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Barcelona model inspires British billionaire's sports dream

When British billionaire Steve Lansdown got fed up with his home town of Bristol being treated as a sporting joke he set out to put that right -- modelling his vision on mighty Barcelona. The 66-year-old, who made his fortune in financial services, said his main motivation for buying...

Durham hope North stars as cricket chief

Former Australia batsman Marcus North is to return to English county Durham for a second time, with the club appointing him as their director of cricket. The 39-year-old -- who played in 21 Tests, scoring five centuries -- represented Durham in 2004, recording a highest score of 219....

Brexit is a prickly affair, says EU's Juncker

Relations between the EU and Britain have always been a bit prickly, but EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker Friday that the Brexit negotiations are beginning to resemble the courtship of two hedgehogs. "We're not at war with Great Britain," Juncker told the Austrian daily Die...

Bug in cake gives Ikea India fresh embarrassment

Ikea's first store in India faced a fresh sticky problem on Friday after a customer said he found an insect emerging from chocolate cake served to his daughter at the outlet's 1,000-seater cafeteria. It is the second such embarrassment for the home retailer since the Hyderabad store...

Hot tech sector prompts shakeup in S&P 500 stock indexes

The hot and rapidly changing tech sector has prompted the S&P 500 stock index to reshuffle its components, opening up more chances to invest in Google, Netflix, Facebook and other stars after Friday's trading session. Facebook did not yet exist and flip phones were cutting edge in...

Afghan journalists dying in record numbers to report the war

Moments after Afghan journalist Samim Faramarz wrapped up his live report on the latest suicide attack in Kabul, a car bomb exploded just metres away, killing him and his cameraman Ramiz Ahmadi. Their colleagues at Tolo News choked back tears as they reported the deaths live on air --...

At least 44 dead in Tanzania as ferry capsizes in Lake Victoria

At least 44 people died and scores were feared missing after a ferry capsized in Victoria, Africa's largest lake, with a desperate search for survivors set to resume in Tanzania on Friday. There were "more than a hundred passengers" on board the vessel when it sank Thursday afternoon...

Yemeni children brave new school year as war rages on

The walls are crumbling, the windows shattered, and the boys sit three to a desk. But by being enrolled in classes at all, the pupils are among the luckiest children in war-torn Yemen. In the rebel-held capital Sanaa, students in olive green uniforms lined up for a morning salute at the...

One of world's largest bells unveiled in Poland

One of the largest swinging bells in the world, weighing 55 tons (7,850 stone), was unveiled in the Polish city of Krakow on Thursday ahead of being installed at a major pilgrimage site in Brazil. The "Vox Patris" bell, four metres (13 feet) in height and 4.5 metres in diameter, will...

Amazon aims to make Alexa assistant bigger part of users' lives

From the kitchen to the car, Amazon on Thursday sought to make its Alexa digital assistant and online services a bigger part of people's lives with an array of new products and partnerships. Updates to the internet giant's Alexa-infused Echo smart speakers will allow them to tend to...

Turkey fines Google over competition infringements

Turkey's Competition Authority has fined US tech giant Google around $15 million for violating competition rules in sales of mobile software. The Competition Authority (RK) said it was fining Google just over 93 million Turkish lira ($14.93 million). It said that the American...

Mexican president-elect stuck three hours on grounded plane

Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a stickler for austerity who has vowed to fly only commercial, spent three hours stuck on a grounded plane because of bad weather, Mexican media reported Thursday. The anti-establishment leftist, who won Mexico's July elections in a...

Pot 'enthusiasts' wanted to sample cannabis in Canada, hundreds apply

A Toronto marketing company is looking to recruit six "cannabis enthusiasts" to test strains of pot and report back on their characteristics. So far, AHLOT says it has received more than 500 applications for the part-time positions -- an overwhelming number that is "slightly panicking"...

Indonesian city orders top staff to 'pray or get a new job'

An Indonesian city has ordered its top civil servants to visit their local mosque for dawn prayers or risk being sacked, underscoring the growing influence of religion across the world's biggest Muslim majority country. Senior bureaucrats in Palembang, co-host of last month's Asian...

Malaysia's Anwar to seek return to frontline politics next month

Malaysia's leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim will seek to return to frontline politics by contesting a local election to become a lawmaker next month, officials said Thursday, a key step on his journey from prison to the premiership. Anwar, whose alliance won a shock election victory in...

UK foreign minister sits down with Aung San Suu Kyi

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt met on Thursday with embattled Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the first high-profile state visit to the country since the UN slammed her leadership over the Rohingya crisis. UN investigators this week released a scathing and meticulous report...

Egypt's ancient temples rescued from the Nile 50 years ago

One of the world's biggest archaeological rescue operations was successfully concluded 50 years ago after a massive ancient Egyptian temple complex was dismantled and hoisted to higher ground to prevent its flooding by the damming of the Nile River. The groundbreaking UNESCO-led project...

Palestinian teen shot dead by Israeli fire in Gaza border clashes: ministry

A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli fire in clashes near the border in southern Gaza late Wednesday, the health ministry in the enclave said. The ministry said Mumin Abu Ayeda, 15, was shot along the heavily-fortified border east of Rafah in southern Gaza. It said he...