ZURICH

Romania's women's tennis team will compete with Canada's team on April 18 - 19, away, in the playoff for the Fed Cup World Cup, according to the draw carried out in London, on Tuesday.

Photo credit: (c) DAN PAIC / AGERPRES STREAM

Qatari sports executives, in a bid to refute calls for depriving Qatar of its 2022 World Cup hosting rights, have asked their human rights and trade union critics, as well as world football body FIFA, to give them more time to address criticism of the Gulf state's kafala or sponsorship system that puts employees at the mercy of their employers.

Football's world governing body FIFA announced on Feb. 2 that four candidates are bidding to become its president, including long-time incumbent Sepp Blatter.
      

BELGRADE - Women's volleyball club Partizan was defeated by Turkey's Vakifbank Istanbul 25-13, 25-11, 25-11 in the last, sixth round of Group E of the Champions League in Belgrade on Wednesday evening.

The Serbian team finished fourth with six defeats and two points behind European giants Vakifbank, Cannes and Piacenza.

Deputy foreign ministers from Iran, the U.K., France and Germany will gather in Istanbul on Jan. 29 to discuss Iran's nuclear program, according to an Iranian official.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to Iranian media, said Jan. 24's talks in the Swiss city of Zurich between representatives of the U.S. and the EU had been "constructive."

Iranian and US diplomats resumed talks in Switzerland on Jan. 23, as the pace intensifies towards a complex deal on Tehran's nuclear programme.
 
Two days of meetings between Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and top US negotiator Wendy Sherman began Friday morning in Zurich, a US spokesman told AFP.
 

Bulgarian airline BH Air is expected to launch direct flights to New York and Chicago from the beginning of May 2015, Sofia Airport Executive Director Hristo Shterionov has said.

Another carrier, Swiss International, is expected to launch flights on the Sofia-Zurich route also in May, BTA news agency quoted Shterionov as saying.   

Portugal and Real Madrid great Cristiano Ronaldo lifted his third FIFA world footballer of the year award on Monday in an overwhelming win over eternal rival Lionel Messi, Barcelona's Argentine magician.
     

Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2014 annual award for the second year running on Monday.

This is the third time the Portugal forward has grabbed the trophy awarded by FIFA and France Football magazine after winning it in 2008 and 2013.

Ronaldo captured 37.66%of the votes cast by the captains and coaches of each national team plus one journalist from each country.

By Catherine Bosley

Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan said he doesn?t expect Greece to leave the euro area and warned of risks associated with such a move.