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When FIFA declared Pele and Diego Maradona jointly the players of the 20th century, and effectively the best of all time, they side-stepped but did not resolve a heated debate that has grown more complicated as Lionel Messi has dominated the 21st century.

Brazilian football legend Pele, who died on Thursday at the age of 82, is widely considered the greatest footballer of all time.

Pele was the best-loved footballer of his or any other generation, the eternal master of the beautiful game.

Brazilian football icon Pele, widely regarded as the greatest player of all time and a three-time World Cup winner who masterminded the "beautiful game," has died at the age of 82, his family said Thursday.

A former Afghan woman MP who fled to Britain after the Taliban takeover in 2021 on Thursday called on the world to hold the Taliban accountable for its attempt to erase women from public life.

The deteriorating health of sports legend Pele has rekindled curiosity about the quiet town of Tres Coracoes in southeastern Brazil, where the football prodigy was born 82 years ago.

Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud won ski jumping's Four Hills opening round on Thursday as defending champion Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan flopped in 15th place.

Kiara, a six-month-old black panther born in war-torn Ukraine and victim of exotic animal trafficking, has found a new home at a wildlife refuge in France.

Former pope Benedict XVI is "lucid and alert" and his condition remains serious but stable, the Vatican said Thursday, the day after revealing the 95-year-old's health had deteriorated.

A Bolivian prosecutor said Thursday he had requested six months of pre-trial detention for a key opposition leader and former presidential candidate detained a day earlier on charges of "terrorism."

Forty-six Ivorian troops whose detention by Mali triggered a bitter diplomatic row were brought in for trial at a court of appeal in Bamako on Thursday, an AFP reporter saw.

Wall Street and European stocks rose on Thursday as an increase in US jobless claims signalled some cooling in the economy, easing concerns about the direction of interest rate hikes.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti insisted Thursday that French striker Karim Benzema has returned to La Liga from his World Cup nightmare "motivated and enthusiastic."

Atop a sacred hill in Lima, Peruvian shamans scatter coca leaves and flower petals while a snake named Maria slithers over posters of world leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin and Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Ethiopia's federal police began to deploy on Thursday in the capital of war-torn Tigray for the first time in 18 months, the police said, marking the latest step in a nearly two-month-old peace deal.

Arsenal will look to finish the year on a high when the Premier League leaders visit Brighton for their final match of 2022 this weekend.

Georgiy Yatsenko was hiding in the basement trying to comfort his anxious grandchildren on Thursday morning when an explosion rocked his normally sleepy street in southern Kyiv.

The fortunes of Silicon Valley billionaires took a beating in 2022 as share prices of the world's tech giants plummeted.

All eyes will be on Clermont on New Year's Day as they welcome Toulouse to the Stade Marcel Michelin at a time when the home side appear to be on the cusp of a freefall.

Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool's £40 million ($48 million) swoop for PSV Eindhoven forward Cody Gakpo will have an effect on his plans for the January transfer window.

Mikaela Shiffrin set up a possible hat-trick of World Cup wins in Semmering when she was quickest down the course in the first run of Thursday's slalom.

The death of a pope usually sets in motion time-honoured traditions, but with ex-pontiff Benedict XVI in failing health the Vatican is on unfamiliar ground.

Stock markets mostly rose in Europe and the United States but sank in Asia on Thursday as investors weighed the economic impact of China's Covid surge as the country reopens.

Israel's hawkish veteran Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as prime minister Thursday after a stint in opposition, heading what analysts call the most right-wing government in the country's history.

A Turkish court Thursday refused to release a top doctor who faces years in jail for demanding a probe into the army's alleged use of chemical weapons against Kurdish fighters in Iraq.

Pakistan will need to bat-out the last day to avoid defeat in the first Test after New Zealand gained the upper hand Thursday through a masterly undefeated double-hundred by Kane Williamson in Karachi.

Kosovo's primary border crossing with Serbia was back open Thursday, dialling down growing tensions that had drawn international calls for de-escalation.

Marco Odermatt underlined his World Cup credentials with a stunning victory in Thursday's Super-G at Bormio, just hours after Austrian triple Olympic champion Matthias Mayer had announced his immediate retirement.

The declining health of former pontiff Benedict XVI has sparked a wave of emotion in the region of Bavaria where he was born, while the controversies that marked his time in office remain vivid for many.

Israel's hawkish veteran Benjamin Netanyahu was set to return to power Thursday after a stint in opposition, heading what analysts call the most right-wing government in the country's history.

Six months on from the chaos that put lives at risk at the Champions League final in Paris, there are Liverpool fans still too frightened to return to watching matches live.

Armed raids in a region of South Sudan plagued by ethnic clashes have forced around 30,000 civilians to flee their homes, the UN's emergency response agency said Thursday as international partners demanded an end to the violence.