Tokyo will use Japan's most celebrated flower — the cherry blossom — in its bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Tokyo's 2020 bid committee unveiled its bid logo on Wednesday, becoming the first if the six applicant cities to do so.

Distraught by the death of a former international teammate, Craig Bellamy was too upset to play for Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.

Two days later, however, the Wales striker was back in action and inspiring the team to a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in the League Cup quarterfinals — the first part of a northwest double over London sides in England's second-ranked club competition on Tuesday.

Can there be no trust between a kidnapper and his hostages?

A man who held a Kansas couple hostage in their home while fleeing from authorities is suing them, claiming that they broke an oral contract made when he promised them money in exchange for hiding him from police. The couple has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.

Turkey on Wednesday slapped economic sanctions on the Syrian regime, freezing assets of Syrians involved in the government's crackdown on protesters, suspending ties with Syria's Central Bank and banning all military sales.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that Syrian President Bashar Assad has wrongly ignored calls from the international community to stop its bloody crackdown on protesters.

North Korea said Wednesday that it is making rapid progress on work to enrich uranium and build a light-water nuclear power plant, increasing worries that the country is developing another way to make atomic weapons.

An unidentified spokesman at Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the construction of an experimental light-water reactor and low enriched uranium are "progressing apace."

The parent companies of American Airlines and its regional affiliate American Eagle are filing for bankruptcy protection.

AMR Corp. and AMR Eagle Holding Corp. said Tuesday that they filed voluntary petitions to reorganize, saying it's in the best interest of the companies and its shareholders.

Iranian pro-regime students stormed the British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The mob surged past riot police into the British Embassy compound — which they pelted with petrol bombs and stones — two days after Iran's parliament approved a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London's support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.

Italy saw its borrowing rates skyrocket in a big auction of bonds Tuesday as Premier Mario Monti put the finishing touches on his new lean government of technocrats, tasked with getting the country's enormous debt under control to avoid a catastrophic default.

Though Italy easily raised €7.49 billion ($10 billion), it had to pay more to investors to get them to open their wallets.

First there was Marley, the rambunctious Labrador retriever whose death brought readers to tears in John Grogan's "Marley and Me." Now there's Sammy, a mixed-breed hound who's the subject of another tear-jerker, a children's book, "Sammy in the Sky."

When her beloved hound dog died, Pulitzer Prize-Winning journalist Barbara Walsh watched her young daughters tearfully struggle with their loss and with tough questions. Walsh quickly realized there was a story to be told, one that she hopes will help other families deal with the loss of a pet.

The British Fashion Council on Monday honored Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen as Designer of the Year for 2011.

The council said Burton — who earlier this year drew praise for designing Kate Middleton's much-heralded wedding dress — has "allowed McQueen's legacy to live on while still giving her own twist of creative genius to a collection that has outshone its rivals on and off the catwalk."