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Top-seed Coco Gauff admitted there were "things to improve" as she overcame a mid-match wobble to beat fellow American Claire Liu in straight-sets in the first round of the Auckland Classic on Tuesday.

British forward O.G. Anunoby sparkled in his first NBA game for the New York Knicks, helping his new club upset Western Conference leader Minnesota 112-106 on Monday.

Australian Open contender Stefanos Tsitsipas struggled with a lower back problem Tuesday, pulling out of his opening singles match of the season at the United Cup as Greece crashed 2-1 to Chile.

The winner falls to his knees, arms raised triumphantly. After just eight minutes, his opponent's knee and elbow have touched the sand, handing "Issaka Issaka" an historic win in Niger's king of sports.

Australia opted Tuesday against playing a second spinner in the final Test against Pakistan at the Sydney Cricket Ground, naming an unchanged line-up for David Warner's farewell match.

Dean Elgar will bid to bring the curtain down on his Test career by skippering South Africa to victory in the second and final Test against an India side who are likely to make at least two changes.

Shelling and missile strikes rocked the length of the Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday, after Israel's army warned its war against the territory's Hamas rulers will last through 2024.

Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai pleaded not guilty Tuesday to "sedition" and "collusion" charges in a high-profile national security trial that could see him jailed for life.

Asian markets slipped Tuesday as most traders returned from the New Year break looking forward to a 2024 that is expected to see a series of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, but to also be full of economic and political uncertainty.

South Korean opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck on Tuesday while talking to reporters in the port city of Busan.

Japanese rescuers battled against the clock and powerful aftershocks Tuesday to find survivors of a major earthquake that struck on New Year's Day, killing at least six people and leaving a trail of destruction.

Australia opted Tuesday against playing a second spinner in the final Test against Pakistan at the Sydney Cricket Ground, naming an unchanged line-up for David Warner's farewell match.

Deep under the Red Sea, a passing Israeli warship could barely be heard as Yamit Avital held her breath and dived, her mind briefly cleared of the trauma of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Denmark's popular Australian-born Crown Princess Mary will become queen on January 14 when her husband Crown Prince Frederik accedes to the throne after his mother's abdication, capping her real-life fairytale.

Record numbers of migrants crossing the hostile Darien gap jungle in 2023 included 120,000 minors, the Panama government said Monday.

A Chinese exchange student who fell victim to a "cyber kidnapping" scam in which his parents were extorted for $80,000, was found alive but "cold and scared" in a tent in the Utah wilderness, police said.

At least six people died in a major earthquake that struck central Japan on New Year's Day, triggering tsunami waves over a metre high, damaging homes and sparking a major fire that wreaked destruction overnight, authorities said Tuesday.

Mohamed Salah credited a half-time change of boots after scoring twice to send Liverpool three points clear at the top of the Premier League with a 4-2 win over Newcastle.

Women's ice hockey kicked off the new year with the launch of a new professional league, which debuted Monday with the very first match between the Toronto and New York teams.

Mohamed Salah scored twice as Liverpool stretched Newcastle's miserable run with a 4-2 victory at Anfield to open up a three-point lead at the top of the Premier League on Monday.

Two weeks ahead of Palestine's opening game at the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar, the team is struggling to focus as war rages on in Gaza, where thousands have been killed.

At least four people have been confirmed dead after a major earthquake struck central Japan on Monday, triggering tsunami waves over a metre high, damaging homes and sparking a major blaze.

Fourteen Nicaraguan priests have now been arrested in a crackdown on the Catholic Church in the Central American country, prompting Pope Francis to call for dialogue during his Monday prayer.

Peter Magubane, a South African photojournalist who chronicled decades of violence during the country's apartheid era including the Soweto student uprising of 1976, died Monday aged 91, his family announced.

Ethiopia on Monday struck a "historic" agreement to secure a stake in the main port in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland as the landlocked country eyes more access to the sea, officials said.

Chad's transitional president General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno on Monday appointed one of his leading opponents, who recently returned from exile, as prime minister.

President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow would intensify strikes on military targets in Ukraine, after an unprecedented Ukrainian attack over the weekend on the Russian city of Belgorod.

Fireworks lit up skies across the world to welcome 2024, but airstrikes marred the year's earliest hours in Gaza, Israel and Ukraine, and a major earthquake hit Japan triggering tsunami warnings.

A long-awaited European Union's visa liberalisation scheme allowing Kosovo nationals to travel to Europe's borderless zone without a visa came into force on Monday with the first travellers hailing it as a great relief.

Brighton winger Kaoru Mitoma was named in Japan's Asian Cup squad on Monday despite an ankle injury, as coach Hajime Moriyasu looks to erase the "frustration" of their 2019 final defeat.

Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus was convicted on Monday of violating Bangladesh's labour laws in a case decried by his supporters as politically motivated.

Jailed Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus is celebrated around the world for helping millions of people out of poverty, but at home in Bangladesh he has a powerful enemy.