World champion Lewis Hamilton deserves all the money he earns from his new three-year contract with Mercedes, according to team director Niki Lauda.

Austrian Lauda, a three-time world champion, was closely involved in the negotiations that led to Wednesday’s confirmation of a deal that is widely reported to be worth more than 100 million dollars.

Armenia and Belarus are holding up agreement on a joint declaration at the EU-Eastern Partnership summit over references to Russia's annexation of Crimea last year, diplomatic sources said Thursday.

EU leaders are meeting in the Latvian capital Riga with their counterparts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, aiming to cement ties with the former Soviet states but without closing the door on Russia.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Thursday ruled out helping resettle the wave of migrants fleeing to Southeast Asia, saying it would worsen the problem and "encourage people to get on boats".

Abbott, whose conservative government employs tough measures to stop boatpeople, said Australia "will do absolutely nothing that gives any encouragement to anyone to think that they can get on a boat, that they can work with people-smugglers to start a new life".

An extra-time winner by Alessandro Matri kept Juventus on track for the treble as the Serie A champions ended a 20-year wait for an Italian Cup final victory with a 2-1 win over Lazio on Wednesday.

Juventus were stunned after just four minutes when Stefan Radu rose to beat Marco Storari with a powerful header from a free-kick after Paul Pogba had given away a needless foul on the right flank.

Burundi's defense minister called on the army Thursday to close ranks after a failed coup as the security forces battle to stem weeks of violent anti-government protests.

One protester was shot dead Thursday in clashes with police in the capital Bujumbura, a witness said, the latest victim of the unrest triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in power, in which more than 20 people have died.

Colder weather kills more people than hot spells, a probe into a key issue of public-health policy said on Thursday.

Researchers looked into 74 million deaths between 1985 and 2012 in 13 countries where there was a wide variety of climate, from chilly to subtropical.

The U.S. Air Force launched its robotic space plane into orbit for a fourth flight on Wednesday aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, in a mission aimed at testing a new engine to steer satellites, officials said.

The rocket carrying the X-37B successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida and officials said the scheduled return of the unmanned plane had yet to be determined.

The fate of an orangutan named Sandra is inching through a court in Argentina, after another court ruled she was entitled to certain human rights, including the right to be freed from the Buenos Aires Zoo.

In a world first, a court in the Argentine capital ruled in December that Sandra, a 29-year-old female, was entitled to some of the same basic rights as humans, after lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus on her behalf, alleging unlawful imprisonment.

Thirty-five years after he was gunned down while delivering mass, controversial Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero will be beatified Saturday, held up by Pope Francis as a symbol of a Catholic Church dedicated to the poor.

In a move long resisted by conservative Catholics and the Salvadoran right, Romero will be declared "blessed" in a ceremony led by the pope's envoy, Cardinal Angelo Amato, on San Salvador's main square.

Google Maps apologized Wednesday after it emerged that searches using racist language pinpointed the White House, home of President Barack Obama.

The offensive scenario was brought to light after it was noticed that searches combining a racial slur and the word "house" took people to the White House in Google's free online mapping service in some locations.