Former Real Madrid greats Alfredo di Stefano and Zinedine Zidane have come out in defense of coach Jose Mourinho following another disappointing loss to Barcelona.

Mourinho was widely criticized for his defensive tactics in Wednesday's 2-1 cup loss, which was exacerbated by Pepe's stamp on Lionel Messi's hand.

Tottenham will look to take advantage of a Manchester City team going through its most vulnerable period of the season when the two new pretenders to the Premier League trophy meet Sunday in a pivotal match in the title race.

After moving to the top of the standings with a freescoring start to the season, City surrendered its unbeaten league record with a 2-1 loss at Chelsea on Dec. 12 and then stuttered over the holiday period.

A substance found in nuts and whole grains may someday help doctors fight the kind of food poisoning that sickened thousands of people in Europe last summer, a study in mice suggests.

While a variety of germs can cause food poisoning, the European outbreak involved a dangerous strain of the bacterium E. coli. It infects people and pumps out a poison called Shiga toxin. Some other bacteria also produce this toxin, which overall causes more than 1 million deaths a year worldwide. The European food poisoning outbreak included about 4,000 people and 50 deaths.

A fresh dusting of snow over Park City heralded the beginning of the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday.

Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford opened the festival by characterizing the slate of 117 feature films as products of "dark and grim" times and the "suffering from a government that's in paralysis."

Scientists working in the dense jungles of Indonesia have "rediscovered" a large, gray monkey so rare it was believed by many to be extinct.

They were all the more baffled to find the Miller's Grizzled Langur — its black face framed by a fluffy, Dracula-esque white collar — in an area well outside its previously recorded home range.

NBC comedy "30 Rock" often finds laughs in real-life events in the show business world it inhabits.

But Thursday's edition targeted one of its own cast members, Tracy Morgan, who found himself in real-life hot water last June after making anti-gay remarks during a stand-up appearance in Nashville, Tenn.

Third-seeded Victoria Azarenka has advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open, winning a matchup between champions of two warm-up tournaments when she beat Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-4 on Friday.

Azarenka, who beat four seeded players including French Open champion Li Na to win the Sydney International last week, has only lost eight games at Melbourne Park en route to the Round of 16.

Roger Federer made the most of his rare opportunities Friday against the fastest serve in tennis, cashing in with some classic returns in a 7-6 (6), 7-5, 6-3 win over Ivo Karlovic to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The four-time Australian Open champion fended off Karlovic's set point in the tiebreaker with a return that brought the 6-foot-10 Croatian to the net, then lobbed just over him.

Mexico enacted tough new rules Thursday to ban advertising of "miracle cures" for weight loss, sagging body parts and more serious illnesses like prostate ailments, chronic fatigue and even cancer.

Mexico has a long history of faith healers and home remedies, but the problem has come to a head in the last few years with a constant stream of ads on television for more "scientific" sounding creams that supposedly lift or enlarge breast and buttocks, magnets that help users lose weight, or pills and powders that cure gastric problems or diabetes.

Good news: Sex is safe for most heart patients. If you're healthy enough to walk up two flights of stairs without chest pain or gasping for breath, you can have a love life.

That advice from a leading doctors' group on Thursday addresses one of the most pressing, least discussed issues facing survivors of heart attacks and other heart patients.