Barcelona may be without Robert Lewandowski on Sunday as it turns its focus back to the Spanish league after putting itself in a good position to advance in the Champions League following two early eliminations.
Lewandowski received a knock on his ankle in the first half of the team's 1-0 win at Porto on Wednesday and is doubtful to make the trip for the league match against Granada on Sunday. Barcelona enters the weekend one point behind Spanish league leader Real Madrid, which hosts Osasuna on Saturday.

Global shares advanced Thursday after a plunge in oil prices aided a recovery on Wall Street.
France's CAC 40 lost 0.3% to 6,976.60. Germany's DAX shed 0.2% to 15,222.00, and Britain's FTSE 100 was unchanged at 7,414.46. The futures for the S&P 500 and Dow industrials were 0.3% lower.

Surging interest rates are intensifying the challenges for the U.S. economy and threatening to derail the Federal Reserve's drive to tame inflation without causing a deep recession.
Since mid-summer, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, a benchmark for many loans, has steadily climbed, causing a spillover rise in other borrowing costs. The costs of mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt have all risen in response. The collective impact of higher rates across the economy could also weaken the government's own finances.

In the pope's homeland, there's a woman who believes in angels and calls them aliens. Another who proudly identifies as a witch.
And a spiritual guru so turned off by the Vatican's opulence that he left the church to help others connect spiritually outside organized religion.

Jon Fosse, a master of spare Nordic writing in a sprawling body of work ranging from plays to novels and children's books, won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for works that "give voice to the unsayable."
Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel literature committee, said Fosse's work is rooted "in the language and nature of his Norwegian background."

Russia targeted Ukraine with drones in another massive attack early Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Spain to rally support from Western allies at a summit of some 50 European leaders.
Ukraine's air force said that the country's air defenses intercepted 24 out of 29 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched at the southern Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions.

Soldiers and firefighters were battling to control a new wildfire on Spain's Tenerife island that has forced some 3,000 people to leave their homes for safety, the Canary Islands government said Thursday.
The blaze, which started Wednesday, is centered on the towns of Santa Úrsula and La Orotava in the mountainous northeast of the island, away from the main tourist areas in Tenerife's southwest.

The small island kingdom of Bahrain won its 10th gold medal Thursday at the Asian Games as runner Eunice Chebichii Paul Chumba took first place in the women's marathon.
Chumba was only a few seconds in front of silver medalist Zhang Deshun at 35 kilometers, but broke away to finish 1 minute, 41 seconds ahead of her in a winning time of 2:26:14.

The 2030 men's soccer World Cup is set to feature games in six countries on three continents in a unique format that will allow the tournament to celebrate its 100th anniversary in Uruguay.
FIFA reached an agreement Wednesday between soccer's continental leaders to accept a bid spearheaded by co-hosts Spain, Portugal and Morocco as the only candidate for the hosting rights. The agreement also includes staging games in South American countries Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, which had earlier promoted a rival co-hosting bid.

Typhoon Koinu swept southern Taiwan on Thursday, injuring 190 people but causing no deaths as it brought pounding rain and record-breaking winds to the island, leading to school and office closures.
Koinu, which means "puppy" in Japanese, made landfall early Thursday in Cape Eluanbi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, and is expected to weaken as it moves west toward Guangdong and Fujian provinces in southern China.
