Three-time Olympian Stacy Sykora has decided to formally retire from the U.S. national volleyball team, two years after she sustained a serious brain injury in a bus accident while playing in Brazil.

Sykora has played on a limited basis since the injury, which impacted her vision.

Major League Soccer plans to add four new teams by the 2020 season.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced the league's plans during halftime of its annual All-Star game Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday he was confident Washington would reach an agreement with Kabul that would allow American troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014.

"We're making progress, we're working on it. I am personally confident that we will have an agreement," Kerry told reporters after talks with the Pakistani government in Islamabad.

he U.S. House of Representatives has approved tough new sanctions on Iran's oil sector and other industries.

The Obama administration fears the measures could undercut the Islamic republic's incoming, more moderate president ahead of new nuclear negotiations. No date has been set for such talks, which would include other world powers Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

Uruguay's unprecedented plan to create a legal marijuana market won its critical first step Wednesday in the lower house of Congress.

All 50 members of the ruling Broad Front coalition approved the proposal just before midnight Wednesday in a party line vote, keeping a narrow majority of the 96 lawmakers present after more than 13 hours of passionate debate.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Wednesday that the Pentagon may have to stop using up to three Navy aircraft carriers and order additional sharp reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps if Congress doesn't act to avoid massive budget cuts beginning in 2014.

Hagel told reporters that the sweeping budget cuts over the next 10 years could leave the nation with an ill-prepared, under-equipped military doomed to face more technologically advanced enemies.

Christian Benitez died of heart failure, Qatari club El Jaish said Wednesday without providing further details.

The Ecuador striker died Monday, a day after playing his first match for his new club.

The days of buying pornographic videos with names based on Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors are over.

Caballero Video has agreed to stop marketing "Boston Cream Thigh," ''Peanut Butter D-Cup" and other films spoofing the names of the venerable Vermont ice cream maker's products.

FC Barcelona with Lionel Messi and debuting Neymar surprisingly drew 2-2 with Lechia Gdansk of Poland's premier league in a friendly match Tuesday.

Poland's Jaroslaw Bieniuk opened the scoring in the 16th minute, then Roberto Sergi made it even 10 minutes later with a goal for Barcelona.

Oscar "Ossie" Schectman, the former New York Knicks guard who scored the first basket in NBA history, died Tuesday. He was 94.

Schectman's son Peter confirmed his father's death, which was also announced by the Knicks. Peter says his dad died of complications from respiratory failure.