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Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised to shield Germans from surging energy costs on Friday as the government agreed a rescue package for key gas company Uniper, which has been brought down by market turmoil from the war in Ukraine.

Italy faced the hottest day of the current heatwave Friday with red extreme heat warnings issued for 16 cities across the country, as firefighters battled blazes up and down the country.

Dublin's Special Criminal Court on Friday sentenced former soldier Lisa Smith to 15 months in jail for joining the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

Stock markets in Europe edged back into positive territory on Friday at the end of a choppy week, as investors now turn their attention to second-quarter earnings to gauge how companies are weathering the impact of surging prices.

Europe and the United States will lock horns at the Ryder Cup next year but the tournament could be a pale shadow of its former self after multiple defections to the rebel LIV series.

France's divided parliament on Friday passed its first major piece of legislation since elections last month, greenlighting a 20-billion-euro ($20-billion) package to help low-income families struggling with inflation.

Two years out from Paris hosting the Summer Olympics there is widespread concern over security, exacerbated by the dreadful spectacle of the chaotic scenes at the Champions League final at the Stade de France.

When fighting erupted between Taliban forces and a breakaway group led by one of their former commanders in northern Afghanistan last month, Zahra and her family fled to the mountains.

Kyiv and Moscow are set to sign a deal Friday in Istanbul to unblock grain exports and relieve a global food crisis, even as Russian forces launch deadly artillery barrages over east Ukraine.

Thousands participated this week in a lavish ceremony in the Marshall Islands marking the first formal coronation of a paramount chief in around 50 years.

Moving home is stressful for anyone -- and rhinoceroses are no exception.

Russia and Ukraine are due Friday to sign an elusive agreement designed to resume grain shipments across the Black Sea for the first time since the Kremlin's invasion in February.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a sympathy message to his United States counterpart Joe Biden on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, a day after the 79-year-old US leader tested positive for Covid-19.

New Manchester United coach Erik ten Hag told skipper Harry Maguire on Friday that it is up to him to win over the fans by performing better.

Equity markets in Asia and Europe were mixed Friday as traders struggled to track another Wall Street rally, with below-par US data easing expectations for a sharper pace of interest rate hikes but adding to recession worries.

Japan's nuclear regulator on Friday formally approved a plan to release more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean.

A Russian air strike killed seven people, four of them children, in Syria's rebel-held Idlib region on Friday, a war monitor said.

Rakhmon Mirzoyev watches on as a combine harvester empties a steady stream of grain into a waiting truck on his farm some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the frontline in southern Ukraine.

In the dust bowl of Kenya's drought-stricken north, the people of Purapul are edging closer to starvation, surviving on nothing but wild berries as their children waste away from hunger.

Dimuth Karunaratne's Sri Lanka will look to bounce back in the second Test starting Sunday against an upbeat Pakistan team that is fresh off a morale-boosting win.

Pope Francis departs Sunday for a historic six-day visit to Canada where he is expected to ask forgiveness of Indigenous survivors of abuse committed at residential schools run by the Catholic Church.

Sri Lankan security forces demolished the main anti-government protest camp in the capital, evicting activists in a nighttime assault that raised international concern.

At a sprawling landfill near Madrid, hundreds of white storks dodge garbage trucks as they look for scraps of food among the mountains of multicoloured garbage bags.

Sri Lankan badminton champion Niluka Karunaratne heads to England next week to cap his Commonwealth Games career where it began -- a swansong almost derailed by his bankrupt country's bruising economic crisis.

Fatigue, despair and anger are prevalent in eastern Ukraine after five months of what volunteer humanitarian aid worker Oleksiy Yukov calls "a war without mercy that has gone crazy".

Rebecca Lutte regularly takes to the skies behind the controls of her RV-10 kit plane.

Noah Lyles defended his world 200m title in electric fashion in a second US sprint cleansweep on Thursday, while Shericka Jackson thwarted Jamaican teammate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's bid for a sprint double in the women's race.

The House committee probing the assault on the US Capitol laid out a searing, prime-time indictment on Thursday of Donald Trump's refusal to halt or condemn the violence and insisted he should be held accountable for a gross dereliction of presidential duty.

Noah Lyles produced a scintillating performance to retain his world 200m crown on Thursday as US sprinters claimed their second podium clean sweep of the World Championships in Oregon.

Asian markets rose Friday following a third straight rally on Wall Street, as below-par US data eased expectations for a sharper pace of interest rate hikes.

Inside Koichi Miyatsu's blue, child-sized backpack are neatly folded cartoon-print sweatshirts and a pair of white sneakers -- all he has from before he was left at Japan's only "baby hatch".

Jamaica's Shericka Jackson outgunned compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on the back straight to win 200m gold at the World Athletics Championships on Thursday.