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A 16-year-old amateur schoolgirl stole the show and a share of the lead at the Australian Open on Thursday, while in the men's event Cameron Davis was a stroke ahead after a flawless nine-under-par 63.

Chewing on psychoactive coca leaves in a traditional ritual, Colombian Indigenous leader Fabio Valencia seeks the advice of jungle spirits and ancestors about a project sold to his community as a planet-saving initiative.

Asian markets ticked higher Thursday, with focus on the release of key US inflation data that comes as traders ramp up bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next year.

Hours after the traumatic October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Michael and his wife knew they had to abandon their Tel Aviv home and flee to the nearest destination, Athens, for the sake of their family.

The UN's former climate chief said she was "giving up hope" that fossil fuel firms will be part of the solution to warming as pivotal COP28 talks start Thursday in oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson shared a 52-run stand for the ninth wicket to give New Zealand a seven-run first-innings lead in the first Test in Sylhet on Thursday.

Starvation, torture, robbery -- young Ethiopian migrant "returnees" recount the horrors they endured on their fruitless journeys in search of a better life in the Gulf.

A truce between Israel and Hamas was extended on Thursday just before it was due to expire, the two sides announced, with mediator Qatar reporting it would continue for one day under the same conditions that saw hostages released in exchange for prisoners.

The UN climate conference opens in Dubai on Thursday with nations urged to increase the pace of action on global warming and phase out fossil fuels, amid intense scrutiny of oil-rich hosts UAE.

A truce between Israel and Hamas will continue, both sides said Thursday, moments before the deal was due to expire, though details of any official agreement remained unclear.

An Indian national has been charged with plotting to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader on US soil, the Justice Department said on Wednesday, alleging an Indian government official was also involved in the planning.

Abdullah was a well-known public figure in Afghanistan, a journalist and university lecturer respected by his readers and students.

A German court will announce on Thursday the verdict in the trial of a Gambian man accused of belonging to a death squad that assassinated opponents of former dictator Yahya Jammeh, including an AFP journalist.

The UN climate conference opens in Dubai on Thursday with nations under pressure to increase the urgency of action on global warming and wean off fossil fuels, amid intense scrutiny of oil-rich hosts UAE.

An LGBTQ couple has acquired a marriage certificate in Nepal, officials said Thursday, a first in South Asia and hailed by the pair as a win "for all".

HIV infections are soaring in the Philippines, with experts blaming online dating, poor sex education and conservative attitudes in the deeply religious country for fuelling the spread of the virus.

After three years in detention experiencing the "sea of misery" endured by women in Indian jails, one of the nation's best-known rights lawyers warns that society's prejudices are amplified behind bars.

The COP28 climate conference should aim for a complete "phaseout" of fossil fuels, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP on Wednesday, warning of "total disaster" on humanity's current trajectory.

They are ambitious and relatively young leaders whose passionate views about running their large, powerful states offer contrasting ideals on how the deeply-polarized United States should be run.

On a sun-dappled spot of sandy land along Thailand's east coast, class is in session, as a group of environmental defenders listens to local activists describe battling an industrial park.

Copenhagen grabbed a crucial point in a 0-0 draw at Bayern Munich on Wednesday as more VAR handball controversy erupted in the Champions League.

Asian markets struggled Thursday following another tepid performance on Wall Street, with focus on the release of key US inflation data that comes as traders ramp up bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next year.

Seventeen Thai hostages kidnapped and held for weeks by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are expected to return home on Thursday to be met by overjoyed relatives at the Bangkok airport.

A truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final hours on Thursday with mediators racing to reach agreement on another extension after a final exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Controversy has simmered around France's entry for the Oscars, "The Taste of Things" -- a love letter to the country's culinary traditions -- but filmmaker Tran Anh Hung and star chef Pierre Gagnaire say the art of cooking is worth celebrating.

In 1853, Viscount Jose Bernardino de Sa, a Brazilian nobleman who made his fortune shipping enslaved Africans to the Americas, became the largest investor in the country's oldest bank, Banco do Brasil.

Argentina's President-elect Javier Milei has offered glimpses into how his seemingly contradictory spiritual practices -- including a recent embrace of Orthodox Judaism, the Catholicism embedded in Latin America and his own far-right philosophies -- influence his idiosyncratic worldview.

More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, the United States will try once again to land a craft on the Moon on January 25, said the head of what could be the first private company to successfully touch down on the lunar surface.

Four years after startling the car world with designs for the Cybertruck, Elon Musk is set Thursday to mark the arrival of Tesla's iconoclastic take on the American pickup.

Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state whose unapologetic promotion of raw American power helped shape the post-World War II world, died Wednesday at the age of 100, his consulting firm said.

Rescuers scoured waters off Japan on Thursday for seven missing US Air Force personnel whose Osprey crashed during a training exercise, in the latest incident involving the tilt-rotor military aircraft.

Brilliant, abrasive and ruthlessly ambitious, Henry Kissinger towered over post-World War II US foreign policy like no one else and shaped a fateful new course for the world's relationship with China.