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Megan Rapinoe has embraced a different role for the United States as the decorated veteran bids to bow out from the World Cup with a third title in a row.

With its open kitchen, bathtub and electric piano, Chinese e-commerce worker Twiggy He's home is the envy of her colleagues -- even if it is located in their office carpark.

Cattle wander between the concrete shells of half-finished mansions in northeastern China, some of the only occupants of a luxury complex whose crumbling verandas and overgrown arches are stark symbols of a housing market crippled by its own excess.

Fontana Fang has dived into China's cutthroat real estate market and emerged victorious, shaking off soaring prices to snap up a handsome property for next to nothing -- a distant dream for many.

Gao Zhuang says he has refused to pay his mortgage for months, a desperate protest against the Chinese property developer he blames for endless delays on the unfinished apartment he bought years ago for his son.

Veteran skipper Christine Sinclair warned on Thursday that Olympic champions Canada can beat anyone at the Women's World Cup, saying: "This team is full of rock stars."

On the third of every month, hundreds of the faithful gather in a windswept field in a village near Rome where they believe a statue of the Virgin Mary is crying tears of blood.

Japan won the World Cup in 2011 playing a free-flowing style that made them the envy of women's football, but they have fallen behind since then, sparking accusations of mismanagement and neglect.

English hospitals were braced Thursday for the latest doctors' strike to hit the state-run health service with managers warning it will leave "routine care virtually at a standstill".

In a pristine patch of Lebanon's north coast, a rare marine visitor has fuelled opposition to a seafront development, in a country where unchecked construction has obstructed access to beaches.

Declan Rice made his Arsenal debut and Kai Havertz scored his first goal for the Gunners as Mikel Arteta's side hammered the Major League Soccer All Star team 5-0 in a friendly at Audi Field on Wednesday.

Markets mostly rose Thursday on signs that more than a year of interest rate hikes around the world was subduing inflation, giving central banks room to take a softer approach to monetary policy.

Spain hope to have Alexia Putellas fit for their Women's World Cup opener against Costa Rica on Friday, coach Jorge Vilda said, but warned they will have to carefully manage her fitness.

Struck by near-record temperatures and wildfires during this week's heatwave, the Mediterranean region is ranked as a climate-change "hot spot" by scientists.

Protesters set fire to Sweden's embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad early Thursday, an AFP journalist said, ahead of a planned burning of a Koran in Sweden.

Women's World Cup squads in Auckland were shocked but safe after a deadly shooting near several team hotels overshadowed the opening day of the tournament Thursday.

The story of the invention of the atomic bomb told in the new film "Oppenheimer" is a "warning" to the world as we grapple with artificial intelligence, insists the movie's director Christopher Nolan.

Wallabies backs Tom Wright and Reece Hodge were axed Thursday for Australia's two Bledisloe Cup Tests against New Zealand as coach Eddie Jones looks to reinvigorate his flailing side.

From a display of Jay-Z lyrics on the facade of the Brooklyn Library to a concert of rap pioneers at Yankee Stadium, New York is celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, a genre born in its ghettos and now dominant around the world.

On a sidewalk in Arizona's capital Phoenix, where a record-setting heat wave has prompted warnings for people to limit their time outside, Dana Page struggles to stay hydrated in her tarpaulin shelter.

Fixing a crucial but leaking, century-old canal that severely flooded the city of Fernley might have seemed like a no-brainer.

Ed Atkins holds a basket filled with small, wriggling shrimp, fresh examples of the catch that the African-American fisherman has drawn from the waters off South Carolina's Saint Helena Island for more than 60 years.

Inter Miami on Wednesday brought in Paraguayan international midfielder Diego Gomez, as it continued rebuilding its squad, following the signing of Lionel Messi.

Defending champion and runaway series leader Max Verstappen will be armed with a number of upgrades on his Red Bull car as he seeks to repeat his 2022 victory at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Women's World Cup teams in Auckland said they were shocked but safe after a deadly shooting in the centre of the New Zealand city on the opening day of the tournament Thursday.

Heavy rains on Wednesday complicated the search for nine people still missing after a landslide that killed at least 20 in central Colombia, authorities said.

New Zealand's prime minister said a shooting that killed two people in central Auckland hours before the women's football World Cup opener Thursday was not linked to a national security threat and the tournament will go ahead as planned.

A man dubbed the "Geneva patient" is the latest person with HIV to be declared in long-term remission -- however he did not receive a transplant with a virus-blocking gene mutation like previous cases, researchers said Thursday.

Netflix on Wednesday said subscriptions to the media streaming service climbed by nearly 6 million in the wake of its crackdown on password sharing.

Russia said Wednesday it would consider cargo ships destined for Ukraine via the Black Sea potential military targets, following its decision to exit a landmark deal that permitted the export of grain from Ukraine.

United Airlines reported on Wednesday that second-quarter profits more than tripled, benefitting from robust travel demand and a surge in international capacity.

The president of Stanford University on Wednesday announced plans to resign after an investigation raised concerns about some of his scientific research.