Etihad Airways said Friday that it will continue to fight a lawsuit by a passenger who says he was left with back pain because he was seated beside an overweight man on a 14-hour flight from the United Arab Emirates to Sydney.

James Bassos, of Brisbane, is suing the Abu Dhabi-based airline in the Queensland state District Court over a permanent back injury he says he suffered while trying to avoid his fellow passenger on the 2011 flight. The 38-year-old interior designer is claiming $227,000 Australian dollars ($166,000) for medical expenses and lost earnings.

The 1984 Summer Olympic Torch that Bruce Jenner carried through Lake Tahoe, Nevada, sold for just under $24,000 at an auction of sports memorabilia Thursday.

The 24-inch Olympic torch was the first major piece of Jenner memorabilia to go to auction since the winner of the 1976 Olympic Decathlon Gold Medal became Caitlyn Jenner. It had a presale estimate of $20,000.

Men armed with rifles killed a police commander Thursday in the capital of the restive southern Mexico state of Guerrero, and officers pursuing the suspected attackers killed three people about two hours later, authorities said.

Officials of the state attorney's office said at a news conference that a state police regional chief of detectives, David Urquizo Molina, was shot dead in the city Chilpancingo. He had left his home and was driving to work when he was intercepted by at least four individuals and killed by fire from assault rifles.

Controversy over a leading U.S. reproductive health group supplying fetal tissue for research has focused attention on a little-discussed aspect of science.

Some of the organization's affiliates in the U.S. provide the tissue, according to the pro-choice group, Planned Parenthood. An anti-abortion group says the Planned Parenthood is illegally making a profit from that, and has released covertly recorded videos about it.

Samsung Electronics suffered a fifth straight drop in quarterly earnings as the Galaxy S6 failed to reverse its declining fortunes in global smartphone sales.

The company's overall earnings drop during the April-June quarter was 8 percent but it reported a much bigger decline of 38 percent in the mobile division's income. The sharp profit drop in the mobile business came despite its ambitious start to the quarter with the launch of two flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge featuring a curved side display.

"Have you found Jesus?" That's what employees at a Rhode Island soup kitchen are asking after a religious statue disappeared from the kitchen's garden.

Pawtucket Soup Kitchen Director Adrienne Marchetti says on Wednesday that she last saw the statue, which depicts Joseph carrying the baby Jesus, on July 20.

Shakira and pro soccer player Gerard Pique may have another athlete in the family.

On Wednesday, Shakira, 38, posted a video to Twitter and Facebook of the couple's youngest child, Sasha, who was born in January, in which she appears holding her son in front of a soccer ball.

Tom Brady took the fight over his "Deflategate" suspension to social media and federal court Wednesday, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft backed the three-time Super Bowl MVP, saying "I was wrong to put my faith in the league."

One day after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell rejected Brady's appeal, the star quarterback posted a 507-word statement on Facebook with his firmest denial yet, writing: "I did nothing wrong." Kraft followed with an unscheduled address to the media gathered at Gillette Stadium for the opening of training camp and the team's defense of its fourth Super Bowl championship.

A judge is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday about whether the Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles can sell a hilltop convent overlooking Hollywood to pop singer Katy Perry.

An order of nuns owns the multimillion dollar property and has sold it to a businesswoman who wants to develop it into a hotel and restaurant. The archbishop, however, contends the nuns didn't have authority to make the sale and Perry's $14.5 million offer for the property is a better deal. The archbishop's lawyers have asked a judge to overturn the sale.

The waters where Olympians will compete in swimming and boating events next summer in South America's first games are rife with human sewage and present a serious health risk for athletes, as well as for visitors to the iconic beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

An Associated Press investigation found dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from sewage in venues where athletes will compete in the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic water sports.