Despite anti-government protests, doping scandals and low attendance at an international football tournament, leaders of Istanbul's bid for the 2020 Olympics say the project enjoys overwhelming domestic support and is picking up momentum ahead of the IOC vote.

Turkish officials came to London on Thursday to share in the anniversary celebrations of the 2012 Olympics and promote their bid, which is in the final weeks of the race against Madrid and Tokyo.

Lady Gaga will perform at the MTV Video Music Awards next month. It will be one of her first appearances since having hip surgery in February.

The 27-year-old pop star will perform her new single at the Aug. 25 awards show, which will air live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, MTV announced Thursday.

The familiar exteriors of astronauts' spacesuits often hide all of the ingenuity and mechanics that are built inside the suits, which were first imagined as "wearable spacecraft."

Now a new art exhibit, "Suited for Space," opening Friday at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, highlights the creativity behind the suits that allowed humans to explore the moon and aspire to fly farther from Earth.

The new respiratory virus that emerged in the Middle East last year appears to make people sicker faster than SARS, but doesn't seem to spread as easily, according to the latest detailed look at about four dozen cases in Saudi Arabia.

Since last September, the World Health Organization has confirmed 90 cases of MERS, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, including 45 deaths. Most cases have been in Saudi Arabia, but the mysterious virus has also been identified in countries including Jordan, Qatar, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Tunisia. MERS is related to SARS and the two diseases have similar symptoms including a fever, cough and muscle pain.

A Southern California husband and wife who were born on the same day and celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary last year have died just a day apart.

The couple's son Les Brown Jr. tells the Long Beach Press-Telegram (http://bit.ly/18CyufA) Thursday that 94-year-old Helen Brown died July 16 and 94-year-old Les Brown died July 17. She had stomach cancer. He had Parkinson's disease.

Marine archaeologists made a thrilling discovery this week while examining a well-preserved shipwreck deep in the Gulf of Mexico — two other sunken vessels that likely went down with it during an early 19th century storm.

Much isn't known about the ships, including the flag or flags they sailed under and the year they sank about 170 miles (273 kilometers) southeast of Galveston. They came to rest 4,360 feet (1,300 meters), or nearly three-quarters of a mile, below the surface, making them the deepest Gulf or North American shipwrecks to have been systematically investigated by archaeologists, the researchers said.

Flying cars. Waterproof living rooms that you clean with a hose. A pool on every rooftop.

Many of the old dreams and schemes about daily life in the 21st century didn't come true — at least not yet. Author Gregory Benford has gathered them — along with more successful predictions — in a book, "The Wonderful Future that Never Was" (Hearst, 2012). Some of the imaginative ideas just weren't imaginative enough, he says.

Only days after retiring from professional cycling, Stuart O'Grady admitted to using a blood-booster during the scandal-plagued 1998 Tour de France.

The 39-year-old Australian rider, a six-time Olympian who wore the leader's yellow jersey for a total of nine days in 17 Tours de France, announced his retirement earlier this week after the 100th edition of the race. He admitted he had used erythropoietin (EPO) for two weeks before the 1998 event, saying he had acquired it himself and used it without the knowledge of his team.

Ronaldinho added a Copa Libertadores title to his collection of honors as Brazil's Atletico Mineiro defeated Paraguay's Olimpia in a penalty shootout to win the continental club championship on Wednesday.

Trailing 2-0 after the first leg, Atletico needed an 87th-minute goal by defender Leonardo Silva to draw level, after striker Jo had scored at the start of the second half.

With a nod to Marilyn Monroe, Svetlana Romashina won her third gold medal of the swimming world championships with a victory in the synchronized solo Wednesday.

Romashina easily took the top spot with 97.340 points, increasing her career haul to 13 world championship golds dating to 2005. China's Huang Xuechen won silver with 95.720, while Spain's Ona Carbonell took bronze before the home crowd at the Palau Sant Jordi arena with 94.290.