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The contrast cannot be starker: selfie-taking tourists sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalisation and capitalism -- while looking out over reclusive, communist North Korea.

The EU's top court upheld Thursday a record 4.1 billion euro ($4.7 billion) fine the bloc slapped on Google for anti-competitive practices related to its Android operating system.

Germany's ruling coalition has agreed on sweeping tax, labour and pension reforms, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday, a breakthrough aimed at reviving the struggling economy and countering the rise of the far right.

Italy on Thursday named debutants Alessandro Ortombina and Malik Faissal to start against Japan in their Nations Championship opener in Tokyo as they look to build on their Six Nations success.

France recalled their record try scorer Damian Penaud on Thursday for their Nations Championship clash with New Zealand in a starting side stacked with Bordeaux-Begles players.

Outgoing Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt Thursday said he had no ambition to do the same job for another national side once he hands over to Les Kiss after the opening round of the Nations Championship.

South Korean stocks plunged nearly eight percent Thursday in tech stock rout that led losses across much of Asia as investors unwound huge bets on the sector that have propelled markets to record highs.

India has asked Meta to hold off launching its username feature on WhatsApp in the world's most populous country, citing concerns over fraud and impersonation, media reports said Thursday.

Ruben Love was given the nod on Thursday to start at fly-half against France as new All Blacks coach Dave Rennie named his first New Zealand side for the Nations Championship opener in Christchurch.

Russian missile and drone strikes tore open apartment buildings in Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens, hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a "massive attack".

Australia coach Joe Schmidt Thursday praised Jock Campbell's resilience after he was recalled from four years in the Test wilderness while backing a fresh halves combination for their season-opener against Ireland.

The next indirect US-Iran talks will come after the late Iranian supreme leader's funeral, mediators said Thursday, as diplomacy inches ahead on ending the Middle East war.

Back in his village in rural Malawi, Ahamadi Assani recalled his terror during an attack by anti-foreigner vigilantes in South Africa that led him to flee the country with just a few bags.

At the edge of rugged Montenegrin foothills, a years-long effort to save one of the country's oldest olive trees, which locals say dates back millennia, is finally bearing fruit -- literally.

Ireland coach Andy Farrell rewarded Sam Prendergast for his stellar club form by picking him as playmaker for their Nations Championship opener against Australia in a starting XV dominated by Leinster players.

Gold and gas-driven economic growth in Papua New Guinea, the South Pacific's largest nation, is leaving its people behind, the World Bank said on Thursday.

In a dark hall of Kyiv's Holodomor museum, four men were carefully lifting the protective glass cases off robes, icons, books and metal agricultural tools.

Tens of thousands of Catholics flocked to a small parish in the Mekong Delta on Thursday for the first beatification ceremony held on Vietnamese soil.

Small companies that form the backbone of the German economy are struggling with the shift to carbon-neutral production, which adds extra costs when they are already battling high power prices and a broader slowdown.

Russian missile and drone strikes rocked Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a "massive attack".

Hundreds of rescuers struggled Thursday to unearth a 43-year-old Venezuelan man trapped for eight days under a collapsed building after twin earthquakes killed almost 2,300 people, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Basketball superstar LeBron James congratulated Folarin Balogun on scoring for the United States in their World Cup victory on Wednesday after the striker emulated his trademark "Silencer" celebration.

USA coach Mauricio Pochettino said Wednesday striker Folarin Balogun should "never" have received a red card after he was sent off against Bosnia following a VAR review, meaning he will miss his side's last-16 World Cup showdown with Belgium next week.

Ireland coach Andy Farrell opted for Sam Prendergast as his playmaker for their Nations Championship opener against Australia in Sydney in a starting XV dominated by Leinster players.

Japan on Thursday named uncapped student fly-half Ryunosuke Ito to start against Italy in their Nations Championship opener in Tokyo, with banned head coach Eddie Jones absent.

Australia coach Joe Schmidt recalled Jock Campbell after four years in the Test wilderness Thursday while gambling on a fresh halves combination for their season-opener against Ireland.

Tech stocks led losses across most of Asia on Thursday as investors continued to unwind huge bets on the sector that have propelled markets to record highs this year.

Harry Kane scored twice to rescue England from the brink of a calamitous World Cup exit as co-hosts the United States swept into the last 16 with victory in their primetime clash against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

South Korea's baseball authority suspended a school team from Thursday for chanting about a Starbucks Korea marketing fiasco that evoked a deadly 1980 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Hunched over sizzling grills and shrouded in smoke, trainees at the Yueyang Barbecue Academy in southern China roast skewer after skewer of succulent beef tendon, perfecting the skills that could land them a restaurant job.

Barefoot, arms raised and teeming with emotion, Ceuzany belts out the signature track from her latest album, a song dedicated to the fight against domestic violence, in a powerful voice that sends shivers through the Cape Verde bar.

Ten years ago England-based artist Mia Hansson embarked on a painstaking project that continues to this day: creating a replica of the 70-metre (230-foot) long Bayeux Tapestry.