FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the World Cup will be "well done," but he criticized Brazilian authorities for starting late on stadium projects and for not providing enough worker safety.

Blatter spoke on Thursday in the Costa Rican capital, where he was attending the Under-17 Women's World Cup.

Friends and family will be able to take the first step to save a loved one from an overdose of heroin or powerful painkillers called opioids.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved an easy-to-use device that automatically injects the right dose of an overdose antidote named naloxone before an ambulance arrives. Doctors could prescribe it for family members or caregivers to keep on hand, in a pocket or a medicine cabinet.

When Ahmed Mater visited Mecca in 2010 something felt off. Dozens of cranes were eating away at the mosque to make way for a larger complex surrounding the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure to which observant Muslims pray toward five times a day that also draws millions of pilgrims annually from around the world.

The changes were irrevocably transforming the city's landscape. So Mater, a practicing physician and modern artist, took pictures. He titled his project "Desert of Pharan" in a nod to Mecca's ancient name.

Fifty years after her first book was published, Anne Tyler is set to release her 20th novel.

And yes, it will be set in Baltimore.

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, who acknowledged last year that she had occasionally used cocaine, was denied permission to board a flight to the United States over the weekend, the U.S. Embassy said.

The embassy did not disclose the reason for refusing Lawson entry into the United States.

A senior Russian diplomat says U.S. officials should do yoga and watch TV comedy series to ease what he calls their irrational fixation on punishing Russia over Ukraine.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's comments to the Interfax news agency Thursday reflected simmering tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia's annexation of Crimea. The U.S. and the EU have slapped members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's entourage with travel bans and asset freezes.

The space consortium Arianespace has successfully launched a rocket that lofted the first Earth-observation satellite for a new European project.

The Sentinel-1A satellite was launched into orbit by a Soyuz rocket on Thursday evening from a spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket's flight lasted 23 minutes.

David Letterman's departure from the late-night realm won't just end an unmatched run on television. It also will close the book on an era reaching almost to the birth of TV.

During a taping of Thursday's edition of "Late Show," Letterman startled his audience with the news that he will step down in 2015, when his current contract with CBS expires.

They're high steppers of a different sort. More than 700 people took the long way up at the World Trade Center on Thursday — climbing the stairs.

They did it for the inaugural "Runyon Up," a fundraiser for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Like every "Game of Thrones" fan, Charles Dance was gobsmacked by last season's next-to-last installment.

That episode floored viewers with its ritualistic "red wedding," a massacre staged by Lord Walder Frey, the bride's father, who meant to settle a score with his hall of guests, and did.