Swimming Australia says it has accepted the resignation of chief executive Kevin Neil, a move which follows the national team's poor performance at the London Olympics.

Neil was due to appear next week at a government inquiry into the sport after Australia failed to win an individual gold medal in the pool for the first time since 1976.

Real Madrid and AC Milan, with 16 Champions League titles between them, advanced to the knockout stage on Wednesday, along with Borussia Dortmund and Schalke to make it three out of three teams from Germany.

Nine-time champion Madrid held on for 1-1 at Manchester City with 10 men, eliminating the English Premier League champion in the process. Also in Group D, Dortmund beat Ajax 4-1 to go through as the top team.

Chelsea surprisingly brought Rafael Benitez out of the coaching wilderness on Wednesday, hiring the Spaniard in an interim role after mercilessly firing the man who guided the club to its first Champions League title just six months ago.

Benitez agreed to a contract with the European champions until the end of the season, nearly two years after being fired by Inter Milan in his last coaching position. He filled the vacancy created by Roberto Di Matteo's sudden departure earlier in the day following the team's dip in form over the past month.

Lindsay Lohan arrived an hour late to the red carpet to celebrate the premiere of "Liz & Dick" but basked in the media frenzy — saying it felt good to have the focus on her work as an actress.

"It feels great to be on a red carpet for working hard," Lohan said.

Iran's supreme leader has stopped the country's parliament from grilling the president over the nation's plummeting currency and economic crisis, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded that the parliament drop its plan to grill President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying such a session would benefit Iran's enemies.

Bahrain's leaders pushed back against criticism by a leading rights group Wednesday that the Gulf state has failed to follow through with promised political and security reforms in the wake of the kingdom's anti-government uprising.

Authorities cited a series of measures taken since an independent report on the crisis came out last November, including giving more oversight to parliament.

Officials say Turkey has requested deployment of NATO's Patriot air defense missiles over concerns about Syria's civil war.

Turkish officials have become increasingly concerned about the civil war spilling over the border. A statement from the Turkish government said the request has been made in the "face of risks from the ongoing crisis in Syria."

One Direction's "Take Me Home" is the taking the boys to the top of the charts — and to new heights.

The group's sophomore album has sold 540,000 in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the year's third-highest debut behind Taylor Swift's "Red," which sold 1.2 million units its first week earlier this month, and Mumford & Sons' "Babel," which sold more than 600,000 albums in September in its debut week.

The Church of England has much explaining to do following its failure to vote to allow women to serve as bishops, its leader said Wednesday — and politicians from the prime minister downward are already demanding action or answers.

One legislator even suggested there might be an issue under anti-discrimination laws.

Spanish prosecutors have asked a judge to set bail at €8.2 million ($10.5 million) for the king's son-in-law and his former business partner before their possible trial in a corruption case troubling the monarchy for the past two years.

Inaki Urdangarin hasn't been charged with a crime, but is a suspect in a case in which he and his partner allegedly funneled about €5 million in public money their nonprofit foundation received for conferences between 2004 and 2006 to other companies they controlled.