Sydney Australia

Zanerobe, the University of Sport, brings beachy Australian style to these shores this year with a sportswear collection for men, women and children based on weekend basics such as T-shirts, tanks and boardshorts. In 2002, Jonathan "Jono" Yeo, 35, and Leith Testoni, 33, founded Sydney-based Zanerobe after wagering over beers that they could make a shirt better than a "hideous" striped button-down that some guy paraded in front of them at a neighborhood pub. Yeo and Testoni named their fledgling collection Zanerobe, a combination of the name Zane – a nickname Testoni wished he had – and "robe" from " garde-robe ," which is French for wardrobe.

Atlanta's 1996 Olympic flame is still ablaze, yet some young Ventura County athletes with a burning desire to compete in the Games are looking even further ahead: to Sydney, Australia, in the year 2000. They live in every corner of the county. They partake in disparate sporting endeavors. And they have already tasted success on a national level. Debbie Chan of Port Hueneme is a 15-year-old pint-size dynamo with a 90-mph kick.

Ian Thorpe of Australia powered to his second world record in three days Tuesday in the World Championships at Fukuoka, Japan. Michael Phelps of the U.S. also smashed a world record, breaking his mark in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:54.58. Thorpe's two records are his 10th and 11th in individual long-course events. He won three Olympic gold medals at Sydney, Australia, last year and already has three world titles at Fukuoka.

When electric-car company Tesla Motors Inc. started selling its flagship Model S luxury hatchback earlier this year, it eschewed the traditional dealership network to open its own stores. But that's not sitting well with U.S. auto dealers, who have controlled new-vehicle sales for nearly a century. The nation's roughly 18,000 new-car dealers got a cut of every one of the 12.8 million new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. last year, from the biggest domestic sport-utility vehicle to the tiniest Japanese import.

The deaths of five skiers over a recent seven-day period on or near Mammoth Mountain appear to have been tragic accidents but have shaken this hamlet of outdoor enthusiasts. One victim was a Los Angeles dentist and avid outdoorsman, another a retired water deliveryman from Garden Grove, the third a San Diego teenager and the fourth a marketing representative from Laguna Niguel. The fifth was an accomplished ski patrol member traversing the Eastern Sierra's breathtaking backcountry.

Dominique Dawes, Kristen Maloney, Amy Chow, Jamie Dantzscher, Elise Ray and Tasha Schwikert found out they were Olympic bronze medalists Wednesday. The award is 10 years late and bittersweet for the members of the U.S. women's 2000 Olympic gymnastics team that finished fourth overall and left Sydney, Australia, without a single medal — team or individual. On Wednesday, China was stripped of its team bronze by the International Olympic Committee because of evidence presented to the IOC that one Chinese gymnast, Dong Fangxiao, was only 14 at the time.

Phil Harris, the bandleader who became famous by portraying himself as a flashy, hard-drinking musician on the old Jack Benny radio show, died late Friday. He was 89. His wife of 54 years, former actress Alice Faye, and daughter, Phyllis Harris, were at his side at their Rancho Mirage home, said family spokesman Jewel Baxter.

Already hurt by troubles in Europe and significant slowdowns in China and India, the U.S. and the global recoveries got another dose of bad news: Japan's long-sluggish economy is threatening to slide back into recession. The world's third-largest economy shrank 3.5% at an annualized rate in the third quarter - the worst drop in gross domestic product since the country was battered by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The unexpectedly grim report Monday out of Tokyo prompted analysts to scale back Japan's growth forecasts for the near term.