World and European champion Spain stays top in the latest FIFA rankings and Copa America winner Uruguay rises to its highest place in fifth spot.

The latest monthly standings will be used to help decide seedings in Saturday's World Cup qualifying draw.

Spain was forced to offer sharply higher returns on Tuesday to sell 2.885 billion euros ($4.17 billion) in short-term bonds as investors worried over sovereign debt burdens in the Eurozone.

The Spanish treasury had to offer a rate of 1.899 percent to borrow money for three months, up from 1.568 percent at the last such auction on June 21.

If Ernest Hemingway were alive, Spanish bullfighter Jose Tomas would likely be a hero of one of his novels.

Brave and fearless, but an introvert to the point of being a hermit, Jose Tomas returns to the bull ring Saturday in Spain's eastern city of Valencia after a year recovering from a goring in Mexico that almost killed him.

From his workship in the rugged northwestern region of Galicia, Amancio Ortega has conquered the world.

But he is something of an enigma.

The European Union publishes on Friday the results of major stress tests on Europe's troubled banking sector, facing pressures from the Eurozone debt crisis now affecting Italy and Spain.

The European Banking Authority, the EU's London-based regulator for the financial sector, has carried out assessments on 91 banks representing 65 percent of the sector and will publish its findings at 1600 GMT.

Spain's San Fermin festival, best known for its daily running of the bulls, came to an official close at midnight on Thursday during a candlelight ceremony attended by thousands of revelers.

"People of Pamplona, the San Fermin festival is over. It has been spectacular, thanks to you it is the best festival in the world," Pamplona mayor Enrique Maya shouted from the balcony of city hall to cheers from the crowd.

In Germany the idea of a teenager spending a few months abroad looking after someone else's children while she studies or travels has given rise to a new concept -- the granny "au pair".

Newspapers now explicitly solicit applications from older women rather than students with ads such as: "Family living in Australia with two children aged 4 and 2 seeks German replacement granny for three to six months".

Cesc Fabregas is "suffering" from the drawn-out transfer saga that has kept the Arsenal playmaker from joining Barcelona, according to Xavi Hernandez.

Xavi left little doubt over his Spain teammate's desire to move to the Catalan capital following a recent conversation.

A 14-year-old German boy sparked a major police operation after taking his father's new Ferrari for a spin lasting several hours, authorities said Wednesday.

The teenager's parents bought the 200,000-euro ($280,000) sports car in Berlin and were on Tuesday returning to their home in Spain when police stopped them on a motorway near the German capital and detained them for questioning.

Spanish surgeons on Monday carried out the world's first-ever double leg transplant, authorities in the eastern city of Valencia said.

The operation lasted all night and was completed on Monday morning in the city's La Fe hospital, the regional health authority said in a statement.