North America

Oil hovered slightly below 2019 peaks on Friday, propped up by ongoing supply cuts led by producer club OPEC and by U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela.

Oil prices were stable on Friday, propped up by production cuts led by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and as U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and Iran likely created a slight deficit in global supply in the first quarter of 2019.

FIFA chiefs will decide on Friday whether to back an expansion of the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams but a final decision will only be taken at a meeting in Paris in June, sources said Thursday.

Facebook on Wednesday grappled with what was described as its biggest outage in history as users in parts of Australia, Asia, Europe, South America and North America faced service troubles.

Canada has begun the extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to the United States – the latest move in a case that has roiled relations between the North American neighbours and China.

David Adeleke, Adesua Etomi-Wellington and IK Osakioduwa have been nominated alongside global bigwigs in the entertainment industry for the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.

Nigerian forward Orji Okonkwo has joined Major League Soccer (MLS) side Montreal Impact on loan for the 2019 season.

The world’s top oil companies, the “supermajors” — US firms Chevron and ExxonMobil, Britain’s BP, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and Total of France – earned nearly $80 billion in net profits last year.

Former England football captain David Beckham will receive a statue in his honour in the city of Los Angeles, home of football club LA Galaxy.

Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho took a nasty tumble at an ice hockey game outside Moscow on Monday, drawing gasps and laughs after performing a ceremonial puck drop.

General Motors Co on Monday said it has started the sack of about 4,000 salaried workers in the latest round of a restructuring announced in late November.

Venezuelans on Wednesday took to the streets around Caracas in a fresh round of protests to press President Nicolas Maduro to step down and the army to allow the entry of humanitarian aid from the U.S.

Groundbreaking superhero blockbuster “Black Panther” on Sunday won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards — a major boost to its campaign for Oscars glory next month.

Venezuela’s top military envoy to the United States has defected from the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

At least 40 people have died and more than 1,000 have tested positive for swine flu since the beginning of the year in a western Indian state popular with foreigners, according to authorities.

An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family saying she feared for her life, was due to arrive in Canada on Saturday, after being granted asylum in the North American country.

A lack of “any real support” from South Africa’s government ultimately cost the country the chance to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, according to Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Ahmad Ahmad.

Preliminary figures released on Monday by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) showed a total of 4.3 billion passengers were transported by air on scheduled services in 2018.