Referees have been given the power to stop matches in European competitions for three minutes to fully assess head injuries.

The proposal by FIFA medical committee chairman Michel D'Hooghe in response to concerns about the treatment of concussions in high-profile matches, was approved by the UEFA executive committee on Thursday.

There's some truth to the effectiveness of folk remedies and old wives' tales when it comes to serious medical issues, according to findings by a team from Detroit Medical Center.

Dr. Sonal Saraiya and her colleagues in Michigan found that packing strips of cured pork in the nose of a child who suffers from uncontrollable, life-threatening nosebleeds can stop the hemorrhaging, a discovery that won them a 2014 Ig Nobel prize, the annual award for sometimes inane, yet often surprisingly practical, scientific discoveries.

The British pound jumped as investors bet that Scottish voters would reject independence based on results that cover more than half of Scotland. Japanese stocks rallied as the yen extended losses against the dollar while other Asian benchmarks were subdued for lack of major economic data.

KEEPING SCORE: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.8 percent to 16,361.77, the highest level since December, as the yen's weakness made exports cheaper for overseas buyers and local stocks more affordable for foreign investors. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.5 percent to 2,057.77 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.4 percent to 24,254.31. The Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China slipped 0.1 percent to 2,313.56 and Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.3 percent to 5,431.30.

Alec Baldwin says he is passionate about green energy and is hoping next week's U.N. climate summit brings home to Americans that the United States has fallen behind other countries in promoting wind and solar power.

The Emmy award-winning actor who has appeared on film, stage and television spoke at a reception Thursday night to celebrate the launch of a book entitled "Addressing Climate Change" featuring the work of award-winning English photographer Henry Dallal, who has often photographed Queen Elizabeth II. Its contributors include U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres, who attended the launch.

It's easy to dismiss Apple's new iPhones as merely catching up to Android.

After all, phones running Google's Android system long have had larger screens. In addition, many Android phones already have the wireless chips that iPhones are getting for making credit card payments without pulling out a card at retail stores.

A once-convicted felon killed six of his grandchildren, including an infant, his adult daughter and himself in a shooting at the man's home in a small north Florida town Thursday, a sheriff said.

Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz at a news conference identified the man as 51-year-old Don Spirit. He would not say if the woman killed was the mother of any of the two boys and four girls, some of whom spent a lot of time at the home.

Fighting between Shiite rebels and Sunni Islamists backed by troops killed nearly 40 people outside Sanaa Thursday, as the U.N. envoy huddled in the rebel stronghold to try to end Yemen's political crisis.

Fighting raged between the rebels, known as Huthis or Ansarullah, and fighters of the Islah (Reform) party in Shamlan, just north of the capital, where rebels have been camped for weeks.

As the Formula One season exits Europe and heads to Asia for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, teams and drivers are preparing for a new challenge, with the sport now banning a large amount of radio messages during races.

The change comes in response to fan disquiet about the increasingly remote-control nature of the sport. Teams, with reams of available data during races, have been determining race strategy and the appropriate car settings to carry it out, with drivers simply pressing the buttons on the steering wheel to adjust their use of fuel, tires or brakes accordingly.

Prince William will replace his wife Kate on this weekend's official visit to Malta because the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge is still suffering from acute morning sickness.

Palace officials said Thursday the decision to cancel what would have been Kate's first official solo voyage overseas was made in consultation with her doctors.

Nearly three million Syrian children are not attending school due to the war raging in their country, an international charity group said Thursday.

The report by the Britain-based Save the Children added that hundreds of thousands of displaced children are struggling to enroll for school in their host countries and in Syria.