Juventus looked good while Ajax looked woeful in the Europa League on Thursday on a night when other former champions Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk and Sevilla also stumbled.

Juventus enjoyed a 2-0 home win against Trabzonspor, but four-time European champion Ajax fell to a stunning 3-0 home loss to SV Salzburg in the first leg of the round-of-32.

For hockey fans, it should be a fantastic Friday.

The United States and Canada will renew their rivalry in the Olympic semifinals, a rematch of the 2010 and 2002 gold-medal games, both of which Canada won.

Russia's cupboard was so bare of world-class female figure skaters that the sport's most dominant nation had to turn to the kids a few years ago.

Among those youngsters was Adelina Sotnikova, who won a national championship in 2009, when she was just 12.

When the air gets really bad, Beijing says it has an emergency plan to yank half the city's cars off the road. The only problem is: It may be difficult to ever set that plan in motion.

A rare alert issued Friday was an "orange" one, the second-highest in the four levels of urgency. It prompted health advisories, bans on barbeques, fireworks and demolition work, but no order to pull cars from the streets.

A dramatic rise in thyroid cancer has resulted from overdiagnosis and treatment of tumors too small to ever cause harm, according to a study that found cases nearly tripled since 1975.

The study is the latest to question whether all cancers need aggressive treatment. Other research has suggested that certain cancers of the prostate, breast and lung as well as thyroid grow so slowly that they will never become deadly, and that overzealous screening leads to overtreatment.

First lady Michelle Obama, an outspoken advocate of healthy eating and exercise, says the president and vice president are getting ready to show America "how they move."

Mrs. Obama sat down Thursday for a chat with Jimmy Fallon, the new host of NBC's "Tonight Show," and talked about life in the White House, as well as her Let's Move exercise initiative.

A Bitcoin ATM has landed at a Boston rail hub, allowing commuters to learn about the digital currency.

On Wednesday, the ATM was placed by Liberty Teller at Boston's bustling South Station, which sees thousands of commuters a day. It and an ATM in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are believed to be the first in the country.

The market turmoil sparked by the Federal Reserve's steps toward removing the U.S. economy from life support is expected to be a top agenda item when finance chiefs from the world's biggest economies meet in Sydney this weekend.

The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting is a precursor to the main G-20 summit that will be held in the Australian city of Brisbane in November. The meeting's host, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, said the Federal Reserve's decision to begin scaling back its stimulus will be a key part of discussions, along with reinvigorating global growth.

PlayStation stands out among the long list of famous Sony brands as one that hasn't faded or succumbed to a nimbler competitor. Months after hitting global markets, the latest version of the video-game console is going on sale at midnight in Tokyo, a big shift from times when Sony was ascendant enough to launch flagship products in Japan first.

The PlayStation 4's much awaited arrival in Sony Corp.'s home market is the first time Japan did not get a major Sony game machine ahead of other markets. With much riding on the PS4's success, the commercial advantages of targeting overseas markets outweighed the sentimental pull of a home town launch.

Just four years ago, U.S. deficits and debt were an explosive political combination, propelling Republicans to control of the House of Representatives and fueling the budget fights that would ensue over the next three years.

Today, they are an afterthought in Washington's political and policy landscape.