Aretha Franklin, the music icon, legendary singer and "Queen of Soul" loved by millions whose history-making career spanned six decades, died at her Detroit home on Thursday. She was 76.

Rescuers used diggers to claw through mountains of rubble, calling out in the hope of finding survivors as a desperate search for victims of the viaduct collapse entered its fourth day Friday with up to 20 people still missing.

Two moon bears are gently removed from the cramped cages where they have been held for 13 years, rescuers carefully checking their rotten teeth and matted paws before sending them to their new home in a grassy sanctuary in northern Vietnam.

Hundreds of Google employees have signed a protest letter over the company's reported work on a censor-friendly search engine to get back into China, The New York Times said Thursday.

A spate of bloody killings is fuelling unease in the Rohingya camps on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where overstretched police are struggling to protect nearly a million traumatised refugees from violent gangs.

Two million Muslims gather in Saudi Arabia this week for the hajj as the annual pilgrimage becomes increasingly hi-tech with apps to help the faithful navigate Islam's holiest sites.

Novak Djokovic's third-round struggle with defending champion Grigor Dimitrov was halted by rain, forcing the pair to come back on Friday at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.

Middle-aged people who get roughly half their daily calories from carbohydrates live several years longer on average than those with meat-heavy low-carb diets, researchers reported Friday.

Pope Francis is on the side of victims of more than 300 "predator" priests in the United States who are accused of abusing over 1,000 children across seven decades, the Vatican said Thursday.

The US warned Thursday it would levy more sanctions on the troubled Turkish economy if Ankara does not soon release a jailed American pastor described by President Donald Trump as a "hostage."

Rights groups Thursday condemned a suicide blast inside a school that killed dozens of students in Kabul a day earlier, as outrage over the attack grew while tearful families buried loved ones in the war-weary Afghan capital.

In a breakthrough that experts say will help feed the growing global population in the coming decades, scientists Thursday revealed they have cracked the full genome of wheat for the first time.

Three-time Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee died Thursday, sparking tributes from across the political spectrum as current leader Narendra Modi mourned the "irreplaceable loss" of the respected statesman.

Hundreds of troops led a desperate operation to rescue families trapped by mounting floods in India's Kerala state Thursday as the death toll reached 106 with nearly 150,000 left homeless.

Raised on gospel, bathed in rhythm and blues and fluent in jazz and pop, Aretha Franklin came to be known as the "Queen of Soul" through seven decades of electrifying performances.

German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer said Thursday that it would begin integrating seeds and pesticides maker Monsanto after a mega-merger, but its stock price was battered by the US firm's legal woes.

Madonna on Thursday took on the mantle of a "berber queen" to celebrate her 60th birthday, touring Morocco's former imperial city of Marrakech under the radar of the paparazzi.

German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer said Thursday it would finally begin integrating US seeds and pesticides maker Monsanto into its business, after meeting competition authorities' final conditions for the merger.

Raised on gospel, bathed in rhythm and blues and fluent in jazz and pop, Aretha Franklin came to be known as the "Queen of Soul" through seven decades of electrifying performances.

The European Union pushed back Thursday against Italy's populist government over the deadly collapse of a bridge in Genoa, saying that it had given Rome billions of euros to fix infrastructure.

China will send a senior negotiator to the United States in late August to resume trade talks, its commerce ministry said Thursday, the first public meeting on the dispute in weeks as the trade conflict intensifies.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz will drive for McLaren in next season's Formula One championship, filling the vacuum left by the retirement of Fernando Alonso, the team announced on Thursday.

Three-time Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has died, current leader Narendra Modi said Thursday of the ailing 93-year-old who had been hospitalised.

England rugby star Danny Cipriani was fined £2,000 ($2,500) on Thursday after pleading guilty to common assault following an incident at a nightclub on the island of Jersey.

Shares in Italian infrastructure group Atlantia, which operates the motorway on which a bridge in Genoa collapsed, were initially suspended on the Milan stock exchange on Thursday, but plunged more than 24 percent when trading resumed an hour later.

The murder trial of two women accused of assassinating the half-brother of North Korea's leader can proceed, a Malaysian court ruled Thursday, in a blow to their families who insist the pair were tricked into carrying out the dramatic hit.

Rescue workers toiled through a second night Thursday in a desperate bid to find survivors in the rubble of a Genoa bridge which caved in during a heavy rainstorm, killing at least 39 people and injuring 16 more.

Two moon bears are gently removed from the cramped cages where they have been held for 13 years, rescuers carefully checking their rotten teeth and matted paws before sending them to their new home in a grassy sanctuary in northern Vietnam.

A spate of bloody killings is fuelling unease in the Rohingya camps on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where overstretched police are struggling to protect nearly a million traumatised refugees from violent gangs.

Two million Muslims gather in Saudi Arabia this week for the hajj as the annual pilgrimage becomes increasingly hi-tech with apps to help the faithful navigate Islam's holiest sites.

Couples twist across a wood floor to the melancholy sounds of tango music, swaying and swivelling in a dance that comes from far away.

China's Communist Party has sacked a dozen provincial and local officials and vowed to punish a pharmaceutical firm over a vaccine scandal that inflamed public fears over the safety of domestically produced drugs.

Middle-aged people who get roughly half their daily calories from carbohydrates live several years longer on average than those with meat-heavy low-carb diets, researchers reported Friday.

By the time Baba John escaped the tribal militia he had joined as an 11-year-old, he had long stopped counting the number of people he had killed.

Middle-aged people who get roughly half their daily calories from carbohydrates live several years longer on average than those with low-carb diets, researchers reported Friday.

New York University said Thursday it would offer all its current and future medical school students free tuition in an effort to tackle soaring debt levels and encourage more applicants.

US regulators Thursday approved the first generic alternative for the EpiPen, a life-saving emergency allergy medicine, two years after soaring prices for the original version owned by Mylan stoked controversy.

US drug overdose deaths surged to nearly 72,000 last year, as addicts increasingly turn to extremely powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl as the supply of prescription painkillers has tightened.

A set of Roman-era tombs dating back some 2,000 years have been discovered near the Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank during road works, an official said Thursday.

Ajla Nizic did not know what cancer was when she was diagnosed with it at age four.

Visitors to a theme park in western France this week have a new attraction to enjoy: six crows that have been specially trained to pick up cigarette ends and rubbish.

The first reunions in years of families divided by the Korean War evoke bittersweet memories for Kim Jong-gyu, whose few hours with her brother in 2014 -– under the watchful eyes of the North's agents -– were probably their last ever together.

First came the war, which developed into a brutal, bloody tussle between militias who abused civilians or killed them.

With hotels facing mass cancellations, Iraqis in the holy city of Najaf are being hit hard by US sanctions on neighbouring Iran, which have forced cash-strapped pilgrims to stay home.

A cholera epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 127 people since February, while a further 22 have died in Niger, officials said on Wednesday.

The number of days marked by potentially destructive ocean heatwaves has doubled in 35 years, and will multiply another five-fold at current rates of climate change, scientists warned Wednesday.

Spirits company Constellation Brands announced Wednesday it will significantly boost its investment in Canada's Canopy Growth in a big bet on the growth of cannabis-based products.

Austria has rejected the asylum application of an Afghan claiming to be gay because he did not "act" or "dress" like a homosexual, according to a media report.

The Rohingya had no time to consider what to take as Myanmar forces drove the Muslim minority into Bangladesh in a crackdown a year ago likened by the UN to ethnic cleansing.

The prime minister of Tonga has challenged fellow Pacific leaders to a year-long weight-loss competition to combat soaring obesity levels in the region.

Manmade global warming and a natural surge in Earth's surface temperature will join forces to make the next five years exceptionally hot, according to a study published Tuesday.

Raging conflict is hampering efforts to rein in an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the WHO chief warned Tuesday, urging a ceasefire to stop the virus from transmitting freely.

The collapse of the Turkish lira has caused trauma as Turks see their purchasing power slashed, but bargain-hunting foreign tourists visiting the country at the peak of the summer season are cashing in on a currency windfall.

Bin bags at the ready, "long-distance activist" Mohamed Oussama Houij moves methodically along a beach in Tunisia's Mediterranean town of Nabeul, scooping up all kinds of trash as he goes along.

Anyone for sepak takraw? Or perhaps a spot of bridge? We take a look at 10 of the more unusual sports being contested at the Asian Games in Jakarta:

A police crackdown on petty crime in the run-up to the Asian Games in Indonesia has claimed dozens of lives, Amnesty International said Friday, criticising what it said was an "unnecessary and excessive" campaign.

She trains at a hotel pool and has little chance of making a splash at the Asian Games, but East Timor's Imelda Felycita Ximenes Belo hopes to inspire future athletes from her tiny nation.

Indonesia is about to open the Asian Games but its traffic-clogged capital Jakarta remains shrouded in a haze of air pollution that threatens to mar the world's second-biggest multi-sport event.

Australia aim to make a flying start against the All Blacks in Sydney this weekend and kick-start their quest to end New Zealand's 15 years of Bledisloe Cup domination, captain Michael Hooper said.

Former Portugal boss Paulo Bento will coach South Korea over the next four years through the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the Korea Football Association (KFA) announced Friday.

American Lizette Salas fired a course record-equalling 10-under par 62 on Thursday to take a two-shot first-round lead over Japan's Nasa Hataoka and Angel Yin in the LPGA Indy Championship.

Novak Djokovic's third-round struggle with defending champion Grigor Dimitrov was halted by rain, forcing the pair to come back on Friday at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.

Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Urena has been suspended for six games and fined for intentionally hitting Atlanta rookie Ronald Acuna with a pitch, Major League Baseball announced on Thursday.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso said Thursday that "poor action on the track" prompted his decision to step away from Formula One.

History-making captain Siya Kolisi gets a new role in Durban Saturday when South Africa hope to justify being favourites by beating Argentina in a Rugby Championship first round match.

England head into the third Test against India at Trent Bridge on Saturday a commanding 2-0 up having overpowered the tourists by an innings and 159 runs at Lord's only last week but in a dilemma over Ben Stokes.

Cristiano Ronaldo will make his much-anticipated Serie A debut for Juventus who open their campaign for an eighth straight Italian league title on Saturday against a sombre backdrop of a country in mourning following the Genoa bridge disaster.

Unai Emery couldn't have asked for a tougher start to life as Arsenal manager as hot on the heels of defeat to Manchester City in his Premier League bow, the Gunners travel to Chelsea on Saturday.

Chelsea and Arsenal's new regimes under Maurizio Sarri and Unai Emery got off to contrasting Premier League starts, but Saturday's clash between the two will provide a truer test of where the London rivals stand.

Paris Saint-Germain head to Guingamp for the second round of Ligue 1 matches already among the pace-setters, yet coach Thomas Tuchel said it feels as if the club is still in pre-season.

Britain's Dina Asher-Smith ruled the roost in the sprints at the European Championships, but on Saturday in front of an expectant British crowd at the Birmingham Diamond League meet she will see if she can beat the best in the world.

Barcelona and Brazil defender Marlon completed a move to Serie A side Sassuolo Thursday on the eve of the closure of the transfer window in Italy.

Gustavo Poyet threatened to quit as Bordeaux coach on Thursday after claiming the club sold key striker Gaetan Laborde to French Ligue 1 rivals Montpellier without his permission.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has been suspended two games for his role in a bench-clearing fracas during the team's 2-1 loss to San Francisco on Tuesday.

Tennis great Serena Williams tells Time Magazine in a cover story published Thursday that shortly before the worst defeat of her career she learned the killer of her sister Yetunde Price had been paroled.

Brandt Snedeker became only the ninth golfer in US PGA Tour history to fire a 59 on Thursday, his 11-under effort putting him in the lead in the first round of the Wyndham Championship.

Barcelona said Thursday they have reached an agreement with Sassuolo to transfer their Brazilian defender Marlon Santos to the Italian Serie A side for six million euros.

Kenya's Kipyegon Bett, who was a bronze medallist in the 800m at the 2017 world championships in London, was suspended on Thursday for "refusing or failing to submit" to a drugs test, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced.

Estonia's Ott Tanak claimed victory on the Rally of Germany's opening super-special stage on Thursday and then blasted the conditions as "terrible".

Who's saying what after the International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Thursday voted in favour of controversial reforms to the Davis Cup:

World tennis chiefs on Thursday approved a radical Davis Cup overhaul that will condense the 118-year-old worldwide showpiece into an 18-team, week-long event but critics blasted the changes as a "black day" for the sport.

Aretha Franklin, the music icon, legendary singer and "Queen of Soul" loved by millions whose history-making career spanned six decades, died at her Detroit home on Thursday. She was 76.

Top names in French cooking, as well foreign followers and thousands of well-wishers, are to attend a memorial service Friday for Joel Robuchon, the world's most-starred Michelin chef who died earlier this month.

When Aretha Franklin's death was announced over the PA system, glass maker Maurice Black says grief was so great at his Detroit auto plant that supervisors briefly shut the line.

The death of soul queen Aretha Franklin on Thursday marked the passing of the last of the great musical icons of cult comedy movie "The Blues Brothers."

British grime artist Stormzy on Thursday announced he is offering a scholarship to help support black students at Cambridge University.

The death of 76-year-old music icon Aretha Franklin prompted figures across the spectrum, from politics to pop, to pay homage to her tremendous influence on American culture.

Madonna remains one of the most controversial artists of all time, with the Material Girl refusing to hold back with age from the unbridled sexuality that helped make her a superstar.

The French top chef who cooked for fast-food-loving US President Donald Trump atop the Eiffel Tower during his visit to Paris last year went to court Thursday to challenge his eviction from his lofty perch.

The death of 76-year-old music icon Aretha Franklin prompted figures across the spectrum, from politics to pop, to pay homage to her tremendous influence on American culture.

Raised on gospel, bathed in rhythm and blues and fluent in jazz and pop, Aretha Franklin came to be known as the "Queen of Soul" through seven decades of electrifying performances.

The foundation run by US billionaire George Soros said Thursday that the last of its operations in Hungary would cease by August 31, with its activities being transferred to Berlin.

A Ugandan pop star turned opposition MP was charged in a military court Thursday with illegal possession of weapons, following his arrest after the presidential convoy was pelted with stones.

Madonna on Thursday took on the mantle of a "berber queen" to celebrate her 60th birthday, touring Morocco's former imperial city of Marrakech under the radar of the paparazzi.

It may be the most rousing feminist anthem ever, but "Respect" -- the song that made Aretha Franklin the "Queen of Soul" -- was actually written about a man demanding a break from his wife.

Raised on gospel, bathed in rhythm and blues and fluent in jazz and pop, Aretha Franklin came to be known as the "Queen of Soul" through seven decades of electrifying performances.

Ex-Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is not being moved from his home in Switzerland to the Spanish island of Mallorca, a spokeswoman said Thursday, denying a report by a Swiss magazine.

Rich, dashing man sweeps sweet young girl off her feet. It's the fantasy to launch a thousand love stories, but Hollywood's latest rom-com oozes more than sentimental escapism.

Hollywood director Peter Weir made a surprise appearance at a court in the Cambodian capital on Thursday, testifying in the trial of a filmmaker accused of espionage, the latest twist in a case decried by rights groups as "bogus".

The reclusive British street artist Banksy has said in a bemused social media post he was not involved in a major exhibition of his works currently on display in Moscow.

The Detroit church once led by Aretha Franklin's father -- and where she first tested her remarkable voice -- filled with music once again Wednesday as dozens gathered for a prayer vigil for the ailing "Queen of Soul."

A US man accused of taking a pickaxe to President Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame justified his actions on Wednesday as he pleaded not guilty to a felony vandalism charge.

Madonna, the Queen of Pop, appears to have travelled to the former imperial city of Marrakech in western Morocco to celebrate her 60th birthday on Thursday.

Only weeks ago it would have seemed fanciful to draw a link between the fate of an American pastor in Turkey, a crisis between two NATO allies and turmoil on global financial markets.

Legendary Soviet children's writer and creator of the USSR's most popular cartoon characters Eduard Uspensky died in his home in the Moscow suburbs at the age of 80 late on Tuesday.

China appears to have halted approvals of new online game licences, with reports Wednesday that a government shake-up was causing paralysis in the world's biggest gaming market.

Isaac Hou is one of Taipei's best-known street artists, famous for his mesmerising acrobatics using a giant spinning hoop.

Actor Ethan Peck -- whose grandfather was Hollywood legend Gregory Peck -- has been cast as iconic half-Vulcan science officer Spock in CBS's "Star Trek: Discovery."

The death toll from major floods in India's tourist hotspot Kerala has jumped to 164, state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Friday, issuing a fresh heavy rainfall warning for the battered region.

Two moon bears are gently removed from the cramped cages where they have been held for 13 years, rescuers carefully checking their rotten teeth and matted paws before sending them to their new home in a grassy sanctuary in northern Vietnam.

Indonesia is about to open the Asian Games but its traffic-clogged capital Jakarta remains shrouded in a haze of air pollution that threatens to mar the world's second-biggest multi-sport event.

A rare rodent species known as a "bamboo rat" that lives around the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu in Peru has resurfaced after a decade of absence and been photographed for the first time.

In a breakthrough that experts say will help feed the growing global population in the coming decades, scientists Thursday revealed they have cracked the full genome of wheat for the first time.

Hundreds of troops led a desperate operation to rescue families trapped by mounting floods in India's Kerala state Thursday as the death toll reached 106 with nearly 150,000 left homeless.

Visitors to a theme park in western France this week have a new attraction to enjoy: six crows that have been specially trained to pick up cigarette ends and rubbish.

First came the war, which developed into a brutal, bloody tussle between militias who abused civilians or killed them.

A state of emergency has been declared in Florida as the worst red tide in a decade blackens the ocean water, killing dolphins, sea turtles and fish at a relentless pace.

A new class of pesticides positioned to replace neonicotinoids may be just as harmful to crop-pollinating bees, researchers cautioned Wednesday.

The flood toll in India's southern tourist hotspot of Kerala jumped to 67 after another 25 deaths were reported Wednesday, with more than 50,000 people seeking shelter in relief camps, a state official told AFP.

British Columbia declared a province-wide state of emergency Wednesday as Canada's military joined firefighters in trying to douse 556 wildfires burning across the craggy region.

Canada announced plans Wednesday to phase out two pesticides widely applied to canola, corn and soybean crops in this country and linked to bee and now also aquatic insect deaths.

The number of days marked by potentially destructive ocean heatwaves has doubled in 35 years, and will multiply another five-fold at current rates of climate change, scientists warned Wednesday.

Manmade global warming and a natural surge in Earth's surface temperature will join forces to make the next five years exceptionally hot, according to a study published Tuesday.

Botanists have discovered a new species of orchid in Peru's central Amazonian rainforest, the country's national parks service announced Tuesday.

Bin bags at the ready, "long-distance activist" Mohamed Oussama Houij moves methodically along a beach in Tunisia's Mediterranean town of Nabeul, scooping up all kinds of trash as he goes along.

Burundi's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, has issued a decree banning the use of plastic bags in the small central African country within the next 18 months.

New Caledonia agreed Tuesday to tougher protections around a huge swathe of some of the world's last near-pristine coral reefs, in a move conservationists hailed as a major breakthrough.

Tech magnate Elon Musk's SpaceX vowed Monday to send its first astronauts into orbit on schedule next year -- part of a drive to restore America's dominance of the space race.

Scientists on Monday unveiled a previously unknown species of giant pterosaur, the first creatures with a backbone to fly under their own power.

France plans to introduce a penalty system next year that would increase the costs of consumer goods with packaging made of non-recycled plastic, part of a pledge to use only recycled plastic nationwide by 2025, an environment ministry official said Sunday.

France plans to introduce a penalty system next year that would increase the costs of consumer goods with packaging made of non-recycled plastic, part of a pledge to use only recycled plastic nationwide by 2025, an environment ministry official said Sunday.

NASA on Sunday blasted off its first-ever spaceship to explore the Sun, the $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe, on a strategic mission to protect the Earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms.

The leaders of the five states bordering the resource-rich Caspian Sea signed a landmark deal Sunday on the legal status of the inland sea which boasts a wealth of oil and gas reserves and sturgeon.

After his wheat crop failed and wells dried up, Ghulam Abbas sold his animals and joined thousands of other farmers migrating to cities as Afghanistan's worst drought in living memory ravages the war-torn country.

Standing outside their yellow hut on a ridge 3,200 metres (10,500 feet) above sea level, two French gendarmes peer through binoculars at a group of foreign climbers making their way across a scree-littered stretch on what has become one of the deadliest routes to the top of Mont Blanc.