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A Pacific Islands leader on Friday called on the United States and China to not bring "adversarial competition" to the region, as the rival powers intensify their bids for influence.

What do artificial nails, crypto currencies, spaghetti and social media influencers have in common?

Iran on Friday executed three men convicted of killing security force members during protests triggered by Mahsa Amini's death last year, the judiciary said, drawing condemnation from rights groups.

The death toll from Cyclone Mocha has reached 145 in Myanmar with the majority Rohingya refugees, authorities said Friday, after the region's most powerful storm in more than a decade hit at the weekend.

A tsunami warning in the Pacific has been lifted after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday, sending many islanders fleeing coastal areas.

When Norwegian climber Kristin Harila stepped onto the summit of Cho Oyu this month she became the fastest woman to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks.

Most markets built on a global rally Friday as traders grow increasingly hopeful that US lawmakers will hammer out a deal to lift the debt ceiling and avert a calamitous default.

British writer Salman Rushdie attended a New York gala on Thursday night in his first public appearance since a knife attack that nearly took his life last year.

The brush-tailed bettong -- a rare, very cute marsupial resembling a rabbit-sized kangaroo -- is bouncing back on the South Australian mainland, more than 100 years after disappearing from the region.

When the US secretary of state travels through Papua New Guinea's capital next week to meet the leader of the South Pacific nation, it will be on a six-lane highway built by China.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the G7 summit in Japan in person, officials familiar with his plans revealed Friday, as the bloc announced new sanctions targeting Russia's "war machine".

A Hong Kong court on Friday dismissed a legal challenge by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, conceding it had "no jurisdiction" over Beijing's national security apparatus in the city.

At three years old, a South African toddler reads better than 80 percent of the country's schoolchildren who are more than three times her age.

Far-right party Vox has shaken up Castilla y Leon since it entered the government of the Spanish region last year, attacking unions and pushing polarising positions on social issues.

When Mubarak Joseph Hilary lost his sight aged 15, the soccer-loving teenager dropped out of school and didn't leave home for seven years, resigned to a life spent indoors.

Greece's outgoing conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and leftist challenger Alexis Tsipras will make a final push for votes at closing rallies on Friday, ahead of the most uncertain general election in a decade.

A 48-year-old man accused of igniting a New Zealand hostel fire that killed at least five people claimed that someone else started the blaze during a court appearance Friday.

Jamal Murray scored 23 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter as a furious finale carried the Denver Nuggets to a 108-103 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday and a 2-0 lead in their NBA Western Conference final series.

Xi Jinping called on China and Central Asia to "fully unleash" their potential in trade, economic and infrastructure cooperation in a speech to heads of state from the strategically vital region on Friday.

Jamal Murray scored 23 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter as a furious finale carried the Denver Nuggets to a 108-103 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday and a 2-0 lead in their NBA Western Conference final series.

Marnus Labuschagne warned England that tweaks "freakish" Australian teammate Steve Smith has made to his batting mean he is as dangerous as when he dominated the 2019 Ashes.

Takeshi Kitano makes his comeback at Cannes next week with a new samurai epic, but the cult Japanese filmmaker told AFP that he strives to remain "indifferent" to success.

Most Asian markets built on a global rally Friday as traders grow increasingly hopeful that US lawmakers will hammer out a deal to lift the debt ceiling and avert a calamitous default.

Using a motorised arm, a worker at Volvo's factory near Gothenburg slowly guides massive black blocks alongside a chassis, the three tonnes of batteries soon to power an electric truck.

Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists marched to Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday in an annual flag-waving march commemorating Israel's capture of it, as tensions on the Gaza border remained high.

Inside bomb-proof frozen vaults underneath the English countryside hides a treasure trove of 40,000 species of wild plant seeds from around the world, many of which are in danger of disappearing.

China's commerce minister will visit the United States next week, the Chinese embassy announced Thursday, in a rare trip to Washington by a top Beijing official as tensions flare.

With two rounds of the Bundesliga season remaining, Bayern Munich face the biggest threat to their title hopes, at home against a resurgent RB Leipzig on Saturday.

Five TikTok users are calling on a federal court to overturn Montana's overall ban on the video sharing app, arguing that it violates their free speech rights.

In a field close to the Gaza Strip's restive frontier, apiarist Miassar Khoudair checks that her queen bee has survived five days of deadly cross-border fire between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army.

Throughout the spring of 2022 one city represented the horrific suffering and catastrophic destruction caused by the war in Ukraine: Mariupol.

Alyona and her family survived one hundred days of hell during Russia's siege of Mariupol, which ended a year ago on Saturday, when the last Ukrainian troops in the city surrendered.