This summer, out of the blue, playwright Glen Berger got a call from director Julie Taymor.

He assumed he was being butt-dialed.

Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson scored 19 points each as the Brooklyn Nets ended years of futility against the Miami Heat and sent the NBA champions to their first losing streak in 10 months with a 101-100 victory Friday.

Pierce and Johnson both hit two free throws in the final seconds as the Heat were trying to pull off a comeback. Instead, they fell to 1-2 and have dropped consecutive games for the first time since January 8 and 10.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday that Lebanese top officials were “in favor of being invited” to a peace conference on Syria in Geneva later this month.

Following separate talks with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Brahimi said: “The three leaders are in favor of being invited to it.”

Five decades of isolation, military rule and woeful health care have left Myanmar with a particularly high rate of blindness. Now the veil of darkness is starting to lift, thanks in part to an "assembly line" surgical procedure that allows cataracts to be removed safely, without stitches, through two small incisions.

Nepalese surgeon Sandut Ruit, who helped pioneer the technique, oversaw nearly 1,300 operations at two massive eye camps in 10 days in October, with dozens of local ophthalmologists looking on and helping.

Google is selling a new Android smartphone that it hopes will become more like a clairvoyant friend than a piece of hardware.

The Nexus 5 phone unveiled Thursday is the first device to run on Kit Kat, the latest version of Google's Android operating system.

Derrick Rose made a floating baseline basket with 5.7 seconds left to lift the Chicago Bulls to an 82-81 victory over the New York Knicks on Thursday in his first home game since he injured his left knee 18 months ago.

Rose had 18 points on 7-of-23 shooting and committed four turnovers. But there was no doubt who was getting the ball after Tyson Chandler went 1 for 2 at the line to give New York an 81-80 lead with 10.8 seconds remaining.

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic overcame big servers Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters.

Nadal defeated last year's runner-up Jerzy Janowicz 7-5, 6-4, while Djokovic rallied from a set down to beat John Isner 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2.

Richard Gasquet and Stanislas Wawrinka grabbed the last two remaining spots for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals after Milos Raonic lost to Tomas Berdych 7-6 (13), 6-4 Thursday in the third round of the Paris Masters.

Raonic needed at least a runner-up finish in Paris to have a chance to qualify for the London tournament next week, which features the top eight players. This will be Wawrinka's first appearance while Gasquet also qualified in 2007.

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari picked AC Milan striker Robinho on Thursday for the squad that will play friendlies against Chile and Honduras next month.

Robinho gained another chance thanks in part to the absence of Diego Costa, who was left out after choosing to play for Spain instead of his native Brazil.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are suing a co-founder of YouTube over a video of their marriage proposal that was posted online.

The lawsuit filed Thursday claims Chad Hurley violated a confidentiality agreement when he posted the fuzzy footage of the lavish proposal on his new web venture, MixBit.