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Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said on Wednesday they are increasingly confident fly-half Owen Farrell will be fit for this weekend's Champions Cup last 16 tie with the Ospreys.

UBS announced Wednesday it will bring back former chief executive Sergio Ermotti to handle the huge risks involved in the Swiss banking giant's controversial absorption of troubled rival Credit Suisse.

Embattled Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has failed to disclose more than $700 million in previously undeclared accounts since 2014, in violation of a plea deal with the US Department of Justice, a Senate committee said Wednesday.

US lawmakers heard proposals Wednesday for a new national standard regulating how college athletes are paid for their image rights -- one of the most polarizing issues in the sporting landscape.

Concerned that its two pandas are slow to breed, Copenhagen Zoo has begun a new strategy to encourage mating -- giving the prospective couple more time to get to know each other.

Stock markets advanced on Wednesday as fears of a banking crisis fade further in investors' rearview mirror while Chinese tech giant Alibaba's breakup plans boosted most Asian shares.

British boxer Anthony Joshua has laughed off Jermaine Franklin's threat of a knockout in their bout on Saturday, with the former world heavyweight champion insisting the American has picked the "worst time" to face him.

Charles III has visited Germany 40 times before but the monarch will never have seen anything like Wednesday's welcoming ceremony for his first foreign trip as king at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

The United States Vice President Kamala Harris announced a more than $1 billion initiative to improve women's economic empowerment in Africa on Wednesday at the end of the first leg of a three-nation trip to the continent.

Jumbo-Visma's Frenchman Christophe Laporte won the Dwars door Vlaanderen cycling race in Belgium on Wednesday.

The most influential member of a Vatican commission on tackling clerical sex abuse said Wednesday he has quit over "structural and practical issues" which made it "impossible" for him to continue.

Humza Yousaf was sworn in as Scotland's first minister on Wednesday, becoming the first Muslim leader of a government in western Europe but already facing unrest in his party.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Pope Francis, 86, was in hospital in Rome for previously scheduled health checks, without giving further details.

The chief of the UN atomic watchdog said on Wednesday he was working on a compromise security plan for the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and warned of increased military activity around it.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday he would "love" to see Britain emulate the model of military reservists used by Finland and Sweden.

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted by consensus and to cheers a resolution calling for the world body's top court to outline legal obligations related to climate change.

Former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is due to return to Brazil Thursday, three months after leaving for the United States at the end of his term, faces legal trouble on various fronts back home.

Colombia's ELN guerrilla group has killed nine soldiers in an attack in the country's northeast, the government said Wednesday, despite being engaged in peace talks.

Britain's Charles III began his first state visit as king on Wednesday, arriving in Germany for a trip billed as "an important European gesture" to maintain strong ties after Brexit.

France increased the minimum age for using an electric scooter from 12 to 14 on Wednesday ahead of a weekend vote in Paris on whether to ban rental of the devices.

The US drug regulator announced Wednesday that Narcan, the treatment which reverses overdoses, can be distributed without prescription, a move that comes as the country battles an acute opioid addiction crisis.

Stock markets advanced on Wednesday as fears of a banking crisis fade further in investors' rearview mirror while Chinese tech giant Alibaba's breakup plans boosted most Asian shares.

Shakib Al Hasan took five wickets and Liton Das hit a quick-fire half-century as Bangladesh hammered Ireland by 77 runs in the second T20 to seal the three-match series 2-0 in Chittagong on Wednesday.

A lingering cash crunch in Nigeria, which saw long lines of customers at banks and cash dispenser machines was easing on Wednesday after the central bank reissued old naira notes back into circulation.

To address the climate crisis, world leaders "need to react and react very quickly -- urgently," warned Vanuatu's prime minister during an AFP interview in New York.

France captain Antoine Dupont has been named the Six Nations player of the championship for a third time, tournament organisers said on Wednesday.

The United States and South Korea have sought the extradition from Montenegro of fugitive cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon, the country's minister of justice said Wednesday, just days after he was arrested in the Balkan nation.

The UK plans to temporarily house asylum seekers in disused military bases and could use ferries and barges in the future in a bid to reduce hotel bills, immigration minister Robert Jenrick announced Wednesday.

Monks accused of maintaining links with Moscow will not be violently evicted from their historic monastery in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv said Wednesday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez begins Thursday a visit to China he hopes will show Spain has gained global influence under his watch ahead of a tight year-end general election.

A rare, vividly rosy-purple diamond, called the Eternal Pink and valued at $35 million, is set to be auctioned off by Sotheby's as part of its Magnificent Jewels sale in New York in June.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged unity among democracies in the face of Russia and China as he committed nearly $700 million to halt global democratic backsliding and forged an alliance against surveillance technology.