On a night of big games in Asia, Japan will be under the most pressure as a defeat to Syria in their 2018 World Cup qualifier on Thursday would cast doubt on its chances of making it to Russia.

Only the eight group winners in the second round of Asian qualification are assured of a place in the third and last stage, where they will be joined by the four best second-placed finishers.

Fiji bowed out of the Rugby World Cup by overpowering a feisty Uruguay 47-15 in an action-packed Rugby World Cup match on Tuesday.

The Uruguayans contributed to the entertainment with a gutsy display that not only earned them their first try in the tournament, but a second to boot.

Juergen Klopp appears to be close to taking over as Liverpool manager.

Representatives of the former Borussia Dortmund coach are in talks with the Premier League club, which fired Brendan Rodgers on Sunday after the team's 18-month slump since nearly winning the league title in 2014.

Former West Germany and Bayern Munich great Gerd Mueller has Alzheimer's disease.

Bayern said on Tuesday that the 69-year-old Mueller has had the illness for "a long time" and that he has been cared for professionally with the support of his family since the beginning of February this year. His wife Uschi asked for understanding, as there will no official appointments or visits for his 70th birthday on November 3.

The deadly U.S. attack on a hospital in Afghanistan, which U.S. officials have called a "mistake," leaves open the possibility that the decision to open fire exceeded the authority under which American forces have operated since their combat mission ended nearly a year ago, officials say.

U.S. officials have declined to discuss most circumstances of the attack in Kunduz that killed 22 civilians, since American and Afghan investigations are under way.

A Dutch cargo ship sank off the Belgian coast after colliding with a gas tanker early Tuesday. The crew of 11 was rescued.

The accident happened close to the busy waterway off the port of Zeebrugge which many ships use on their way to Europe's major ports to Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Growing numbers of Syrian refugees are returning to their war-ravaged homeland from Jordan because they can't survive in exile after drastic aid cuts, can't afford to pay smugglers to sneak them into Europe or are simply homesick.

The returns, along with the increasing migration to Europe, signal that conditions in regional host countries have become increasingly intolerable, the refugees and aid officials said.

Islamic State group jihadists have blown up the Arch of Triumph in Syria's Palmyra, the country's antiquities chief said Monday, stepping up their campaign of destruction at the world heritage site.

The move was seen as the latest salvo in IS's propaganda war, and came just days after Russia launched air strikes against the extremists and other opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A strong typhoon roared into southern China on Sunday, bringing powerful winds and heavy rain to the region after leaving more than a dozen fishermen missing in the Philippines.

Tens of thousands of people in southern China were evacuated before Typhoon Mujigae made landfall near the city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province just after 2 p.m., according to the National Meteorological Center.

The Vatican has fired a monsignor who came out as gay on the eve of a big meeting of the world's bishops to discuss church outreach to gays, divorcees and more traditional Catholic families.

Monsignor Kryzstof Charamsa was a mid-level official in the Vatican's doctrine office.