Wednesday that it remains committed to beating South Africa to host the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope, which will address fundamental questions about the universe including how the first black holes were formed.

A consortium of 20 countries will announce as early as next month whether South Africa or a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand will be chosen to host the Square Kilometer Array, which will be 50 times more sensitive and survey the sky 10,000 times faster than any other telescope.

Qatar is refusing to say whether it will sell alcohol at stadiums during the 2022 World Cup, although a top official said Wednesday he didn't see the reason for selling it at matches.

Hassan al-Thawadi, general secretary of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, said it was an issue that will be discussed with FIFA over the years. He only would say the country was aiming to put on an event where "everyone will be able to have a great time, have fun and be exposed to Qatari culture."

Saudi Arabia's oil minister said Wednesday that his country and other oil exporters are ready to offset any shortfalls in supply because of market volatility — an apparent reference to showdowns with Iran over its nuclear program.

"There is ample production and refining capacity ... Saudi Arabia and others remain poised to make good any shortfalls — perceived or real — in crude oil supply," said Ali Al-Naimi at a major oil conference in Kuwait where he addressed envoys alongside Iranian oil minister Rostam Ghasemi. A transcript of Al-Naimi's remarks was given to reporters.

Whether reggae, soft rock, hardcore punk or power pop, the music of the '70s is playing again at South By Southwest.

Several of the many music documentaries at this year's SXSW revisit acts from the decade, a time often skipped over in pop culture history. But for that same reason, the '70s left a number of stories ripe for rediscovery or more thorough examination.

Several endangered black-footed cats have been born recently in the U.S. and researchers say Crystal's birth is the rarest — the first ever born from an embryo fertilized in a lab dish, frozen, and later implanted in a housecat's womb.

The black-footed cat is Africa's smallest wildcat and one of the world's smallest felines — smaller even than a domestic cat.

A woman accused of stabbing her 6-year-old daughter to death with scissors told police she had been taking a weight-loss product, had trouble sleeping for several days and felt an "evil" presence before the attack.

"Did I kill my daughter? Is she dead?'" Danielle Yvonne Slaughter asked police after police found her on Sunday, naked, bloody and running barefoot through Las Vegas, according to court documents released Tuesday.

The U.S. defense chief held talks in Afghanistan on Wednesday, acknowledging that a series of "deeply troubling" incidents had challenged the U.S. war effort but vowing that nothing would derail the mission to defeat al-Qaida and reverse a Taliban insurgency.

Leon Panetta held a series of meetings in southern Afghanistan just days after an American soldier went on a murderous rampage, shooting dead 16 Afghan civilians -- most of them women and children -- in the worst single such incident since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

International credit ratings agency Moody's downgraded euro member Cyprus to junk status Tuesday on heightened concerns over its banking sector's exposure to Greece.

The agency cut its rating on Cyprus by one notch to Ba1 and assigned a negative outlook, meaning that further downgrades are possible.