US congressional budget negotiators said Wednesday they had reached a deal on federal spending for the remainder of fiscal 2018, two days before a deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown.

EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova warned Wednesday that data protection scandals such as that currently engulfing Facebook would become "very expensive" for companies from May under new EU regulations.

 A man suspected of carrying out a series of bombings in the Texas capital Austin blew himself up Wednesday, leaving behind a recorded video "confession" that police said portrayed "challenges in his personal life."

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was charged with corruption and illegal campaign financing on Wednesday over allegations that the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi helped fund his 2007 election campaign.

The United States and the European Union are launching a fresh round of talks in order to reach a "mutually acceptable" solution on trade disputes including steel and aluminum tariffs, officials said Wednesday.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday told the peace envoy for Western Sahara to press on with talks on relaunching negotiations to settle the dispute over the North African territory.

The United Nations Security Council is considering a French-drafted resolution that would task peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo with helping to prepare credible elections.

North Korea has broken its silence on the diplomatic thaw with Washington and Seoul, saying it is driving the "peace offensive" and rejecting suggestions that sanctions forced it to the negotiating table.

Nineteen people were killed and 21 others injured when a passenger bus lost control and plunged off a cliff in the central Philippines, police said on Wednesday.