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Ireland fans can take heart for this weekend's Six Nations clash with France that Johnny Sexton's replacement as captain James Ryan "grows as a person when things get tough", scrum coach John Fogarty said on Friday.

Italy took another step towards normality Friday with the reopening of nightclubs and the end of a requirement to wear masks outside, as the number of coronavirus cases eases.

Bahrain will host Formula One until at least 2036 after signing a 10-year contract extension, officials said on Friday.

Ben Youngs has been kept waiting to equal the England cap record after coach Eddie Jones named him among the replacements for Sunday's Six Nations match away to Italy.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has hailed Luis Diaz's dynamic Premier League debut as one of the best he has seen from a new player.

World stock markets fell Friday on fears the Federal Reserve will move more aggressively to tighten monetary policy to tame decades-high inflation.

Thousands of Iranians drove through Tehran on Friday to mark the 43rd anniversary of the country's Islamic Revolution, staying in vehicles rather than marching on foot amid Covid restrictions.

Britain on Friday said it had accepted changes proposed by Google to address competition and customer privacy concerns linked to online advertising, with the US tech giant vowing to apply them globally.

He made perhaps the most famous French film of the century so far in "Amelie", but Jean-Paul Jeunet was forced to turn to Netflix after failing to find a traditional backer for his new movie.

Russia on Friday said French President Emmanuel Macron was made to sit at an enormously long table for his talks with Vladimir Putin because he refused to take a Kremlin-performed Covid test.

Thousands of protesters in "Freedom Convoys" were heading to Paris from across France on Friday, hoping to blockade the capital in opposition to Covid restrictions despite police warnings to back off.

Seven-time Tour de France green jersey winner Peter Sagan's new team TotalEngergies has earned one of the two team invitations allocated for this year's edition.

Russian teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva has failed a drugs test, as doping reared its head at the Beijing Winter Games on Friday.

Paris Saint-Germain coach Mauricio Pochettino does not believe Kylian Mbappe's future will be influenced by their Champions League last 16 tie with Real Madrid.

Ben McDermott smacked 53 to top score as Australia put on 149 for nine in the opening Twenty20 clash against Sri Lanka in Sydney on Friday, with leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga taking three wickets.

Tom Rosenthal is a 35-year-old singer-songwriter from London. He had already built a decent career over a decade, but when he joined TikTok in 2020 he said the impact was "seismic".

Libyans found themselves with two prime ministers on Friday, raising the spectre of renewed violence in a country where elites have ignored the wishes of citizens to choose their leaders, analysts say.

West Ham manager David Moyes is in the spotlight ahead of his side's trip to Leicester on Sunday, with the build-up overshadowed by the fallout from a video showing defender Kurt Zouma physically abusing his cat.

The New York Times pulled a video Friday showing a Taiwan-based writer making a "Singaporean chicken curry" after furious critics in the city-state said it resembled sewage rather than a local dish.

Britain's economy grew by a record 7.5 percent last year on easing Covid curbs after a pandemic-driven collapse, official data showed Friday, but analysts warned that sky-high inflation clouds the 2022 outlook.

Aged just 15, Russian prodigy Kamila Valieva came to Beijing favourite for figure skating Olympic gold. Now she is at the centre of a doping scandal that threatens to torpedo her fledgling career.

Mikaela Shiffrin admitted Friday to having had a recurring nightmare about bombing out of the Olympic super-G five gates into the race, just as she had done in her two opening events.

Russian skating sensation Kamila Valieva failed a drugs test in December, Games testers confirmed Friday, and the IOC is now appealing against Russia's decision to allow her to continue competing in Beijing.

The French president's visit to Russia this week drew a chorus of cautiously optimistic comments about averting an invasion of Ukraine but the United States has stayed conspicuously reticent about the diplomatic mission.

Until a few years ago, Agii Apostoli was a picturesque seaside village on the eastern coast of Evia, drawing a modest income from tourism and fishing.

Japan's Ayumu Hirano turned anger into Olympic gold on Friday, shrugging off a perceived injustice to win the Beijing Games men's snowboard halfpipe title with a dramatic final ride.

When she fled the conflict zone in east Ukraine, Lyudmyla Bobova never imagined she would celebrate her 59th birthday, almost eight years later, still living in emergency housing and under the threat of fresh bloodshed.

In a waterfront Istanbul neighbourhood that once buzzed with cafe and pub life, there are now only empty tables after nearly 50 percent tax hikes on alcohol.

It was meant to put one of World War II's greatest mysteries to rest, but instead a new book about young diarist Anne Frank has stirred up ghosts from the past.

Russian teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance, Beijing Olympics testers confirmed Friday, while American snowboarding legend Shaun White finished an agonising fourth in his final appearance.

As tens of thousands of Russian troops mass near Ukraine's border, many in fellow ex-Soviet state Georgia are feeling a frightening sense of deja vu.

Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami added Olympic super-G gold to her world title at the Beijing Games on Friday as a relieved Mikaela Shiffrin finished ninth after flunking her first two events.