English wine makes a splash at UK beer festival

LONDON - English wine made its debut on Tuesday at the Great British Beer Festival, a dramatic new venture for the 40th annual celebration of traditional ale.

'Honor killings' hotline launched to protect mixed caste couples in India

CHENNAI, India - Police in southern India have launched a hotline to prevent "honor killings", the first initiative of its kind in the country aimed at protecting couples from different castes or religions who fear family retribution.

Nagasaki marks 72 years since bombing

TOKYO - Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue on Wednesday said that Japan should join a treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Google's chief executive officer acknowledges 'difficult time' over gender difference memo

SAN FRANCISCO - Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of Google, has acknowledged that it has been "a very difficult time" since a memo challenging the technology company's diversity policies was circulated over the past week.

Trump, Pyongyang trade escalating threats of action

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has warned of making preemptive strikes against the US military base of Guam in the Pacific, after two US strategic bombers were sent again on Tuesday to the Korean Peninsula to stage mock nuclear bomb droppings on DPRK strategic targets, the official Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday.

Egg probe widens to chicken meat tests

THE HAGUE - In a new twist in Europe's tainted egg scandal, Dutch authorities have announced that they had started testing chicken meat coming from affected poultry farms to determine whether it, too, was contaminated.

Kenya election count puts president in lead

NAIROBI - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was leading challenger Raila Odinga by a significant margin on Wednesday in nearly complete election results, but the opposition said the counting process was flawed and disputed the tally.

French leader wants to give a role to his wife

PARIS - After more than three years without a first lady, the French don't appear to be very eager to get a new one.

IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Eggs scandal spreads to UK, France

Dutch authorities may need to cull millions of hens at 150 companies

Discarded bottles save endangered fish

CANBERRA - Endangered Australian fish have taken to seek refuge in discarded bottles in river beds, research published on Tuesday found.

UK denies agreeing to pay EU exit bill

LONDON - The British government has denied that it has agreed on the amount of its European Union exit bill, after a report emerged that it plans offer the bloc 36 billion pounds ($47 billion).