The player who used his phone to snap a photo of a ball mark during a French Open match has been fined $2,000 (about 1,500 euros).

Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine was cited for unsportsmanlike conduct for setting aside his racket and taking a picture of the spot in the red clay where a shot landed near a line in his 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 loss to seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet at Roland Garros.

Iran last year boosted its support for global terrorism to levels not seen for two decades, the Obama administration said Thursday as it released its annual report on international trends in extremist violence. The report said the core elements of al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan are headed for defeat but stressed that the network's various affiliates remain severe threats to the U.S.

The State Department's "Country Reports on Terrorism" for 2012 left unchanged the U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism." Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria remain on that blacklist, although Iran was singled out as the worst offender and Syria was taken to task for the ongoing brutal crackdown on opponents of President Bashar Assad's regime.

Less than four months before the IOC vote, the three cities vying for the 2020 Olympics took their campaign to a key international audience on Thursday — with each claiming to be the safest and most financially secure choice at a time of global uncertainty.

Officials from Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo made presentations to the SportAccord conference in St. Petersburg, their first chance to pitch their bids in public to sports and Olympic officials.

Nestle SA, the world's biggest food and drink company, says it is boosting research to tackle the threat of ever-stronger strains of bacteria and germs in food manufacturing.

The Vevey, Switzerland-based company says it will initially boost research into several types of food-borne bacteria — particularly a dangerous strain of bacterium E. coli that infects people and pumps out a poison called Shiga toxin — and viruses Norovirus and Hepatitis A.

Microsoft is trying to fix what it got wrong with its radical makeover of Windows. It's making the operating system easier to navigate and enabling users to set up the software so it starts in a more familiar format designed for personal computers.

The revisions to Windows 8 will be released later this year. The free update, called Windows 8.1, represents Microsoft's concessions to long-time customers taken aback by the dramatic changes to an operating system that had become a staple in households and offices around the world during the past 20 years.

With a win over Malaga on Saturday, Barcelona can rob Real Madrid of its sole claim to the best single season in the history of the Spanish league.

Madrid set a record of reaching the 100-point mark en route to winning the title last season. And with 97 points heading into the final round, Barcelona can equal that milestone with a victory at Camp Nou.

Russia has delivered sophisticated air defense missiles to Syria, President Bashar Assad has implied in an interview to be aired Thursday on Hizbullah's al-Manar television, the network said.

Al-Manar said in a statement that when asked about the promised delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missiles, Assad replied: "All the agreements with Russia will be honored and some already have been recently."

Justin Timberlake will be the headliner when the iTunes festival kicks off in September in London.

The superstar is among the acts slated for the annual music series, which will be held each night that month and streamed on Apple devices like the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV.

Victoria Azarenka waited until the fourth day of the French Open for her opening match, then showed she's eager to continue.

Filling a mostly empty stadium court with her familiar shrieks on Wednesday, the former world No. 1 beat Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-1, 6-4 in a match postponed one day because of rain. That meant Azarenka reached the second round 72 hours after some players.

Oprah Winfrey doesn't have a daily talk show anymore. But two years after abdicating her throne, the former talk-show queen is clear who she thinks now wear the crowns: Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan.

Winfrey declared the co-hosts "the reigning king and queen" during a surprise appearance on Tuesday's "Live with Kelly and Michael."