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Taiwan's government on Thursday urged the public to avoid "unnecessary travel" to China after Beijing announced "diehard" supporters of the island's independence could face the death penalty.

Three years on from the soulless Euros, played amid sparse crowds and restricted travel due to coronavirus restrictions, Germany is hosting a football festival at Euro 2024 as fans from across the continent take over the country.

North Korea successfully tested its multiple-warhead missile capability, state media said Thursday, as dozens more trash-laden balloons sent by Pyongyang landed in the South.

France's political future was up in the air on Thursday with the far right surging in polls but other forces fighting to the end three days before a high-stakes parliamentary vote.

Kenya braced for fresh demonstrations Thursday under heavy security, after major concessions from the government which agreed to scrap contentious tax hikes following deadly protests that saw parliament ransacked.

The ex-chairman of a major Japanese publishing house who was indicted over bribery allegations linked to the Tokyo Olympics sued the government on Thursday over its so-called "hostage justice" detention system.

Afghans mourned the end of their T20 World Cup dreams on Thursday but said the cricket team's performances in reaching a first semi-final gave them hope for the future.

Euro 2024 in Germany moves on to the knockout phase this weekend after a group stage which saw all of the continent's biggest names advance to the last 16 even if some of the favourites have failed to convince.

At its plane factory near Seattle, Boeing has increased employee training, appointed mentors for new recruits, brought back retirees as coaches and stepped up tracking of performance metrics.

Junior hospital doctors in England on Thursday began a five-day strike, a week before a general election in which the state of the publicly funded National Health Service is a major issue.

At the halfway stage of Euro 2024, hosts Germany can look back on an overwhelmingly positive experience so far with even the odd security headache or transport mishap failing to dampen the spirits of millions of joyful fans.

Thailand on Thursday announced results of its complex multi-round election to choose a new senate -- the first poll for the upper house since a military coup a decade ago.

With exciting football and vibrant fans lighting up cities across Germany, Euro 2024 has thrilled even though the European game's biggest stars have failed to take the tournament by storm.

Mongolians go to the polls Friday in parliamentary elections, with the ruling Mongolian People's Party widely expected to retain its majority despite public discontent over corruption.

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt tempered expectations Thursday ahead of his first match in charge against Wales next week, admitting he had never been so unprepared.

The death toll from a batch of illegal alcohol that devastated a town in southern India last week has risen to 63, police said Thursday.

France's political future was up in the air Thursday with the far-right surging in polls but other forces fighting to the end three days before a high-stakes parliamentary vote.

Two Bolivian army leaders were arrested Wednesday after soldiers and tanks took up position in front of government buildings in what President Luis Arce called an attempted coup.

Lando Norris seeks to be a party-wrecker this weekend when he takes on series leader and three-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen at his Red Bull team's home Austrian Grand Prix.

Double world champion Francesco Bagnaia is set to tighten the screws on championship leader Jorge Martin at the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen this weekend, as MotoGP roars into the season's second half.

Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott hopes his side's historic T20 World Cup run, which ended in a heavy semi-final defeat Wednesday, has "inspired young kids to pick up a bat and ball" in the war-ravaged country.

Fully autonomous cars are still years away from hitting the streets, but internationally-agreed rules on their use could be ready by mid-2026, the United Nations has said.

Compared to others in war-scarred east Ukraine, Galyna Poroshyna had been lucky to live in Toretsk, a mining town nestled in a relatively sleepy sector of the front line.

Israel said it does not want war in Lebanon but could send its neighbour "back to the Stone Age", as the UN's humanitarian chief warned such a conflict would be "potentially apocalyptic".

Women candidates are pushing for greater representation in Mongolia's male-dominated politics, raising their voices for change and inspiring girls to follow in their footsteps.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off for a historic US presidential debate Thursday, with the stage set for what could be an inflection point in the 2024 race as millions of voters tune in to the clash of rivals.

South Africa demolished Afghanistan's T20 World Cup dream in ruthless fashion on Wednesday, thrashing the minnows by nine wickets with more than 11 overs to spare to reach the final of the cricket showpiece for the first time.

On Everest's sacred slopes, climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of hundreds of mountaineers who died chasing their dream to summit the world's highest mountain.

Record-high sea temperatures are bleaching coral reefs worldwide and putting a new focus on attempts to restore these key marine ecosystems.

A diver glides over an expanse of bone-white coral branches, recording the fish that dart between the ghostly arms extending from the sea floor off the Thai island of Koh Tao.

There has been one figure of stability in the last 14 years of political turmoil in the UK -- Larry the Downing Street cat.

Fatme Ibryanova, 36, will travel from Britain to Turkey next month, not to holiday but for a medical appointment about surgery she is struggling to get on the UK's "broken" state-run health service.