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Australia and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand's Rugby World Cup struggles are down to a lack of pressure in the domestic game, Wallabies assistant coach Pierre-Henry Broncan said on Thursday.

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday agreed to dissolve their government by the end of the year and become a full part of Azerbaijan in the wake of Baku's lightning offensive.

German inflation slowed in September to the lowest level since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, data showed Thursday, offering a glimmer of hope even as Europe's top economy struggles to emerge from a recession.

World-record holder Qin Haiyang barrelled to the Asian Games 200m breaststroke title on Thursday as Chinese teammate Zhang Yufei edged Siobhan Haughey in a blockbuster showdown to clinch her fifth gold in Hangzhou.

Heavily indebted property giant China Evergrande said Thursday its boss was suspected of "illegal crimes", after trading of its shares was suspended earlier in the day.

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group said on Thursday they have sold a minority stake in the Premier League giants to US private equity group Dynasty Equity.

Namibia's head coach Allister Coetzee says had they secured their first ever win at a Rugby World Cup it could have had the same impact on them as Japan's stunning win over South Africa in 2015 had on the Asian country.

Police on Thursday raided Spain's football refereeing headquarters as part of a probe into claims FC Barcelona paid for favourable decisions in a fresh blow for Spain's scandal-hit football association.

Several shows are recognising Guenter Brus, the last surviving key member of Vienna's famed "actionists", who turned 85 this week and whose radical movement broke new ground using the body to make art.

Germany on Thursday signed a deal to acquire the Israeli-made Arrow 3 hypersonic missile system that will become a key part of Europe's defence against air attack.

Russia said Thursday that it plans to raise defence spending by almost 70 percent next year, funnelling massive resources into its Ukraine offensive to fight what it calls a "hybrid war" unleashed by the West.

British-Irish actor Michael Gambon, best known for playing Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight "Harry Potter" films, has died in hospital aged 82, his family announced Thursday.

Continuous has been given a plum draw boosting his bid to make history and become the first horse to win both the English St Leger and Europe's most prestigious race the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in the same season.

Oil prices on Thursday reached their highest levels in nearly a year, with Brent North Sea crude advancing towards $100 on tight supplies, an increase that has weighed on stock markets.

The fate of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has poisoned relations between fellow ex-Soviet neighbours Armenia and Azerbaijan since the 1990s.

Europe and the United States will battle it out in the 44th edition of the Ryder Cup this weekend at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, the first edition to be held in Italy.

Viktor Hovland made a hole-in-one on the par-four fifth hole during Europe's practice session on Thursday ahead of the 2023 Ryder Cup.

Three North Korean shooters cried their eyes out on the podium after winning the country's first gold medal of the Asian Games in China on Thursday.

India on Thursday mourned the death of scientist Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, the architect of the 1960s "green revolution" that brought an end to the chronic food shortages then plaguing the country.

Gymnast Oksana Chusovitina made her international debut for the Soviet Union, and while the country may be long gone, the 48-year-old is still going strong.

Police in Spain on Thursday searched the headquarters of the country's football referee committee as part of a probe into payments made by Liga giants Barcelona to a firm owned by a former official of the body.

Argentina head coach Michael Cheika said on Thursday his much-changed outfit to face Chile in the Rugby World Cup this weekend can prove him a point.

Vietnam jailed a leading climate activist for three years for tax evasion Thursday, a sentence her family condemned as "unfair", as the communist state ramps up a crackdown on environmentalists.

US President Joe Biden will give a key speech in Arizona Thursday on protecting democratic institutions, in a fresh attack on Donald Trump as the rivals ramp up their 2024 election battle.

Former Brooklyn Nets starter Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was hailed as the "missing piece" for Jordan at the Asian Games on Thursday, with the "Kobe Bryant clone" hitting a game-high 17 points against Bahrain.

Three North Korean shooters cried their eyes out on the podium after winning the country's first gold medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games on Thursday.

Survivors of a fire that ripped through an Iraqi wedding and those mourning the at least 100 people killed filled the pews of a Christian mass Thursday, two days after the disaster.

Jacques Nienaber says he expects a "realistic performance" from Handre Pollard when the 2019 World Cup winning fly-half makes his first appearance for South Africa in 13 months against Tonga on Sunday.

Martin Scorsese, best known for his action-packed thrillers and gangster epics, now depicts an investigation into the murders of Native Americans in his latest film, "Killers of the Flower Moon", which previewed in New York on Wednesday.

Israel's top court debated appeals Thursday against a law restricting how a prime minister can be removed from office, as current premier Benjamin Netanyahu faces protests against the judicial overhaul.

Nagorno-Karabakh's decades-long, bloody dream of independence ended on Thursday with a formal decree declaring that the ethnic Armenian statelet in Azerbaijan "ceases to exist" at the end of the year.

US Republicans launch impeachment inquiry hearings into Joe Biden on Thursday, escalating an eight-month corruption investigation that has failed to uncover evidence of wrongdoing by the president.