Syria has freed 64 women prisoners this week, or half the number expected to be released under a weekend hostage deal, a human rights activist said Thursday.

Nine Lebanese pilgrim hostages held for 17 months by a rebel group in northern Syria were exchanged on Saturday for two Turkish pilots abducted in Lebanon in August.

After attempts by Jamaica's anti-doping commission to delay an inquiry, a team from the World Anti-Doping Agency is scheduled to visit the island next week to begin a special audit of the sprinting powerhouse's drug testing regime.

Herb Elliott, the chairman of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, said Wednesday that three WADA officials will be on the Caribbean island Monday and Tuesday to inspect the agency in the wake of revelations of a near-complete breakdown of the commission's out-of-competition testing from January 2012 to the July opening of the London Olympics.

Top-ranked Serena Williams overcame Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4 for her second win in two matches at the WTA Championships on Wednesday and all but sealed a spot in the semifinals.

Jelena Jankovic topped second-ranked Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-3 in her first match at the tournament and fourth-seeded Li Na opened her campaign with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Sara Errani.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic warmed up for their World Cup playoffs meeting with high-scoring displays for Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Ronaldo's two goals lifted Madrid to a 2-1 home victory over Juventus in the marquee matchup of the day, although the Portugal star was topped by Sweden's talismanic forward.

A Facebook petition supporting a Dutch Christmas character called "Black Pete" on Wednesday hit a million 'likes', revealing the liberal nation's attachment to a beloved figure the U.N. has warned may be racist.

Anger over the issue has swept the Netherlands after a U.N. human rights body said it was assessing whether "Zwarte Piet", who accompanies Saint Nicholas during a traditional children's festival before Christmas, is racist.

The legal wrangling continues between comedian and condo board president Joan Rivers and a former downstairs neighbor in her luxury New York City building.

Elizabeth Hazan was able to get into a $2 million two-bedroom unit she once occupied Wednesday, despite a judge's ruling the same day that she be denied access until she paid $200,000 in common charges.

Creepy crawlies, in the form of a venomous spider infestation, has forced a school in Britain to close a week before Halloween.

The Dean Academy, a secondary school in southwest England's Gloucestershire, said it was closing Wednesday to get rid of the false widow spiders. The spiders are commonly mistaken for their relative, the black widow spider, whose bite can be fatal.

Doctors now have convincing evidence that they put HIV into remission, hopefully for good, in a Mississippi baby born with the AIDS virus — a medical first that is prompting a new look at how hard and fast such cases should be treated.

The case was reported earlier this year but some doctors were skeptical that the baby was really infected rather than testing positive because of exposure to virus in the mom's blood.

Strokes are increasingly hitting younger people and the incidence of the crippling condition worldwide could double by 2030, warns the first global analysis of the problem.

Though the chances of a stroke jump dramatically with age, the growing number of younger people with worrying risk factors such as bulging waistlines, diabetes and high blood pressure means they are becoming increasingly susceptible.

Japan is scaling down the planned main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, following an uproar from some prominent architects who think it's too big and expensive.

Hakubun Shimomura, the minister in charge of education, sports and science, told Parliament Wednesday the stadium designed by award-winning British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid would cost 300 billion yen ($3 billion) to build, and that was "too massive a budget." He says Hadid's design will be used but the project will be scaled back.