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Australia can deliver the final blow to old enemy England's dismal World Cup campaign on Saturday with memories of their acrimonious Ashes series still fresh.

Hundreds more wounded and foreign passport holders hoped to escape the war-torn Gaza Strip on Thursday as Israeli forces bombed and fought intense ground battles with Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Storm Ciaran battered northern France with record winds of nearly 200 km per hour killing a lorry driver as southern England remained on high alert Thursday and rail operators in several countries warned of traffic disruptions.

Hundreds more wounded and foreign passports holders hoped to escape war-torn Gaza on Thursday as Israeli forces bombed and fought intense ground battles with Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis won the toss and elected to field in Thursday's World Cup match against unbeaten hosts India who can seal a semi-final place with victory.

British energy giant Shell on Thursday said net profit rose 4.5 percent to $7 billion in the third quarter from a year earlier, as it benefits from high oil prices.

The World Cup-winning Springboks on Thursday began a four-day homecoming tour in Pretoria, with President Cyril Ramaphosa hailing the team for uniting a country with a divisive past.

More than 165,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan in the month since Islamabad issued an ultimatum to 1.7 million people to leave or face arrest and deportation, officials said Thursday.

Stocks and oil prices rose while the dollar weakened Thursday as a much-needed burst of confidence flows across world markets after the Federal Reserve hinted it has come to the end of its long-running interest rate hiking cycle.

President Joe Biden wants Congress to quickly pass billions of dollars in new aid for both Israel and Ukraine, but the Republican-controlled lower chamber on Thursday is set to consider a bill that puts Kyiv on the back burner.

New Zealand have called Kyle Jamieson into their World Cup squad as cover while fellow pace bowler Matt Henry awaits the results of a scan on a hamstring injury.

President Joe Biden, when responding to a heckler at a Minnesota campaign event Wednesday night, said he thinks there should be a humanitarian "pause" in the Israeli-Hamas war to get "prisoners" out of Gaza.

In a small village in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, solar panels adorn most homes, part of a small but growing effort to harness the sun's energy in Iraq, where electricity is scarce.

All-rounder Mitch Marsh has returned home because of personal reasons and is out of the one-day World Cup indefinitely, Cricket Australia said on Thursday.

The Kolubara coal mine in Serbia never closes -- 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, excavators work around the clock gnawing away at the soil to extract the fossil fuel.

Corey Seager took his place among the legends of Major League Baseball by taking his second World Series Most Valuable Player award after sparking the Texas Rangers to the title.

An emotional Ons Jabeur said she would donate part of her WTA Finals prize money to Palestinians after avenging her Wimbledon final defeat to Marketa Vondrousova on Wednesday.

Israel hit Gaza's largest refugee camp with renewed air strikes Wednesday, prompting UN rights officials to warn that targeting densely populated residential areas "could amount to war crimes."

Flags flew at half-mast in Beijing on Thursday as China prepared for the funeral of its late ex-premier Li Keqiang, a reform-minded bureaucrat who was once tipped as the country's future leader but was eclipsed by the rise of Xi Jinping.

Oil-rich Gulf states have positioned themselves as both champions of climate innovation and guardians of fossil fuel interests -- a balancing act experts warn could derail action at COP28 in Dubai.

Former Australia captain Andrew Slack will lead an external review dissecting the Wallabies' dismal year and early World Cup exit as ex-coach Eddie Jones said he had no regrets.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a stimulus package worth more than $100 billion on Thursday as he tries to ease the squeeze from inflation and rescue his premiership with his poll ratings at a record low.

Welsh back Leigh Halfpenny is set to join defending Super Rugby Pacific champions Canterbury Crusaders for the 2024 season, a source close to the Christchurch-based club told AFP on Thursday.

Working as a nurse in her rural Nigerian village, Andat Datau faced more than her share of challenges. But delivering babies by torchlight was always hard.

The Texas Rangers captured the World Series for the first time in the team's 63-year history on Wednesday, defeating Arizona 5-0 to complete a historic playoff championship run.

The defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets crashed to their first defeat of the season in an upset 110-89 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, while Boston extended their unbeaten start with a brutal thrashing of Indiana.

Uruguay's foreign minister resigned abruptly Wednesday, after the release of recordings in which he allegedly seeks to cover up information involving Sebastian Marset, an accused cocaine trafficker and subject of an international manhunt.

Stocks and oil prices rose while the dollar weakened Thursday as a much-needed burst of confidence flows across world markets after the Federal Reserve hinted it has come to the end of its long-running interest rate hiking cycle.

The Bank of England was expected Thursday to keep its interest rate on hold for a second successive meeting, as Britain battles stubbornly high inflation and weak economic growth.

One of the world's most famous music bands, The Beatles, are back 53 years after they broke up with a "new" record to be released Thursday.

A new Beatles song produced with a little help from artificial intelligence and including the vocals of John Lennon will be released on Thursday, more than four decades after it was originally recorded as a demo.

Flags flew at half-mast in Beijing on Thursday as China prepared for the funeral of late ex-premier Li Keqiang, a reform-minded bureaucrat who was once tipped as the country's future leader but was eclipsed by Xi Jinping.