Tens of thousands of devout Hindus, led by heads of monasteries and ash-smeared ascetics, took a holy dip into the frigid waters of the Ganges River in northern India on Friday despite rising COVID-19 infections in the country.

Hindu pilgrims congregated at the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — in Prayagraj city, 200 km (124 miles) northeast of Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, to participate in the Magh Mela festival, one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. They bathed in the Ganges waters, a ritual Hindus believe will wash away their sins and free them from the cycle of death and rebirth.

The Dutch king ruled out Thursday using, for now at least, the royal family's "Golden Carriage," one side of which bears a painting that critics say glorifies the Netherlands' colonial past, including its role in the global slave trade.

The announcement was an acknowledgement of the heated debate about the carriage as the Netherlands reckons with the grim sides of its history as a 17th-century colonial superpower, including Dutch merchants making vast fortunes from slaves.

The man who as a 4-month-old appeared nude on the 1991 cover of Nirvana's album "Nevermind" has filed a new version of his lawsuit alleging the image is child pornography.

Federal Judge Fernando M. Olguin had dismissed Spencer Elden's lawsuit on Jan. 4 after a missed deadline, but gave him permission to file an amended version.

Brazil coach Tite has announced his squad for two upcoming World Cup qualifier matches, leaving out injured star Neymar and noting that defender Renan Lodi wasn't selected because he hasn't been vaccinated against COVID-19.

"Renan Lodi has jettisoned his opportunity to be called, because he's unvaccinated," Tite told reporters. "That was the information we got (from the Brazilian soccer confederation's medical staff). He lost the opportunity to become a candidate, because he's not vaccinated."

If Granit Xhaka getting sent off came as no real surprise, Arsenal holding out with 10 men at Anfield certainly was a shock.

Liverpool failed to take advantage of Xhaka's 24th-minute red card for a chest-high lunge on Diogo Jota and was held to a 0-0 draw by Arsenal in the first leg of the English League Cup semifinals on Thursday.

Bayern Munich left back Alphonso Davies has been sidelined with evidence of heart muscle inflammation after being infected with the coronavirus, coach Julian Nagelsmann said Friday.

The Canada international will be out of action for at least "the coming weeks" after the inflammation, known as myocarditis, was detected in a follow-up examination after his return to training this week, Nagelsmann said. The coach described the inflammation as "mild" and "not so dramatic," citing the results of an ultrasound examination.

Shops, bars and restaurants in a southern Dutch town opened Friday in a protest action that underscored growing anger at weeks of coronavirus lockdown measures, a day before some of the restrictions are expected to be eased.

A local broadcaster showed people eating and drinking at outdoor tables of restaurants in the main street of Valkenburg in open defiance of a lockdown in the Netherlands. Authorities in the tourist town, which was devastated by flooding last year, didn't take action to enforce coronavirus restrictions.

Shares slipped in Europe and Asia on Friday after a retreat on Wall Street that left the Nasdaq composite down 2.5%.

Germany's DAX lost 0.6% to 15,928.83 and the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.7% to 7,145.19. Britain's FTSE 100 edged 0.1% lower to 7,556.29. On Wall Street, the future for the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 both were 0.1% higher.

Boris Johnson's office on Friday apologized to the royal family for holding staff parties in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral last year — the latest in a string of allegedly lockdown-breaching gatherings that are threatening to topple the British prime minister.

Farewell parties for Johnson's departing spin doctor and another staffer, complete with late-night drinking and dancing, took place on April 16, 2021, the night before Queen Elizabeth II sat alone at the funeral of her husband because of social distancing rules in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The risk of recession is looming for Germany after Europe's biggest economy shrank at the end of 2021 and as it faces a bumpy start to this year, with the rapid spread of COVID-19's omicron variant deterring people from shopping and travel and supply bottlenecks holding back manufacturers.

Output in Germany fell by between 0.5% and 1% in the fourth quarter, the state statistics agency Destatis said Friday. Forecasts are also shaky for the first three months of 2022, and two straight quarters of falling output would leave Germany in recession, according to one commonly used definition.