On Thursday, officials reported 50 new cases of the variant in the capital of Oslo. Officials said the outbreak has largely been tied to the Christmas party, which was held at a restaurant in the city. The outbreak comes in spite of party attendees having “high vaccination coverage,” the Norweigan Institute of Public Health said Thursday. The spike in new omicron cases comes three days after Norway reported its first two cases of the variant....

In that respect, fifth-ranked Auburn made quite the statement with a 20-14 win over No. 20 Kansas State on Thursday night. MORE: Week 4 photos | Fox: Marshall shows off his arm Their vaunted ground game held in check, the Tigers were forced to take flight against the Wildcats. Nick Marshall threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns, and the reigning SEC champions logged a momentum-building win with some big conference games looming in a few weeks....

See, speculation about the defending MVP's plans cropped up -- again -- earlier this week, when the owner of Dynamo Moscow said this (translation via Russian Machine Never Breaks): “Ovechkin has a current contract with the Capitals. Can we try to pull him out? We’ll talk, we’ll look at each other and will have some result. Right now all Russian national team players want to come back to their homeland....

Now researchers are on the verge of answers. Pioneers in a new field called ecogenetics, or molecular epidemiology, are cutting through the exasperating statistics to find genes and biological markers that reveal who is most likely to succumb to cigarettes, workplace carcinogens, fatty food or other poisons. The work follows geneticists’ success in linking single-gene defects to more than 440 human ills, including Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis and Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy....

That could happen soon. For the first time since the Bakke case, which banned outright quotas like those at Davis, the Supreme Court is wading into an emotional dispute over affirmative action at universities. Any day now, the court is expected to decide whether the University of Michigan’s minority-recruitment efforts violate federal law. Mindful of the Bakke decision, which allows schools to consider race as a “plus factor” as long as they avoid quotas, admissions officers at Michigan tried to rely on a “point” system for undergraduates that awards extra credit to minorities....

Madrid fire five past Legia at the Bernabeu This is Ronaldo’s eighth season at Madrid and 2016-17 represents his slowest start to a campaign. The 31-year-old has netted just four times so far and, unusually, he now has as many assists as he does goals in the current campaign. Two of those assists came against Legia Warsaw on Tuesday night. In a 5-1 win in which Los Blancos barely came out of second gear for much of the evening, the three-time Ballon d’Or winner set up Marco Asensio and Alvaro Morata....

That’s real money. So the message is: start paying attention. Monitor your returns, watch the bottom line, choose your investments carefully and, if necessary, throw your weight around to get a plan that suits a semi-wealthy player like yourself. Agitation works. Most employers, doubly motivated by a desire to woo workers and avoid lawsuits, will spiff up their plans if pressed, says Katherine McBreen of The Spectrum Group, a San Francisco research firm....

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Tuesday that Philadelphia will finalize a trade sending McCoy to the Bills next week in exchange for linebacker Kiko Alonso. STEELE: Kelly’s power play shakes up Eagles, but clock is ticking | FANTASY: Impact of McCoy trade In fantasy land, it looks like the Eagles gave up a superstar running back in his prime (age 26) for a talented third-year player coming off a torn ACL that cost him all of 2014....

For Texas, it’s a chance to avenge last year’s 38-3 loss and get off on the right foot under third-year coach Charlie Strong. The Longhorns might be starting a freshman at quarterback in Shane Buechele. For Notre Dame, Brian Kelly plans on using both quarterbacks, and Malik Zaire and DeShone Kizer will get a chance to prove their worth once again. MORE: Best, worst case scenarios for the Top 25...

Running through it backwards is pretty much impossible. But that’s what Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly inadvertently had them do at practice. MORE: Upset alerts in Week 1 | TV schedule | SN’s Top 25 | SN All-Americans After a player apparently said something about the gauntlet being backwards, Kelly responded, “No, it’s not backwards.” But when junior running back Cam McDaniel ran into the gauntlet, everyone quickly discovered it was, indeed, backwards....

Line: ND -1.5 Total: 140.5 MORE: College hoops live odds | ATS standings Trends: ND 22-11 SU, 15-15-1 ATS, 15-16 O/U. SFA 28-5 SU, 3-2 ATS, 3-2 O/U. KenPom efficiency ratings: ND 40 (overall), 11 (offense), 168 (defense). SFA 25, 66, 11 Effective FG percentage: ND 53.8, SFA 54.9 EFG% against: ND 49.2, SFA 49.1 Pick: Stephen F. Austin took it right to West Virginia, dominating the Mountaineers defensively with high intensity defense....

However, it was also time for Paulo Dybala to announce himself as the game’s next global superstar, a player capable of rivalling Neymar for Ballon d’Or honours for years to come. Dybala did just that. He wasn’t just good. He was decisive, netting the opening two goals in a remarkable 3-0 win for the home side. Dybala stars as Juve batter Barcelona The Argentine has been known as ‘La Joya’ (The Jewel) since he first broke into the Instituto team as a teenager and his precious talent has never gone unrecognised in Italy....

Jokic now moves to seventh on the all-time list behind Wilt Chamberlain. NBA League Pass: Sign up to unlock live out-of-market games (7-day free trial) This was Jokic’s second consecutive triple-double following a 17-point, 13-assist and 12-rebound performance in a blowout win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night. And much like the triple-double on Saturday, Jokic recorded his triple-double against the Jazz early in the second half. Jokic has joined James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and James Harden as the only players to record three consecutive triple-doubles at least twice in their NBA career....

The Nuggets controlled the second half of Tuesday night’s Game 7 against the Clippers and cruised to a 104-89 victory, punching their ticket to the 2020 Western Conference finals. Denver became the first team to crawl out of a 3-1 hole twice in one postseason after previously eliminating the Jazz in the same fashion. Nuggets stars Jamal Murray (40 points, 15-of-26 shooting) and Nikola Jokic (16 points, 22 rebounds, 13 assists) were the two best players on the floor in Game 7 by far, as they completely outplayed the duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George (24 points, 10-of-38 shooting combined)....

Felicia Croft, who works as a COVID ICU nurse at Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, explained her experiences in the ICU to ABC News in a video posted to their Twitter account. “The Delta wave that we’re seeing now, people are younger and sicker,” Croft says in the video. “We’re intubating and losing people that are my age and younger.” She teared up while speaking about the victims who she said will never see their kids graduate or meet their grandchildren....

Frontline health care workers have become the unsung heroes of the coronavirus pandemic, but these human pillars of strength have their own champion. While medical staff have been busy saving lives across the nation, Tara Rynders has been busy saving the nurses at the Rose Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. A Nurse Specialist in Wellness and Resiliency, Rynders focuses on providing a support system for nurses and making sure their experiences are heard....

Natalie Rise began feeling COVID symptoms and was admitted into Kootenai Health’s emergency room and died on August 22. Her brother, Daryl Rise, spoke to KXLY about how the virus has impacted his family. Not only did his sister die, but his mother was in a medically induced COVID-related coma just down the hall from Natalie. After his sister died, Rise said, the nurses at the hospital woke up their mother to share the news....

Members of the country’s largest nursing union, National Nurses United (NNU), along with its affiliate the California Nurses Association, held rallies outside hospitals and medical centers on March 11 in protest of the “ineffective” employer and government response to COVID-19. Among the concerns raised by the nurses is how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “further weakened” guidance on measures to contain the virus, including rolling back protective equipment standards from N95 masks to regular surgical masks....

A video recorded on July 24 off Kaimana Beach, near Honolulu, shows the seal attacking the swimming woman in an attempt to drive her away. The mother seal, nicknamed Rocky by locals, was reportedly barking and trying to find her two-week-old pup, leading other swimmers to get out of the water. One woman remained, however, and only swam back to shore when other swimmers shouted at her to get out of the water, as Rocky and the pup were returning to the area of the beach that they had been resting on....