After one of the most unpredictable Champions League matchdays in years, some of Europe's big names have reputations to restore and ground to make up this week as the group stage approaches crunch time.

While Manchester City already is in must-win territory, AC Milan, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Chelsea find themselves in precarious positions heading into the fourth round of matches.

The Los Angeles Lakers finally got their first victory of the season after an 0-3 start by beating the winless Detroit Pistons 108-79 on Sunday.

The bad start to the season followed a dismal 0-8 record in preseason games to have alarm bells ringing for the Lakers, but the big names responded on Sunday, with new signing Dwight Howard scoring 28 points while Kobe Bryant had 15 points and eight assists.

The Labor Ministry says the number of people registered as unemployed in Spain jumped by 128,242 people in October as the country's recession continues to take its toll.

The ministry said in a statement Monday that a little over 4.83 million were registered as jobless at the end of last month, an increase of 2.7 percent on September.

Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, have arrived in Australia as part of their two-week tour of the Pacific.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall landed in the Outback Queensland town of Longreach on Monday following a visit to Papua New Guinea.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has distanced himself from remarks made by one of his senior aides, who dubbed Egypt's government a "shocking dictatorship" and said there was no dialogue between the countries.

Barak said the comments, made by Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, do not reflect Israel's position. Barak also said that Gilad's words came after he spoke at length about the importance of the peace treaty and proper relations between Israel and Egypt.

This time, Belgium's royal family came out swinging.

Crown Prince Philippe, 52, had been depicted in a book as less of a man than is needed to become the next king of Belgium. Again.

From "Livin' on a Prayer" to "The Living Proof," every song Friday at NBC's benefit concert for superstorm Sandy victims became a message song.

New Jersey's Jon Bon Jovi gave extra meaning to "Who Says You Can't Go Home." Billy Joel worked in a reference to Staten Island, the decimated New York City borough. The hourlong event, hosted by Matt Lauer, was heavy on stars and lyrics identified with New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area, which took the brunt of this week's deadly storm. The telethon was a mix of music, storm footage and calls for donations from Jon Stewart, Tina Fey, Whoopi Goldberg and others.

Accompanied by a fleet of astronauts spanning NASA's entire existence, Atlantis made a slow, solemn journey to retirement Friday, the last space shuttle to orbit the world and the last to leave NASA's nest.

Atlantis reached its new home at the Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop close to sundown, after a one-way road trip that spanned nearly 12 hours.

The plunge in Iran's currency is proving bad for business in neighboring Iraq.

Yousif Jassim Mohammed would know. The Iraqi merchant's gift shop sits on prime real estate opposite the gold-domed Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims and a huge draw for the busloads of Iranian pilgrims that form the bedrock of Iraq's tourist trade.

Two spacewalking astronauts worked on a leaky radiator system outside the International Space Station on Thursday, just hours after barely dodging a menacing piece of orbiting junk.

NASA ordered the space station to change position Wednesday evening to avoid a fragment from a communication satellite that was destroyed in a high-speed collision three years ago.