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Stock markets sank on Wednesday on renewed fears of a burgeoning banking crisis, snapping a one-day rally as Credit Suisse led a rout in shares of major lenders.

Cuba ended Australia's run at the World Baseball Classic and became the first team to book their place in the semi-finals with a 4-3 win in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Rescuers scrambled on Wednesday to reach survivors in Malawi's battered city of Blantyre, after Cyclone Freddy struck southern Africa for a second time, triggering floods and landslides that have killed more than 240 people across two countries.

Britain on Wednesday said its cost-of-living support for this year and next would total £94 billion ($114 billion), as it forecast the UK to stay out of recession with inflation slowing sharply.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping approached Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler last year about Beijing serving as a "bridge" between the kingdom and Iran, jump-starting talks that yielded last week's surprise rapprochement, a Saudi official said Wednesday.

Freddie Steward says he hopes the "only way is up" for beleaguered England after a record-breaking defeat by France as they seek to spoil Ireland's Grand Slam party on Saturday.

In the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank that has shaken world markets, Nobel economics prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz told AFP that US authorities "did the right thing" to protect deposits but said the financial system needs a rethink.

Credit Suisse shares plunged more than 20 percent to new record lows after its main shareholder said it would not provide more financial assistance to the embattled Swiss banking giant.

A new party of Dutch farmers aimed to plough up Prime Minister Mark Rutte's environmental plans on Wednesday in crucial elections that will shape the upper house of parliament.

Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr claimed the final men's downhill of the season on Wednesday with freshly-minted overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt failing to fire.

Lebanon's under-fire central bank governor Riad Salameh failed to appear Wednesday before European investigators, with his legal team claiming the hearing would have been "in conflict with national sovereignty", a judicial source said.

Erling Haaland admits he is at Manchester City to win the Champions League after smashing in five goals against RB Leipzig -- and warns he can get even better.

Cyclone Freddy, which has twice smashed into the African coast after traversing the Indian Ocean, may be enshrined in the history books as the longest ever documented, meteorologists say.

Russia's oil-export revenue sank by almost half in February compared to last year as Western powers tightened sanctions on the country, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

The rigours and rituals of mating among fruit flies are challenging under the best of circumstances, but add ozone-laden smog into the mix and things really fly apart, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Europe's stock markets and the euro slumped Wednesday on renewed fears of contagion following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

A senior United Nations official made her first trip to the divided island of Cyprus Wednesday looking for "a way forward" as positions harden in one of the world's longest-running disputes.

Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr clinched the final men's downhill of the season on Wednesday with freshly-minted overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt failing to fire.

Myanmar officials were meeting with Rohingya refugees Wednesday in what Bangladeshi authorities said was the revival of a long-stalled effort to return the stateless minority to their homeland.

Jihadist-hit Niger last week killed about 30 members of the Boko Haram group and detained 960 followers, most of them women and children, who had fled neighbouring Nigeria, official sources said.

Uncollected rubbish clogged streets in France's capital on Wednesday as unions made an 11th-hour bid to stop a deeply unpopular pensions reform from being passed.

Pakistan police appeared Wednesday to have given up an attempt to arrest former prime minister Imran Khan, ending a siege of his residence after violent clashes with hundreds of his supporters.

South Korea said Wednesday it would build the world's largest chip centre using $230 billion of private investment mostly from Samsung Electronics, as it seeks an edge in the global industry.

Britain on Wednesday unveils a new cost-of-living budget, including more help on soaring energy bills, but the government is set to stand firm on rising public sector pay demands as the country endures a fresh wave of strikes.

Rescuers scrambled on Wednesday to reach survivors in Malawi's battered city of Blantyre, after Cyclone Freddy struck southern Africa for a second time triggering floods and landslides that have killed more than 200 people.

Moscow warned against "hostile" US flights on Wednesday, as tensions simmered a day after a Russian fighter jet was accused of colliding with an American drone over the Black Sea.

Dutch voters went to the polls in crucial regional elections on Wednesday with a new party of angry farmers posing a challenge to Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his environmental plans.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday urged Ethiopia to "deepen the peace" in the war-torn north as he moved cautiously to repair relations shaken by the brutal two-way conflict.

Making megastars BTS do their South Korean military service is slowing the global growth of K-pop, the chairman of the septet's agency HYBE said Wednesday.

Ines and Norman Kosin left everything behind to follow the teachings of Anastasia, a far-right Russian sect that preaches a return to the land.

US abortion opponents are hoping for a national ban on a widely used abortion pill when their lawsuit against government drug regulators is argued Wednesday in the Texas court of a deeply conservative judge believed to be sympathetic to their cause.

Zara owner Inditex, the world's biggest fashion retailer, reported record profits for 2022 despite halting operations in Russia and soaring global inflation.