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Sergio Perez topped the times for Red Bull ahead of Fernando Alonso, debuting for Aston Martin, as the defending champion team set the pace in Friday's opening practice session at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Bayern Munich forward Sadio Mane is in the frame for a return to the starting lineup in Wednesday's second leg with Paris Saint-Germain, after manager Julian Nagelsmann on Friday promised "more minutes" for the returning striker.

Erik ten Hag says Manchester United are prepared to "suffer" and "sacrifice" at a hostile Anfield as they seek a win against Liverpool that would keep them on the fringes of the Premier League title race.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Friday he saw a "small improvement" in diplomacy with Moscow at a Group of 20 meeting that saw rare US-Russia talks.

Dutch prosecutors demanded a two-year prison sentence for former Netherlands international footballer Quincy Promes at the start of his trial Friday over the stabbing of a cousin.

King Charles III will make his state first state visits as UK monarch when he travels to France and Germany later this month, Buckingham Palace announced Friday.

Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco defender Achraf Hakimi was charged with rape on Friday, French prosecutors said.

Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, who was handed a 10-year prison term Friday, has battled against repression for a quarter of a century in authoritarian Belarus.

A line of cars and motorcycles cuts across the arid West African landscape, kicking up clouds of dust on the unpaved road.

US ski superstar Mikaela Shiffrin said Ingemar Stenmark's remarks that she was better than him were off the mark after she failed to equal his World Cup record of 86 wins on Friday.

World stock markets rose Friday after a top Federal Reserve official said he would back a small interest rate hike at its next meeting and hinted at a possible summer pause to evaluate how tighter policy has cooled high inflation.

German airline Lufthansa said Friday that it returned to annual profit in 2022 after two years of pandemic-related losses, but worries lingered over the prospect of another chaotic summer season.

Belgian judges on Friday prolonged the pre-trial detention of Greek MEP Eva Kaili, accused of receiving bribes from a corrupt network allegedly funded by Morocco and Qatar, for two more months.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has refused to become embroiled in a fresh row over the club's Saudi ownership, saying he is not qualified to talk on the matter.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has praised Manchester United's revival under Erik ten Hag and believes the Red Devils are still in the Premier League title race ahead of their trip to Anfield on Sunday.

Demonstrators protesting against wind farms that were declared illegal after they were built said Friday they will end their action, following a week of action at Norway's government buildings.

The head of Russian mercenary group Wagner said Friday the group had "practically encircled" Bakhmut, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine that has seen the fiercest fighting of Moscow's invasion.

Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco defender Achraf Hakimi has been charged with rape, French prosecutors told AFP on Friday.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Tehran Friday for discussions with officials after his agency's inspectors in Iran found uranium particles enriched to just under weapons-grade level.

The AI programme ChatGPT has passed exams, penned news articles and produced code. So perhaps no surprise that "One Piece" author Eiichiro Oda has turned to it for inspiration.

Jason Roy struck 132 off 124 balls and Jos Buttler added a half-century as England posted a daunting 326-7 in the second one-day international against Bangladesh on Friday in Dhaka.

Although a little larger than king size, an unusual bed stored in Britain's Palace of Westminster with a remarkable history could see its first royal sleepover ahead of Charles III's coronation in May.

Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson has said it will pay a $207 million fine for breaching a deal with US authorities by not disclosing an investigation relating to suspected bribes to the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Belarus on Friday handed a 10-year jail term to veteran activist Ales Bialiatski, a Nobel Prize winner and founder of the ex-Soviet authoritarian country's most prominent rights group.

For the family of Shahida Raza, the Pakistani former hockey star feared to be among the dozens of migrants who drowned off southern Italy this week, the wait for her body is piling on the agony.

Greek police raided a train station Friday as part of their probe into the rail collision that killed at least 57 people, as the nation braced for new strikes and protests over the disaster.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi is expected in Tehran later Friday for discussions with officials after his agency's inspectors in Iran found uranium particles enriched to just under weapons-grade level.

Thousands of fishermen in the Philippines have been ordered to stay ashore as authorities struggled Friday to contain an oil spill from a sunken tanker that is threatening the region's rich marine life and economy.

Thousands of US soldiers joined Thai and South Korean troops on a beach in Thailand on Friday for one of the largest annual military exercises in Asia.

Four astronauts entered the International Space Station on Friday after their SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission successfully docked, a NASA livestream showed.

Turkey's inflation rate slowed for a fourth consecutive month in February, official data showed Friday, ahead of May elections in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's economic record will be a key issue for voters.

Markets on Friday tracked a Wall Street rally after a top Federal Reserve official said he would back a small interest-rate hike at its next meeting but hinted at a possible summer pause to see how tighter policy has impacted inflation.