Brazilian striker Hulk has been withdrawn from his role in this weekend's 2018 World Cup draw, four days after saying racism is commonplace in host nation Russia.

FIFA said Hulk had been replaced due to "club commitments" with Zenit St. Petersburg, which visits Ural Yekaterinburg in the Russian Premier League on Sunday, a day after Saturday's draw ceremony.

Gabby Douglas is exasperated. Again and again and again the defending women's Olympic all-around champion emphatically slaps her right hand on one of the picnic tables that sit just past the front desk at Buckeye Gymnastics, the latest home in her nomadic career.

The 19-year-old isn't angry, exactly. She's just over the skepticism surrounding a "comeback" she insists isn't a comeback at all.

Chris Brown left the Philippines late Friday after being stranded for three days due to a fraud complaint against him for a canceled concert last New Year's Eve.

He still had to sit through a three-hour delay at the airport and fly to Hong Kong instead of Macau.

Critics of the Iran nuclear deal claim it is flawed, among many reasons, because it does not demand that Tehran also change its behavior at home and abroad. That complaint ignores the United States' long history of striking arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, a far more dangerous enemy.

Those deals probably made the world a safer place through some of the darkest days of the Cold War, and they proved talks could be productive even with a sworn adversary.

Now broadcasting live from a West Bank parking lot, a new Palestinian-funded satellite television channel for Israel's Arab citizens already found its studio closed before it could even fill its airtime.

The flap over Palestine 48 — named for the year of Israel's creation and Palestinian displacement — reflects strained relations between Israel's government and the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas at a time when a resumption of talks on Palestinian statehood is unlikely.

Scientists say they have sequenced the genome of the brown kiwi for the first time, revealing that the shy, flightless bird likely lost its ability to see colors after it became nocturnal tens of millions of years ago.

Inspection of the kiwi's DNA also showed greater diversity than in other birds in genes responsible for smell, indicating that New Zealand's national animal can probably detect a wider range of odors — another useful adaptation for a species that prefers living in the dark.

A 560-pound (254-kilogram) man biking across the United States to lose weight hit a snag in Rhode Island.

The Newport Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1JfwEFz ) a bent rim on Eric Hites' bicycle has kept him in Tiverton since late last week, 90 miles (145 kilometers) from where his ride began in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

South Korea's quarterly growth slowed to the lowest in more than two years as a severe drought hit agriculture and an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome sapped consumption.

The economy expanded 2.2 percent in the second quarter over a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said Thursday. That's the lowest since the first quarter of 2013. Asia's fourth-largest economy eked out 0.3 percent growth from the previous quarter.

Thousands of protesters packed into Times Square on Wednesday evening to demand that Congress vote down the proposed U.S. deal with Iran.

As the crowd loomed behind police barricades, chants of "Kill the deal!" could be heard for blocks. The event, billed as the "Stop Iran Rally" consisted mainly of pro-Israel supporters, though organizers said it represents Americans of all faiths and political convictions.

Grammy award-winning singer Chris Brown's departure from Manila was delayed Wednesday because of fraud allegations against him and his promoter for a canceled concert last New Year's Eve.

The recording artist, who performed at a packed concert Tuesday night in Manila, was prevented from leaving on a private plane Wednesday pending clearance by the Bureau of Immigration.