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Novak Djokovic strolled into the Italian Open quarter-finals on Sunday with a routine 6-2, 6-2 win over Stan Wawrinka, while Iga Swiatek continued her bid for a fifth straight tournament victory by beating Victoria Azarenka.

World equities mostly fell Thursday and the euro hit a five-year dollar low as investors worried about growth amid stubborn inflation and rising interest rates.

French rider Arnaud Demare claimed his second win in two days with a thrilling sprint finish for stage six of the Giro d'Italia on Thursday.

They excelled in the athletic spotlight, but their feats on the beam and bars masked a darker reality: Canadian gymnasts are taking legal action to denounce a "toxic" culture of physical, sexual and psychological abuse by the sport's top brass.

French far-right TV pundit-turned-politician Eric Zemmour said Thursday he would seek a seat in parliament standing in the glitzy constituency around Saint-Tropez, three weeks after failing with a presidential bid.

Joseph Varon -- who is chief of intensive care at United Memorial, a small hospital that mainly treats minority patients in Houston -- made headlines when a photo of him hugging an elderly Covid patient during Thanksgiving in 2020 went viral.

Another venue row involving Morocco is brewing, this time over qualifying for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in the Ivory Coast.

Teenager Maria Pshenychna embraces her father, Yuriy, as she descends from a train from Poland at a Kyiv station, returning home after fleeing the Russian invasion two months ago.

Iran is engaged in a brazen policy of hostage taking of foreigners to extract concessions from the West, activists say, with further Western nationals arrested and others even facing execution.

The US Senate was poised Thursday to confirm Jerome Powell to a second term as head of the Federal Reserve, as the central bank works to crush soaring inflation.

The emir of Qatar on Thursday accused Israel over the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank.

Club Brugge manager Alfred Schreuder was appointed head coach of Dutch giants Ajax on Thursday, replacing the massively successful Erik ten Hag, who is leaving for Manchester United.

Badminton world champ Viktor Axelsen fended off a gutsy assault from South Korea's Heo Kwang-hee in a three-game thriller at Thailand's Thomas Cup on Thursday night.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck accused Russia on Thursday of using energy as "a weapon", after Moscow slapped sanctions on Western energy firms and slowed gas flows to Europe.

The United States has crossed the threshold of one million deaths from Covid-19, the White House said on Thursday, as the nation seeks to turn the page on the pandemic despite threats of another surge.

World equities tanked Thursday and the euro hit a five-year dollar low as slowing US inflation failed to dent fears of rising global interest rates.

Eddie Howe admitted Thursday that Newcastle will not be able to spend wildly in the upcoming transfer window after securing their Premier League status.

Turkey's supreme court of appeals on Thursday upheld a prison sentence for the head of the Istanbul branch of the country's main opposition party, a party official told AFP, in a move seen as another crackdown on opponents ahead of next year's presidential election.

Iga Swiatek continued her hot streak on Thursday by seeing off Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-1 to move into the Italian Open quarter-finals.

Suzuki announced on Thursday they want to quit MotoGP and are holding talks with the championship promoters Dorna over breaking their contract.

Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was named coach of England's Test side on Thursday, with a brief to shake the team out of its deep malaise.

High-kicking showgirls and nightly cabaret shows at the famed Parisian Lido club on the Champs-Elysees are set to be a thing of the past after the venue's new owner confirmed mass lay-offs on Thursday.

Sri Lanka's president swore in a new prime minister Thursday to replace his brother, who was banned from leaving the country after his supporters launched violent attacks on a protest against the nation's dire economic crisis.

An international team of astronomers on Thursday unveiled the first image of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy -- a cosmic body known as Sagittarius A*.

Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was Thursday named as the new coach of England's Test side in a bid to shake the team out of its deep malaise.

Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas made it through to the quarter-finals of the Italian Open on Thursday, increasing the prospect of a last four clash between the pair.

North Korea confirmed its first-ever Covid-19 cases Thursday and declared a "serious emergency", with leader Kim Jong Un appearing in a mask on television for the first time to order nationwide lockdowns.

Former world darts champion Ted Hankey was on Thursday jailed for two years after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a young woman.

Beijing residents rushed to supermarkets on Thursday as Chinese officials tried to curb mounting panic over a rumour the capital would be placed under stay-at-home orders.

The Rugby World Cup will be staged in the United States for the first time in 2031 after the game's governing body named the host nations for five men's and women's tournaments.

Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Essa Barshim, who provided one of the emotional peaks of the Tokyo Olympics by sharing the high jump gold medal, will not repeat the gesture if they are tied again.

The UK will have "no choice but to act" unless the European Union agrees to change post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Thursday.