From London to Washington via Brussels, a diplomatic battle is rumbling as Spain's northeastern Catalonia region vies to win international backing for its contested drive for independence from Madrid. [...] Meanwhile, Mas and his Catalan nationalist allies are waging their own diplomatic campaign for support in power centres such as Brussels and Washington.

The International Olympics Committee will hold a vote in Buenos Aires on Friday to decide the host of the 2020 Olympics. According to oddschecker.com, a site that gathers odds from Internet betting sites, Tokyo bests its competitors at 11-10 (meaning a successful bet of $10 will return $11 plus the original stake). Madrid follows at 11-4 and Istanbul 5-1.

The recent trend of the International Olympic Committee and FIFA, the organizer of soccer’s World Cup, has been to award the planet’s two largest sporting events to cities, countries or regions that have never hosted the global competitions. If that mind-set holds, Istanbul might seem to have the edge over Madrid and Tokyo on Saturday, when about 100 delegates of the Olympic committee will choose the host city for the 2020 Summer Games.

Madrid's 2020 Olympic bid committee says it has appointed Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol to act as one of its spokesmen. In a statement issued Tuesday, the committee says Gasol, one of Spain's most well-known athletes and a two-time Olympic silver medalist, will address the International Olympic Committee during Madrid's final presentation in Buenos Aires next month.