Juan Martin del Potro was stuck with too much idle time the past two seasons, limited to 14 matches in that span because of a series of wrist injuries.

So when the 2009 U.S. Open champion was asked about his second-round opponent in the Delray Beach Open, del Potro shrugged his shoulders and deadpanned: "I don't know him. For two years I was at home, watching 'The Simpsons.'"

When Omri Casspi was 13, his family took him on a Bar Mitzvah trip to the United States, the highlight of which was a visit to New York City where the Israeli youngster stood in front of Madison Square Garden and boldly vowed he would one day play there.

"It was more of an illusion. I'm sure thousands of other Israeli kids did the same thing," Casspi recalled, "but it's a dream that somehow came true."

Los Angeles has unveiled its logo for the city's bid for the 2024 Olympics, displaying it on a digital screen on the 30th floor of a downtown skyscraper shortly after sunset on Tuesday.

The logo is a figure of a soaring angel with outstretched arms and legs illuminated by the rays of the sun, which emanate from a point of light at the figure's heart in a palette of purple, red, orange and yellow, colors often seen in the city sky at sunrise and sunset. The city's slogan for the bid is "Follow the Sun."

The mayor of Haifa in northern Israel said on Wednesday that he is grateful for threats made by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to attack the city's ammonia facility.

In 2006, Israel fought a war with Hizbullah in Lebanon, but when Nasrallah said Tuesday that "several of our rockets combined with the ammonia storage facility in Haifa will create the effect of a nuclear weapon," the local mayor seized the opportunity to highlight his city's environmental problems.

A group of Malian families who lost loved ones in the Saudi hajj disaster in September is criticizing the kingdom's response to the crush and stampede that killed at least 2,426 people.

A lawyer for the group, Marcel Ceccaldi, spoke to journalists on Tuesday in Bamako, the capital of the West African nation. He also criticized the response by the government of Mali, which had 320 of its pilgrims killed in the Sept. 24 disaster at Mina.

Syrian government troops who have besieged dozens of rebel-held communities are moving toward their biggest target yet — the opposition-controlled neighborhoods of the city of Aleppo, where some 300,000 people risk being trapped.

Sieges were widely used for centuries as a military tool — from Jerusalem to Leningrad and Sarajevo — and aren't defined outright as a war crime. However, recent images of emaciated civilians in blockaded areas, such as the Syrian town of Madaya, have prompted global outrage.

Eight years after the financial crisis, the world is coming to grips with an unpleasant realization: serious weaknesses still plague the global economy, and emergency help may not be on the way.

Sinking stock prices, flat inflation, and the bizarre phenomenon of negative interest rates have coupled with a downturn in emerging markets to raise worries that the economy is being stalked by threats that central banks — the saviors during the crisis — may struggle to cope with.

Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat is dealing with another blood-clot scare, making this the second consecutive year that he's spent the All-Star break facing a most uncertain future because of a health issue.

Bosh will spend "the next few days" reviewing options and no determination will be made about his playing status until he goes through more tests and evaluation, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday night. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the All-Star forward nor the Heat have revealed the concerns publicly.

After all these years, Uno is still No. 1.

More than 2,700 dogs entered in the Westminster Kennel Club show that started Monday, with a couple of clear favorites. Rumor the German shepherd and Charlie the Skye terrier head the pack, and could be picked as the nation's top pooch.

Sepp Blatter is back at FIFA headquarters for an appeal hearing to challenge his eight-year ban for approving a $2 million payment to Michel Platini in 2011.

Blatter arrived early for his scheduled 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) start with the FIFA appeal committee to challenge ethics committee sanctions imposed in December.