The European Union plans to restrict the use of three pesticides to better protect dwindling bee populations.

The announcement Monday was cheered by environmentalists, disappointed chemical companies and came after the bloc's 27 nations failed to agree on a common stand.

A former Israeli defense minister has said that Syria's chemical weapons are "trickling" to Hizbullah. But Israeli officials said they did not have any evidence about the alleged transfer.

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a retired general who is now a lawmaker from the opposition Labor party, told The Associated Press on Monday: "The process of weapon transferal to Hizbullah has begun."

Google is trying to upstage Siri, the sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad.

The duel began Monday with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri.

Chinese health officials say the 4-year-old son of a man infected with a new strain of bird flu has also caught the virus.

Shandong province's health department says there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, and that the boy is in stable condition at a hospital.

They sweep. They swab. They sterilize. And still the germs persist.

In U.S. hospitals, an estimated 1 in 20 patients pick up infections they didn't have when they arrived, some caused by dangerous 'superbugs' that are hard to treat.

Still to win any trophies with Tottenham, Gareth Bale collected the top two awards in English football on Sunday to cement his status as one of the sport's most talented players.

The Wales forward was voted player of the year and the young player of the year by his fellow professionals in English football.

The San Antonio Spurs completed a first-round sweep of the injury-plagued Los Angeles Lakers with a 103-82 victory in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series Sunday, while the Miami Heat advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 115-101 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Tony Parker scored 23 points and Tim Duncan had 11 points and six rebounds for the second-seeded Spurs, who will face the winner of Denver's series with Golden State in the second round. They'll get plenty of rest after flattening the Lakers, who finished without three regular starters in their first opening-round exit since 2007.

President Barack Obama joked Saturday that the years are catching up to him and he's not "the strapping young Muslim socialist" he used to be.

Obama poked fun at himself as well as some of his political adversaries during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner attended by politicians, members of the media and Hollywood celebrities.

Last year, the inaugural Digital NewFronts didn't skimp on the hype.

Google, Hulu, Yahoo and others made brash, glitzy presentations to advertisers trumpeting their ascendancy in a rapidly changing media landscape. Even Jay-Z dropped by.

"Iron Man 3" was the heavy-lifter at theaters with a debut outside the U.S. that overshadowed a gang of mercenary bodybuilders in a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.

The Marvel Studios superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets, distributor Disney reported Sunday.