Mario Goetze's World Cup-winning left shoe has fetched a donation of 2 million euros (nearly $2.5 million) at a children's charity gala in Germany and is headed for a museum.

The Bayern Munich player scored Germany's winning goal against Argentina with his left foot during extra time in the World Cup final in July.

A Ukrainian Premier League football match has been abandoned after angry fans chased the referee off the pitch and stopped him leaving the stadium.

With their team losing 2-1 to Metalist Kharkiv after 87 minutes and incensed at what they saw as biased decisions from Dmytro Kutakov, fans of Volyn Lutsk stormed the pitch.

Lionel Messi scored another hat trick to reach the 400-goal mark for Barcelona and spark his team's 5-1 comeback victory over Espanyol in the Catalan capital derby on Sunday, keeping the winners second in the Spanish league.

Messi matched Cristiano Ronaldo's three-goal performance in Real Madrid's win the day before to ensure Barcelona stayed within two points of its fierce rivals at the top of the table. It was Messi's third hat trick in two weeks, having also netted three goals against Sevilla in the league and at APOEL in the Champions League.

Five-time winner Liverpool and the champions of England and Italy are among the 11 teams competing for five remaining spots in the knockout stage of the Champions League going into the final round of group games.

Liverpool has been a let-down on its return to Europe's top competition after a five-year absence, but can still qualify as runner-up behind Real Madrid in Group B by beating FC Basel at Anfield on Tuesday.

Anthony Davis scored 23 points as the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Los Angeles Lakers 104-87 on Sunday.

Jrue Holiday had 22 points and eight assists, helping the Pelicans end a four-game road losing streak that included a 27-point drubbing by the Warriors on Thursday and a 20-point loss to the Clippers on Saturday night.

New South Wales state premier Mike Baird says a planned state funeral for fallen cricket star Phil Hughes has been called off.

Hughes died on November 27, two days after being struck by a short-pitched ball during a domestic first class match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He was 25.

Just a few years ago, early adopters of e-cigarettes got their fix by clumsily screwing together a small battery and a plastic cartridge containing cotton soaked with nicotine.

Now, the battery-powered contraptions have computer chips to regulate puffs and temperature, track usage, talk to other electronic devices and even blink when "vapers" are near each other.

Joe DiMaggio's love letter to Marilyn Monroe has sold for $78,125 at a Beverly Hills auction.

Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills says the letter, written by the New York Yankees baseball star after Monroe announced she was divorcing him, was sold Saturday to an undisclosed buyer.

Israeli troops on Monday went on alert along the border with Lebanon over fears of a military operation as a cabinet minister stressed that the Jewish State has a policy of preventing arms transfers to Hizbullah.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli soldiers were on alert mainly in the area of the Shabaa Farms.

Israel said Monday it will not allow "sophisticated weapons" to fall into the hands of its enemies, after furious claims from Syria that Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes near Damascus.

Tel Aviv refused to confirm or deny the strikes, but its forces have previously targeted weapons allegedly destined for arch-foe Lebanon's Hizbullah.