Nicki Minaj will have another moment to savor from her super year: Billboard is honoring her as its rising star of 2011.

She is slated to get the honor at Billboard's "Women in Music" event on Dec. 2 in New York City.

George Clooney and his ex-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis are among more than 200 witnesses accepted Wednesday by a Milan court in the trial of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

Clooney has said he was approached by Berlusconi's team to testify about "bunga bunga" parties at Berlusconi's villas, but says he only visited the premier's residence once to seek aid for Darfur and declined an invitation to stay.

President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia will aim its missiles at the U.S. missile defense sites in Europe if Washington fails to address Russian concerns on its missile defense plans.

Medvedev said that Russia will deploy missiles in its westernmost Kaliningrad region and other areas if Russia and NATO fail to reach a deal on the U.S.-led missile defense plans.

Formula One team Renault has confirmed Robert Kubica will miss at least the early part of the 2012 season as he struggles to recover from serious injuries sustained in a rally crash this year.

Renault had been hoping Kubica would be fit to resume his role as the team's No. 1 driver from the start of 2012 but said Wednesday that he will not be ready to do so.

World and European champion Spain stays atop FIFA’s monthly world rankings, despite losing a friendly to England which climbs two places to No. 5.

The Netherlands remains second but third-placed Germany narrowed the gap after winning 3-0 in a friendly between the sides.

A finalist in three of the last four years, Manchester United is struggling to even get out of its group in this season's Champions League.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan were joined on Tuesday by two more of Europe's footballing elite, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, in the knockout stage of the game's biggest club competition.

Thailand's criminal court sentenced a 61-year-old man to 20 years in prison Wednesday for sending text messages deemed offensive to the country's queen.

The court found Amphon Tangnoppaku guilty on four counts under the country's lese majeste and computer crime laws, sentencing him to five years imprisonment for each charge.

The U.S. handed over all of the remaining detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq Tuesday, except for a Hizbullah commander linked to the death of four American troops, Iraqi and American officials said.

The prisoner transfer marks another step toward the American military's withdrawal from Iraq, as it plans for all U.S. troops to be out of the country by the end of this year.

Seven vinyl banners draped this month along one of Chicago's most iconic bridges — advertisements some have dubbed "a visual crime" and "commercial graffiti" — are reviving a debate about how governments raise money in tough economic times.

In the aftermath of the recession, a public school district in Colorado is selling ads on report cards and Utah has a new law allowing ads on school buses. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration, straining to fill a $600 million budget hole, is looking to raise $25 million from ads on city property — including bridges, electrical storage boxes and garbage cans.

Move over Mozart. Toes in Salzburg are tapping to a new beat as residents finally embrace the Hollywood musical that put them on the map nearly half a century ago.

Playing for the first time in this haughty town of opera lovers, "The Sound of Music," has been met with surprisingly positive reactions in what is commonly considered a last bulwark of resistance to the iconic show.