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A senior European Union lawmaker said Wednesday that Taiwan's future should be decided by its own people and that the EU backs the island's "sovereign" existence, in a pointed warning to Beijing.

Six-time prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as crisis-wracked Sri Lanka's new president by the country's parliament Wednesday, with the backing of the party of the ex-leader -- who fled abroad after his palace was stormed by protesters.

Equities piled higher Wednesday following a surge on Wall Street, as investors grow hopeful in the ongoing earnings season, while sentiment was also boosted by news that Russian gas flows to Europe will not be cut off.

The final two candidates to become UK prime minister will be decided Wednesday, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt battling it out with frontrunner Rishi Sunak.

Opener Abdullah Shafique stood unbeaten on 139 as Pakistan reached lunch needing 44 more runs with five wickets in hand to complete record chase at Galle in the opening Test against Sri Lanka.

Hundreds of people were evacuated early Wednesday as firefighters deployed planes and helicopters to fight a surging wildfire in mountainside suburbs north of Athens for a second day.

Greece, scorched by a heatwave ravaging parts of Europe, deployed planes and helicopters early Wednesday to stop wildfires from spreading to mountainside suburbs north of Athens.

Yevgeny Roizman tries to conceal his sadness behind a mountain of work at his charity fund in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, where visitors queue to see him.

China has ramped up approvals for new coal power plants this year, Greenpeace said Wednesday, with authorities trying to lower the risk of economically painful electricity shortages.

Sri Lanka's parliament began voting Wednesday for a president to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled abroad after his palace was stormed by angry protesters now bracing for a crackdown from his likely successor.

Commonwealth Games medal hope Isaac Cooper was Tuesday axed from Australia's swim team and sent home over "wellbeing challenges, including the use of medication".

Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton and Minnesota's Byron Buxton hit back-to-back home runs to key the American League's 3-2 victory in the 92nd Major League Baseball All-Star Game on Tuesday.

Alison Dos Santos ended Karsten Warholm's reign as hurdles king at the world championships on Tuesday while Britain's Jake Wightman won his country's first 1500m gold in 39 years on a day of upsets.

British aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce is "championing" the energy transition and the decarbonisation of aviation, its outgoing chief executive Warren East told AFP on Tuesday at the Farnborough airshow.

Every day, Indian octogenarian Kaleem Ullah Khan wakes at dawn, prays, then ambles about a mile to his 120-year-old mango tree, which he has coaxed into producing more than 300 varieties of the beloved fruit over the years.

China is preparing to hit ride-hailing giant Didi with a fine of more than $1 billion to wrap up a long-running probe, media reports said, boosting investor hopes that the country's tech crackdown is winding down.

Australia's Eleanor Patterson soared to victory in the women's high jump at the World Championships in Oregon on Tuesday.

Brazil's Alison Dos Santos ran the third fastest time of all time to win the world 400m hurdles on Tuesday as Norwegian prodigy Karsten Warholm wilted at Hayward Field.

The citing complaint against Ireland prop Andrew Porter for the high tackle which broke the cheekbone of All Blacks' lock Brodie Retallick has been dismissed by a disciplinary committee.

Britain's Jake Wightman upstaged Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win a thriller of a men's 1500m at the World Athletics Championships on Tuesday.

When Sherry Rehman speaks it seems as though the world is ending.

Newly-crowned 100m champion Fred Kerley saw his hopes of a world sprint double go up in smoke Tuesday as he failed to advance from the semi-finals of the 200m.

Italy's political crisis comes to a head Wednesday as Prime Minister Mario Draghi discovers whether his fractured grand coalition can be saved or if snap elections are unavoidable.

Raphinha marked his Barcelona debut with a goal and two assists as the Spanish giants kicked off their four match US tour with a comprehensive thrashing of David Beckham's Inter Miami on Tuesday.

For a century, tens of thousands of Indigenous, Inuit and Metis children in Canada were forcibly enrolled in state boarding schools, isolated from their families, language and culture as part of a failed policy of assimilation.

For decades, trauma has lingered in the tiny Indigenous Canadian community of Maskwacis. But some hope to finally find a degree of closure during a visit by Pope Francis to apologize for the Church's role in a century of abuse.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce kept her bid for a sprint double on track Tuesday as she sailed into the final of the women's 200m at the world championships in Eugene, Oregon.

World record holder Sydney McLaughlin and defending champion Dalilah Muhammad remained on course for another heavyweight showdown after easing through their opening 400m hurdles heats at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon on Tuesday.

The United Nations agency in charge of investigating the diversion of a Ryanair flight by Belarus last year announced Tuesday it has completed its review, once again pointing the finger at the "unlawful" actions carried out by Minsk.

At least 17 Democratic lawmakers, including prominent progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, were arrested at an abortion rights protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Tuesday, police said.

Russian shelling pounded eastern and southern Ukraine Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would only ease the path for Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain if the West lifts sanctions on Russian shipments.

Myanmar junta troops are committing war crimes by laying landmines on a "massive scale" around villages where they are battling anti-coup fighters, rights campaign group Amnesty International said Wednesday.