Paris Saint-Germain's defensive worries deepened when Danilo Pereira was ruled out of Friday's match at Monaco because of a thigh injury sustained just a few days before a Champions League match at Real Sociedad.

The French league leader was already without captain Marquinhos after the center back injured his calf two weeks ago in a 2-0 win at Nantes.

Japanese stocks again set a record on Friday, after U.S. stocks climbed to all-time highs the previous day, European markets also went up ahead of euro zone inflation data.

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1%.

Local buses, subway trains and trams ground to a halt in much of Germany on Friday, at the peak of a week of walkouts by employees demanding better working conditions.

The Ver.di service workers' union called for a week of strikes lasting from Monday to Saturday, with the main day of walkouts on Friday. The union is being backed by the Fridays for Future climate activist group, which called on supporters to take to the streets for "good work and climate-friendly mobility."

The inflation that has ravaged the European economy eased again in February, falling to 2.6% as high interest rates, moderating oil and gas prices, and sluggish growth held back price increases in stores.

February's figure for the 20 countries that use the euro currency compares to 2.8% from January, the European Union's statistical agency Eurostat said Friday.

Environmental activists are staging a protest in a forest near Berlin against plans to expand the grounds of electric carmaker Tesla's first plant in Europe and are vowing to stay in place for weeks.

Between 80 and 100 activists have been camping in the forest since early Thursday, according to an initiative called "Stop Tesla." They put up tents and built treehouses, some of them several meters above the ground — a tactic used in previous German environmental protests.

The United Kingdom is poised to hold its first election in five years in a country battered by a cost-of-living crisis, fallout from the Israel-Hamas conflict and deep divisions over how to deal with migrants and asylum seekers crossing the English Channel from Europe on small inflatable boats.

Here is a look at the upcoming election and the biggest issues at stake.

South Korea's president lambasted North Korea on Friday over what he called its repressive rule and vowed to achieve a free, unified Korean Peninsula, weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rejected the idea of peaceful unification and threatened to occupy the South in the event of war.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol spoke on March 1 Independence Movement Day, a holiday marking a 1919 Korean uprising against Japanese colonial rule.

Ahead of the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, Associated Press Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr share their predictions.

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After the most dramatic offseason in recent Formula 1 history comes its longest ever season.

The season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix will be the first of 24 race weekends. Champion Max Verstappen — sixth in the first practice Thursday — is among several drivers raising concerns about the impact of a relentless schedule.

Three dozen leaders at news organizations around the world have signed a letter expressing solidarity with journalists in Gaza, calling for their safety and freedom to report in the war zone.

The letter, released Thursday, was spearheaded by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which said at least 89 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, the vast majority of them Palestinians.