World Cup and European champion Spain has completed a full year atop the FIFA rankings, and Brazil has plummeted to No. 18.

The 2014 World Cup host has dropped while playing only non-competitive matches, and failed to win last month.

San Antonio's worrying form dip continued with a 112-106 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday in which the Spurs threatened a comeback from a big deficit yet could not sink the vital shots in the final seconds.

San Antonio suffered its fourth loss in five games and dropped to second in the Southwest Division behind idle Memphis. Other leading teams had wins on Tuesday, with Miami, Atlanta, Chicago and Golden State among the victors.

Bayern Munich overcame a red card for Franck Ribery to reach the quarterfinals of the German Cup with a 2-0 win at Augsburg on Tuesday.

Ribery set up Mario Gomez for Bayern's opening goal in the 26th minute of the third round match, when the Frenchman got his cross in despite the attention of three defenders.

Inter Milan beat Serie B side Hellas Verona 2-0 to advance to the Italian Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Antonio Cassano put Inter ahead in the 50th after taking a pass from Fredy Guarin. Four minutes later, Guarin scored with a free kick that deflected in off Verona's wall at the San Siro.

A beauty queen who claimed this year's Miss USA contest was fixed has been ordered to pay the pageant organization $5 million for defamation.

In a decision signed last week, an arbitrator found that the comments from Miss Pennsylvania USA Sheena Monnin were false, harmful and malicious. Monnin had alleged that the five finalists had been selected in advance of the pageant's live telecast.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the international community to help Palestinian refugees fleeing fighting in camps in Syria to enter the West Bank and Gaza.

"Mahmoud Abbas, president of the state of Palestine, requested Wednesday that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the international community enable our people in Syria to enter Palestinian territory," a statement carried on the official WAFA news agency said.

Syrian rebels are closely monitoring the regime's chemical weapons sites but don't have the means to seize and secure them, their newly elected military commander told The Associated Press.

Gen. Salim Idris, who defected from the Syrian army in July, said he is "very afraid" a cornered Syrian President Bashar Assad will unleash such weapons on his own people.

Two bank robbers pulled off a daring escape from downtown Chicago's high-rise jail Tuesday by apparently scaling down about 20 stories using a makeshift rope tied to the bars in a cell window.

Police helicopters and canine units swarmed the area, but not until more than three hours after Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley went unaccounted for during a 5 a.m. headcount, U.S. Marshal's Service spokeswoman Belkis Cantor said.

Ukrainian health officials say 37 people have died from the severe cold spell that hit the country this month.

Temperatures have dropped as low as minus-17 C (2 F).

Israeli authorities say they have put 5,000 fragments of the ancient Dead Sea scrolls online in a partnership with Google.

The digital library launched on Tuesday, with important texts like the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the Ten Commandments, and a portion of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, dated to the first century B.C.