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The Paris Olympics were poised to open in an unprecedented ceremony along the river Seine on Friday to mark the formal launch of the global sporting spectacular.

An Iraqi male judoka has tested positive for banned anabolic steroids at the Paris Olympics, the International Testing Agency announced on Friday -- the first positive doping test at the Games.

Jason Holder and Joshua Da Silva held firm after the West Indies squandered a promising position on Friday's first day of the third Test against England at Edgbaston.

The Alpine Formula One team announced Friday that team principal Bruno Famin will leave his post at the end of August.

Ethiopia announced on Friday three days of mourning following a devastating landslide in a southern remote part of the country where more than 250 people lost their lives.

Brazil's Lencois Maranhenses National Park, famed for its white dunes that fill with blue and emerald lagoons in the rainy season, was on Friday declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Rain and cooler temperatures are helping firefighters battling a huge forest fire that has devastated part of the popular tourist town of Jasper in western Canada, authorities said Friday.

France's Melvyn Jaminet has been suspended for 34 weeks from all competitions after he recorded a video in which he made racist comments, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) announced on Friday.

Japan's Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron in Tokyo three years ago but she has it all to prove in Paris as she continues her slow-burning return to tennis.

Major stock markets mainly rose Friday as traders welcomed data showing US inflation is slowing, firming expectations for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates in September.

Russia's central bank raised its key interest to 18 percent on Friday, the sixth hike in just over a year as it seeks to tame soaring price rises.

Max Verstappen, who faces a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race, topped the times for Red Bull ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri in Friday's opening free practice at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

Britain's new Labour government will announce next week that the country's public finances have an additional hole of around £20 billion ($26 billion), risking tax rises in an upcoming budget, media reported on Friday.

A long-haired sorcerer wearily checked his smartphone as elves and androids bustled past at the digital entertainment expo ChinaJoy on Friday, the crowds a testament to the local gaming industry's tentative recovery after a period on pause.

US gymnastics great Simone Biles is aiming to have a sixth unique skill named for her, a new move on the uneven bars that she will unveil at the Paris Olympics.

Canadian soccer chiefs on Friday pleaded for FIFA not to deduct points from their women's Olympic football team amid a drone-spying scandal which led to head coach Bev Priestman being dramatically kicked out of the Paris Games in disgrace.

The Olympic flame cruised into Paris on Friday on a diesel-belching tug, the torch held aloft by its white-clad bearer, having earlier been carried by US rapper Snoop Dogg, as it passed under the peripherique motorway.

The US Federal Reserve's favored inflation measure eased further in June, according to government data published Friday, in more good news for policymakers ahead of next week's interest rate decision.

Kraigg Brathwaite could only watch as the West Indies squandered a promising position by losing three wickets shortly before lunch on Friday's first day of the third Test against England at Edgbaston.

German car parts manufacturer ZF said Friday it would cut a fifth to a quarter of jobs in Germany as it struggled with the switch to electric vehicles and foreign competition.

Allyson Felix may have finally hung up her spikes after a glittering career that spanned three decades and five Olympics, but the track and field icon is still making her presence felt at the Paris Games.

Spanish motorbike racer Joan Mir has extended his deal with Honda to continue racing the elite-level MotoGP circuit until 2026, the Japanese team said Friday.

Arson attacks scrambled France's high-speed rail network for tens of thousands of passengers on Friday, after what officials called premeditated acts of "sabotage" just hours before the Paris Olympics opened.

Remco Evenepoel, one of the favourites for Olympic time trial gold on Saturday, criticised the presence of numerous "holes" on the Paris roads which will stage the event.

France's rail network was paralysed Friday by coordinated acts of sabotage which knocked out most of its high-speed train services hours before the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

Major stock markets mainly rose Friday as traders looked ahead to key US inflation data that could firm expectations for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates in September.

Former US president Barack Obama endorsed his fellow Democrat Kamala Harris' bid for the White House on Friday, delivering a major boost to her campaign to defeat Donald Trump in November's presidential election.

India's Suryakumar Yadav said Friday he was not going to repeat the mistakes of his domestic captaincy ahead of his first trial as Twenty20 skipper against Sri Lanka.

An Australian swimming coach who backed a South Korean rival to beat two of his countrymen avoided being kicked out of the Olympics Friday, with officials deciding it would be too disruptive.

Arson attacks scrambled France's high-speed rail network for tens of thousands of passengers on Friday, after what officials called premeditated acts of "sabotage" just hours before the Paris Olympics opened.

US Olympic icon Allyson Felix believes Kamala Harris winning November's US presidential election would be a "monumental" moment for the country.

The Paris Olympics are a family affair for Laurent and Cecile Landi, the husband and wife coaching team that has shepherded Simone Biles back to the pinnacle of gymnastics and into a third Games.