North Korea said Friday it won't send cheerleaders to the upcoming Asian Games in rival South Korea, blaming what it called Seoul's hostility for reversing a decision to dispatch the women dubbed by South Korean media as a "squad of beauties."

Many South Koreans were infatuated in past years with the cheer squads of mostly young North Korean women that came south, often lavishing more attention on them than on the North's athletes. Before her marriage, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's wife was on a 2005 squad. Analysts say the North's decision suggests that the country may not continue an earlier push to improve ties with South Korea.

Alessandro Del Piero has joined Indian Super League side Delhi Dynamos.

The 39-year-old forward, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, confirmed the move on Thursday via his Twitter account, adding that he will also be an ambassador for the new league.

Manny Pacquiao has expressed interest in recruiting former NBA All Star Metta World Peace to the Filipino boxing champion's newest venture — professional basketball.

Pacquiao has become playing coach of the newly-formed KIA Sorentos in the Philippine Basketball Association, adding to his other careers as a world champion boxer and local congressman.

Sorry, clean freaks. No matter how well you scrub your home, it's covered in bacteria from your own body. And if you pack up and move, new research shows, you'll rapidly transfer your unique microbial fingerprint to the doorknobs, countertops and floors in your new house, too.

In fact, researchers who studied seven families in Illinois, Washington and California could easily match up who lived where using their microscopic roommates.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is accelerating and could grow six times larger to infect as many as 20,000 people, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The U.N. health agency unveiled a new road map for containing the virus, and scientists are fast-tracking efforts to find a treatment or vaccine.

Ebola has menaced Africa for 40 years, but previously struck in remote villages and was contained fairly quickly. This time, it has spread to major cities in four countries, provoking unrest as whole neighborhoods and towns have been sealed to the outside.

For years scientists have theorized about how large rocks — some weighing hundreds of pounds — zigzag across Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park, leaving long trails etched in the earth.

Now two researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, have photographed these "sailing rocks" being blown by light winds across the former lake bed.

The public will soon get to see an ancient human skeleton recently rediscovered in a Philadelphia museum's storage room.

Visitors can look at the 6,500-year-old remains beginning Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Museum.

The young homeless man who accompanied Miley Cyrus to the MTV Video Music Awards and who had been sought on an Oregon arrest warrant has turned himself in and posted bail, an Oregon official said.

Jesse Helt, 22, turned himself in at the Polk County Jail in the Willamette Valley community of Dallas, Oregon, was booked on a probation violation warrant and then posted $2,500 bail, said Martin Silbernagel, director of Polk County Community Corrections .

Europe deserves an extra team at the next World Cup, UEFA President Michel Platini said Thursday.

Platini pledged to ask FIFA for the extra spot because Germany's World Cup victory in Brazil made it three straight titles for Europe. Italy won in 2006 and Spain four years ago.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal says instant miracles shouldn't be expected from Angel Di Maria.

After missing out on European football this season with a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Premier League in May, United slumped to a 4-0 loss to third-tier club MK Dons in the League Cup on Tuesday.