Portugal Colonial - The latest news from Lisbon, Portugal and Europe, in six languages, around the clock every day

Randy Nteka was about to hit the big time when the phone rang.

Commuters trooped back to the office in England on Thursday, with public transport visibly busier, after the government scrapped restrictions imposed to combat the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Hong Kong on Thursday shortened the mandatory quarantine for international travellers from three weeks to two, even as the city struggles to contain virus outbreaks involving Omicron and Delta variants.

The death toll from a storm that struck three southern African countries rose to 70 on Thursday as emergency teams battled to repair damaged infrastructure and help tens of thousands of victims.

Like nearly one in four workers in Portugal, Fernanda Moreira, a food services worker at a hospital in a Lisbon suburb, earns the minimum wage.

The UK government denied Thursday that embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson had prioritised pets over people in the chaotic evacuation out of Afghanistan as Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Russia said Thursday that the United States was failing to address its main security concerns over Ukraine but left the door open to further talks to ease tensions.

A ruthless Ashleigh Barty swept into her first Australian Open final on Thursday with the top seed outgunning a resurgent Madison Keys in a clinical, straight-sets demolition.

The United States is shipping nearly 1.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Uganda, a White House official said Thursday, in the latest wave of jabs donated to stem the global pandemic.

Singapore will host the Formula One night race for another seven years from 2022 to 2028, organisers said Thursday, after the coronavirus pandemic scuppered the event for two years running.

Kenyans were mourning Thursday the country's best known football fan, a colourful former newspaper vendor who was found hacked to death at his home.

The UAE’s largest bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, announced Thursday it scooped record annual net profit of $3.4 billion in 2021, a 19 percent increase over the previous year.

Snow carpeted Jerusalem and its holy places Thursday as a rare wintry storm swept across Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as the wider Middle East.

A theme park based on the films of top anime studio Studio Ghibli, renowned for titles including the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away", will open in central Japan on November 1, the studio and local officials said Thursday.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Thursday it will work with Japan's atomic energy agency to provide technical assistance to a US start-up run by Bill Gates that is building a next-generation nuclear reactor in Wyoming.

Rafael Nadal is two matches away from getting the jump on golden era rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer to become all-time Grand Slam leader as the Australian Open gets down to the last four on Friday.

China warned the United States to "stop interfering" in the Winter Olympics on Thursday, a week before the controversy-hit Games are due to start in Beijing.

Scientists discovered more than 200 new species across the greater Mekong region in 2020, according to a WWF report, despite the threats posed by climate change and human activities such as logging.

Tennis' bad boy Nick Kyrgios was at it again Thursday, smashing a racquet and flipping a finger at the crowd as he and partner Thanasi Kokkinakis ensured an all-Australian Melbourne Park men's doubles final for the first time in 42 years.

The Nissan auto alliance said Thursday it will invest 23 billion euros ($25.7 billion) in electric vehicles over the next five years, marking the latest massive cash injection into the fast-growing sector by the auto industry.

China on Thursday hailed a WTO decision allowing it to slap duties on $645 million worth of US imports each year, calling on Washington to follow the ruling and "stop seeking excuses" in a long-running anti-dumping dispute.

British airline EasyJet slashed losses by half in the first quarter, despite the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant which disrupted the travel industry, the company said Thursday.

Wheelchair great Dylan Alcott bowed out of tennis Thursday after losing the Australian Open final, drawing the curtain on a glittering career in which he became a prominent disability advocate.

The European Union on Thursday launched a case against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for targeting Lithuania over its stance on Taiwan.

A hospital in Boston refused to perform a heart transplant on a patient who had not been vaccinated for Covid-19, US television media reported Wednesday.

Thailand's navy and pollution experts battled Thursday to clear up an oil spill close to pristine holiday beaches, after an undersea pipeline leaked up to 50 tonnes of crude.

Honduras president-elect Xiomara Castro is due to be sworn in as the country's first woman president on Thursday, as confusion reigns over who will be head of congress during her four-year term.

The Cleveland Cavaliers continued their NBA resurgence Wednesday with a 115-99 victory over the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks that helped propel them into third place in the Eastern Conference.

Australian energy firm Woodside announced its withdrawal from junta-run Myanmar on Thursday, the latest company to head for the exit following a military coup last year.

The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that it has spoken with Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai again and plans to meet her in Beijing during next month's Winter Games.

North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles Thursday, Seoul said, its sixth weapons test this month in one of the most intense spates of launches on record that has delivered an emphatic rejection of Washington's offers for talks on its nuclear programme.

Twitter suspended a bot account on Wednesday for spoiling the solution to the next day's Wordle, the wildly popular internet word puzzle.