Lionel Messi has bought Catalan club Cornella and become the team's new owner, the Spanish fifth-tier side announced on Thursday.
Union Berlin coach Marie-Louise Eta said Thursday she was looking forward to questions about football rather than her pioneering role as the first female manager of a men's team in a top European league.
Near Singapore, thousands of miles from the Strait of Hormuz, ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil have continued during the Middle East war, helping Tehran evade sanctions and maintain trade with China.
- South Africa's firebrand Malema handed jail term on gun charges
- Clock ticking on Chelsea's top five bid warns Rosenior
Politics
The United States threatened Thursday to resume air strikes on Iran and maintain a naval blockade of its ports if Tehran refuses to accept a deal to end the war that has engulfed the Middle East.
April 16, 2026
RECENT NEWS
Stocks rise as optimism over Mideast war takes hold
Politics
April 16, 2026
Pope Leo XIV condemned "an endless cycle of destabilisation and death" on a visit Thursday to a "bloodstained" region of Cameroon that has been gripped by an English-speaking separatist conflict for nearly a decade.
April 16, 2026
RECENT NEWS
A crackdown on India's performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) production -- the biggest globally -- is key to tackling the doping menace and protect the athletes, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Witold Banka told AFP on Thursday.
April 16, 2026
The Tokyo stock market reached a record high Thursday on heightened optimism that the United States and Iran would extend their ceasefire, hold fresh talks on ending their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and gas traffic.
April 16, 2026
Crowds gathered for the funerals of eight children and a teacher in southern Turkey on Thursday, killed when a 14-year-old opened fire at a school in a crime that has plunged the country in to shock and the community into grief.
April 16, 2026
Sports
Ronnie O'Sullivan will face Chinese debutant He Guoqiang when he begins his bid to win an eighth World Snooker Championship title on Tuesday.
April 16, 2026
RECENT NEWS
The influential chief of Pakistan's armed forces visited Iran to meet the head of Tehran's negotiators on Thursday, as Washington considers agreeing to another round of peace talks in Islamabad.
Hannah Botterman and May Campbell joined a growing England injury list on Thursday as they became the latest Red Roses players to be ruled out of the Women's Six Nations.
Prominent economists called Thursday for governments to introduce windfall profit taxes on energy companies who are set to reap financial benefits from the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Prince Harry's wife Meghan Markle claimed Thursday she has been "bullied and attacked" on social media every day for a decade and was "the most trolled person in the entire world".
April 16, 2026
Politics
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, one of his ministers said Thursday, in what would be a historic first.
April 16, 2026
RECENT NEWS
Liverpool followed France in confirming Thursday that forward Hugo Ekitike will miss the remainder of the Premier League season and the 2026 World Cup after suffering a serious injury in a Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain.
Thousands of teachers protested in Turkey on Thursday after two school shootings in two days left the country reeling, with the authorities cracking down on social media as crowds gathered for the funerals of nine victims of the second shooting.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday hinted at possible measures limiting children's access to social media, as he met senior tech figures and warned: "Things can't go on like this."
French luxury group Kering promised Thursday to make its flagship Gucci brand once again "unmissable" and boost production of leather goods as it seeks to turn around its financial performance.
April 16, 2026
- Snooker great O'Sullivan to face Chinese debutant Guoqiang in World Championship opener
- Real Madrid season in tatters, Arbeloa looking shaky after Euro exit
- S.African left-wing leader Malema sentenced to five years jail on gun charges
- In Lebanon shelters, women care for tiny babies, face pregnancy
- Pope heads to Cameroon conflict zone with message of peace
- French billionaire Bollore sparks turmoil at top publisher Grasset
- 'Disgrace': fans outraged by World Cup transit fare hikes
- Repsol taking back control of Venezuelan oil assets