Fed up with the neighbors? Pipes burst in the kitchen? Or, you just want to get away from it all for a while?

Hotel Finn in the heart of Helsinki might just be the ticket — they're seeking a "professional sleeper" for 35 days to test their rooms and write all about it.

Harrison Ford isn't ready — "yet" — to talk about his reported part in Disney's planned "Star Wars" sequel, but he praises its director, J.J. Abrams.

"I think he's fantastic," Ford said in a recent interview. "I did his first movie, 'Regarding Henry,' with Mike Nichols. A wonderful talent. Extraordinary guy."

Three Lebanese have been kidnapped in Lagos, a rare case of expatriate kidnapping in Nigeria's commercial center, the state-run National News Agency reported Wednesday.

NNA said the Lebanese foreign ministry was informed about the kidnapping, adding that contacts are underway to set them free.

Moments before the match, Tommy Haas sat in his courtside chair jiggling his legs, eager to face the world's No. 1-ranked player and old enough to know such chances don't often come along.

Haas took advantage, beating three-time champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round of the Sony Open 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday. The upset snapped Djokovic's 14-match winning streak at Key Biscayne, where he won the tournament in the past two years.

One minute, Renata Glasner is watching the waves crash on Leblon beach from her wheelchair. The next, she's plowing through the turbulent waters, riding the choppy waves on a specially adapted surfboard.

Glasner, a 35-year-old graphic designer who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis four years ago, is one of dozens of disabled people on this special strip of Rio de Janeiro beach who are conquering the waves. Men and women with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, people missing a limb, the blind, the deaf and even the paralyzed all hit the waves here.

Spain put its World Cup defense back on track Tuesday by beating France to seize control of their qualifying group, while Germany and the Netherlands claimed big victories to push them closer to the finals in Brazil.

Pedro Rodriguez scored the Spain goal that secured a 1-0 victory in Paris and lifted the reigning champions out of a slump following back-to-back draws.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has appealed to the leaders of a five-nation economic forum to intervene to stop the violence in Syria and encourage dialogue in his country's two-year conflict.

Assad said Syria is being subjected to "acts of terrorism backed by Arab, regional and Western nations" — a reference to the Western-backed opposition fighting his regime.

The New York Knicks extended their winning streak to five games as J.R. Smith scored 32 points and Carmelo Anthony added 29 in a 100-85 victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.

The win moved the Knicks into second place in the Eastern Conference, percentage points ahead of the Indiana Pacers. The Celtics, who could face the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs, lost their fifth game in a row and remained in seventh.

Asafa Powell will find the crowd smaller and the surface a whole lot different when he competes this weekend in the Stawell Gift, a century-old handicap race held in a small town in western Victoria state.

Powell, who announced he's fully recovered from the left hamstring injury which caused him to pull up in the 100-meter race at last year's London Olympics won by his countryman Usain Bolt, will start from scratch.

The harsh spending cuts introduced by European governments to tackle their crippling debt problems have not only pitched the region into recession — they are also being partly blamed for outbreaks of diseases not normally seen in Europe and a spike in suicides, according to new research.

Since the crisis first struck in 2008, state-run welfare and health services across Europe have seen their budgets cut, medical treatments rationed and unpopular measures such as hospital user fees introduced.