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The blue and gold flag flying above the shattered doorway of the Blagodatne cultural centre is Ukrainian, but the soldiers lying dead inside are Russian.

Opening free practice at the Canadian Grand Prix was hit by power and communications infrastructure problems that ended the action after only five minutes on Friday.

A delegation of African leaders met President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday and told Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate and negotiate, hours after sheltering from missile strikes on Kyiv.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday proclaimed the end of "neo-colonialism" in international politics and praised Russia's economic strategy following its ruptured ties with the West.

Mali's foreign minister called Friday for the UN Security Council to withdraw the peacekeeping mission in his country "without delay," denouncing its "failure" to respond to security challenges.

Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson said the Los Angeles Country Club North Course was harder than a pair of US Open first-round 62s made it look -- and he hammered home that point with a quick quadruple bogey on Friday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that his coming visit to China aims to open up better communications "by addressing misperceptions and avoiding miscalculations."

Tiger Woods will miss next month's British Open at the Royal Liverpool course as the American star recovers from surgery.

Joe Root ended his Ashes century-drought as England made 393-8 before skipper Ben Stokes's bold declaration on the opening day of the first Test against Australia at Edgbaston on Friday.

The Basel contemporary art fair this week defied forecasts of a market slowdown, with wealthy collectors buying works with seven or eight-figure price tags.

Eight-time German Grand Prix champion Marc Marquez said Friday he felt lucky to have escaped injury after a crash in the rain-hit second practice session.

The hole-in-one count kept climbing Friday at the US Open, where defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick aced the 120-yard par-three 15th in the second round.

"I need water", pleads farmer Lars Jonsson, casting a desperate eye over a parched field in eastern Denmark where the only shade is that cast by wind turbines.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called on Ukraine and Russia to de-escalate their conflict, as he arrived in the war-torn country on a mission to broker peace.

The Teamsters, which represents hundreds of thousands of UPS employees, announced Friday that workers authorized a potential strike against the delivery service, handing union leadership additional bargaining powers during negotiations.

Italian haute couture house Valentino opened men's fashion week in Milan on Friday, abandoning its coed format of the past three years for men front and centre on the runway.

France said Friday it would throw its weight behind an emissions tax on the heavily polluting shipping industry, adding momentum to a campaign long championed by Pacific island nations and environmental campaigners.

Gregg Berhalter was re-appointed as the United States national team head coach on Friday, six months after his contract was allowed to run out amid an investigation into domestic violence.

An American man was found guilty on Friday of massacring 11 Jewish worshippers five years ago in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history, local media reported.

Ben Helfgott, one of Britain's best known Holocaust survivors who represented the country twice as an Olympic weightlifter, died on Friday aged 93.

Some of the most notorious art forgeries form the centre-piece of a new London show, which reveals a cat-and-mouse world of intrigue, deception and painstaking detective work.

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant was suspended for 25 games by the NBA on Friday after being caught waving a gun in a social media video for the second time this year.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan will sell his majority stake in the NBA's Charlotte Hornets to an investment consortium, the team announced Friday.

World stock markets mostly rose Friday and currencies gyrated as investors digested diverging interest-rate decisions by central banks on three continents this week.

Haiti risks descending into civil war if an international assistance force is not sent to the violence-plagued nation imminently, a minister for the Caribbean country warned Friday.

The police in Minneapolis, Minnesota routinely resort to violent and racist practices, the US Justice Department said Friday in findings of a review three years after George Floyd was murdered by city police officers.

The United States on Friday announced a further $205 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine to help the country with shortages of food, drinking water and other needs as its fights against Russia's invasion.

Six-time major champion Phil Mickelson expects the Los Angeles Country Club to be a different animal on Friday after the first-time US Open venue yielded a pair of historic 62s in the first round.

When an Algerian woman with mental health problems killed a 12-year-old child in Paris last year, far-right idealogue Eric Zemmour wasted no time in labelling the crime a "francocide".

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Friday the alliance will tighten political ties with Ukraine at a summit next month, but there will be no talk of a membership invite for Kyiv.

Eight-time German Grand Prix champion Marc Marquez fell to 14th after crashing during Friday's rain-hit second practice with Italian Marco Bezzecchi posting the fastest time.

Joe Root held firm after Australia hit back on the opening day of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Friday.