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The world's longest-serving death row prisoner was acquitted on Thursday, more than half a century after his murder conviction, when a Japanese court ruled that evidence had been fabricated.

The United States and its allies pressed for a 21-day ceasefire in the sharp escalation of fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that has threatened to plunge Lebanon into an all-out war.

New Zealand recalled veteran Beauden Barrett at fly-half to face Australia in the Bledisloe Cup rematch on Saturday as they strive to snap a Wellington hoodoo and rediscover their killer instinct.

"Barbie" director Greta Gerwig paid tribute to risk-takers in the "terrifying" entertainment industry as she was honored for her pioneering filmmaking at a prestigious Hollywood gala on Wednesday.

Pope Francis is to pay a rare visit to Luxembourg before heading to Brussels on Thursday, a trip to "the heart of Europe" he will use to discuss the continent's role in the world.

The European Union's decision to name a Hungarian as its health commissioner has raised eyebrows in his country, which itself has crumbling hospitals and no health minister.

Rohingya refugee Shonjida has endured years of boredom, misery and violence in Bangladesh -- but last month's overthrow of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina has given her fresh hope for the future.

Mpox epicentre DR Congo is less than a week away from the start of a vaccination campaign, but the rollout faces challenges in a vast country with limited roads, often in poor condition.

Olivier Giroud was on target as Los Angeles FC kept their dream of a rare domestic double alive after defeating Sporting Kansas City 3-1 to win the US Open Cup final on Wednesday.

The "several thousand" Russian civilians still living in territory occupied by Ukrainian troops are mostly elderly and largely cut off from the outside world, with no electricity or phone network, according to Ukrainian soldiers.

Maryna Skromnaya was ready to face shelling and explosions to get her hair done at a salon in Pokrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian city under intense Russian attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will present his "victory plan" to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Thursday, but a blazing row with Donald Trump underscored how the US election could soon upend support for Kyiv.

The world's longest-serving death row prisoner was acquitted by a Japanese court on Thursday, more than half a century after his 1968 murder conviction.

Argentina's most violent city, Rosario -- best known as the hometown of soccer star Lionel Messi -- has in recent months seen a drastic, and some say suspicious, fall in murders.

Despite being covered by ice and largely desolate, football is still king in Greenland, whose players want to compete with other nations, but it remains a pipe dream until they join a continental federation.

A Vincent van Gogh painting displaying the artist's shift from dark realism to vibrant impressionism could become the most expensive Western painting sold in Asia if it fetches its top estimated value of $50 million at a Hong Kong auction on Thursday.

Growing tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia, heightened by arms shipments, risk destabilising the fragile Horn of Africa and creating opportunities for the Islamist insurgents of Al-Shabaab, experts say.

Eben Etzebeth will seek to write another chapter in an already storied career when he takes the field for the Springboks in their Rugby Championship title decider against Argentina at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.

As Kenya mourns 21 children killed in a boarding school fire this month, anxious parents are left wondering why the country suffers so many similar tragedies.

Norway is set to inaugurate Thursday the gateway to a massive undersea vault for carbon dioxide, a crucial step before opening what its operator calls the first commercial service offering CO2 transport and storage.

China notified France before test-firing a long-range ballistic missile into the Pacific on Wednesday, authorities in French Polynesia said, adding that the weapon had landed within its exclusive economic zone.

Tech firms led an Asian market rally Thursday on renewed optimism about demand for AI equipment following a strong earnings outlook from US chip giant Micron.

New Zealand veteran Beauden Barrett was recalled Thursday to start at fly-half in the second Bledisloe Cup Test against Australia in Wellington.

The white, feathery lines behind airplanes that look like bits of harmless cloud are anything but, warn experts, who say they could have a greater environmental impact than the aviation sector's CO2 emissions.

Bent over a magenta chiffon fabric, an elderly Hong Kong tailor wearing thick glasses meticulously stitched on embroidered butterflies, working to transform the shimmering material into an elegant, high-collared Chinese dress known as a cheongsam.

Sifting through the smartphones of dozens of US teens who agreed to share their social media content over the course of a year, filmmaker Lauren Greenfield came to a somber observation.

Star winger Marika Koroibete will miss Australia's Bledisloe Cup rematch against New Zealand on Saturday with a wrist injury, while scrum-half Nic White has been axed from the matchday squad.

In the single week that world leaders convened for high-level UN talks in New York, nearly 100,000 water bottles' worth of microplastics swirled through the city's air, posing known and still unknown risks to human health.

The US and French leaders pressed jointly Wednesday for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, in a call joined by allies as the death toll mounts from Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.

Shohei Ohtani has made Major League Baseball history but it was Masanori Murakami who laid the groundwork 60 years ago when he became the first Japanese player in MLB.

A Japanese warship cruised through the Taiwan Strait for the first time to assert its freedom of navigation, local media said Thursday, just a week after a Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan.

Kamala Harris blasted Donald Trump as the "biggest loser" on the economy and a friend of billionaires Wednesday as the election rivals laid out competing plans on the top issue for many US voters.