The Vatican has posted a 2.2 million euro ($2.85 million) budget surplus for 2012, an improvement from the previous year and some good news as it struggles to cope with a scandal involving its embattled bank.

In its annual financial statement Thursday, the Holy See said better management had helped it recover from one of its worst deficits a year earlier, when it booked a 14.9 million euro shortfall.

Ryan Giggs will have a player-coaching role next season at Manchester United, in a move that is likely to alleviate the pressure on new boss David Moyes.

The 39-year-old Giggs has spent his entire career at United since making his debut in 1991. He has been taking his coaching diplomas and is due to attain the UEFA Pro License, United said in a statement on Thursday.

Veteran Peru striker Claudio Pizarro has signed a one-year contract extension with Europe and Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich.

Pizarro is in his second spell at Bayern after returning to the club from Werder Bremen last year. In total, he has made 281 appearances for Bayern and scored 112 goals.

British babies born the same day as Prince William and Kate's first child will receive their own royal gift in the form of a "lucky" silver penny.

The Royal Mint announced Thursday that it has minted 2,013 silver coins bearing a shield of the Royal Arms, to be given to newborns who share their birthday with the third in line to the British throne.

The Statue of Liberty, closed since the destruction wrought by Superstorm Sandy, reopened to the public this Fourth of July as Americans across the country mark the U.S. Independence Day holiday with fireworks and barbecues.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials presided over a celebratory ribbon-cutting Thursday to mark the reopening of the national landmark. Some repairs to brick walkways and docks are still underway, but much of the work has been completed since Sandy swamped most of the national landmark's 12-acre (5-hectare) site.

The annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest was set to roll Thursday in Coney Island, with chomp champs Joey Chestnut and Sonya Thomas defending their respective men's and women's titles.

Chestnut, 29, is a six-time winner who set the record — 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes — in 2009 and tied it last year. Thomas, 45, powered through 45 dogs to take the women's championship last year and also won in 2011, the first year women competed separately.

In a third-floor room of a London hospital with orange and white walls draped with Tibetan prayer flags, roughly a dozen people gathered recently to perform vocal exercises and sing songs, including folk music from Ghana and Polynesia.

While the participants were drawn to the session by a fondness for music, they also had an ulterior motive for singing: to cope better with lung disease. The weekly group is led by a professional musician and is offered to people with respiratory problems including asthma, emphysema, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, or COPD.

Syria's President Bashar Assad claimed in an interview published Thursday that countries conspiring against Syria have "used up all their tools" in their campaign to overthrow his regime.

In comments to the state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, Assad rejected the idea that what has been happening in Syria since more than two years is a revolution. Instead, he insisted it is a conspiracy by Western and some Arab states to destabilize his country.

Cambodia has joined hands with Australia in an effort to use the Internet to help preserve its fabled Angkor Wat temple complex.

The Australian Embassy announced Thursday that a recently opened website, angkorsunsets.com, will give tourists recommendations for where in the 160-square-mile (400-square-kilometer) complex one can watch spectacular sunsets.

The Bank of England has opted to refrain from pumping more money into the UK economy in its first meeting since new Governor Mark Carney's arrival.

The Monetary Policy Committee kept interest rates at 0.5 percent Thursday and decided against expanding its stimulus program.