Germany begins its World Cup preparations in earnest with Wednesday's friendly against Chile in Stuttgart.

Coach Joachim Loew has been at pains to focus his players' attention on the World Cup with 99 days to go. Preparations to date have been far from ideal, with key players injured, returning from injury or simply not in form. Chile is also gearing up for the tournament in Brazil. Here are five things to know ahead of the teams' seventh meeting:

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew is facing a long stadium ban after being charged Monday by the English Football Association with improper conduct for headbutting an opposing player during a Premier League match.

Pardew has already been sanctioned by Newcastle, accepting a formal warning and a 100,000 pound ($168,000) fine following his confrontation with Hull midfielder David Meyler on Saturday.

Miami's LeBron James scored a career-high and franchise-record 61 points to lead the hosts to a 124-107 win over Charlotte on Friday, moving the Heat back within two games of NBA Eastern Conference leader Indiana.

James made 22 of 33 shots from the field, including his first eight 3-point attempts. His career best had been 56 points in 2004-05 for Cleveland against Toronto.

A Cairo court banned Tuesday the Palestinian Hamas movement from operating in Egypt, tightening the noose around the militant rulers of the blockaded Gaza Strip amid a crackdown on Islamists.

The emergency court's decision to also seize Hamas's assets, ahead of a final ruling, was in response to a private citizen's petition to designate it as a terrorist group.

A Philadelphia television news reporter covering the aftermath of a snowstorm in New Jersey has gotten pelted by snow from a passing plow.

WTXF-TV's Steve Keeley was blasted with a wall of snow from the plow Monday morning while reporting live from the side of a road in Woodstown.

A farmer in central Minnesota has created a towering tribute to winter's excess.

Greg Novak says he's invested hundreds of hours to build a 50-foot snowman named "Granddaddy" that he hopes will wake onlookers from their winter doldrums. And he admits it has some neighbors questioning his sanity.

"Non-Stop" couldn't be stopped at the box office.

Universal's airliner thriller starring Liam Neeson as a federal air marshal on a disastrous flight landed in first place in its debut weekend at the box office with $28.9 million.

High fashion equals high drama, the latest installment of Paris Fashion Week proved Monday.

A hooded Rihanna tried her best to pass unnoticed at the Stella McCartney show but caused yet more mayhem. Meanwhile, the world's most influential fashion critic, Suzy Menkes, announced she's ditching newspapers after a quarter of a century, though she denied there's an end in sight for the print industry.

Brazil is running out of time.

World Cup organizers will mark 100 days to go on Tuesday with a lot of work still to be done on stadiums and infrastructure in the 12 host cities.

His throne continues to build: Jay Z's Roc Nation will now manage Kanye West.

The management company and West's label announced Monday that Roc Nation will work alongside West's production house, DONDA, on managing the Grammy-winning superstar's music endeavors. Izvor Zivkovic will continue to manage West as well.