As U.S. President Donald Trump stepped up his defence of Brett Kavanaugh, his nominee for the Supreme Court, on Wednesday the Senate judiciary committee renewed its request to have the woman who accused Kavanaugh's of sexual assault speak to his panel.

The United States is ready to engage in talks with North Korea "immediately," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says, with the aim of completing North Korea's denuclearization by January 2021.

Investigators have identified three more possible victims after a California surgeon and his purported girlfriend were charged with drugging and raping two intoxicated women, prosecutors said Wednesday.

For a second straight year, the U.S. will slash the number of refugees it accepts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says, insisting amid criticism from human rights groups that the country is still committed to providing sanctuary to people fleeing the world's danger zones.

British Prime Minister Theresa May appealed directly to fellow European leaders on Wednesday to drop the "unacceptable" Brexit demands she said could rip Britain apart, and urged the bloc to respond in kind to her "serious and workable" plan.

An affidavit accuses Cody Wilson, the owner of a Texas company that makes untraceable 3D-printed guns, of paying $500 US cash to have sex with a female under 17.

Authorities in South Carolina have recovered the bodies of two women who drowned when the van taking them to a mental health facility was swept away by floodwaters.

A closer look at the day's most notable stories with The National's Jonathon Gatehouse: North and South Korea peace-talks progress is some good news that both leaders sorely need; CBC goes undercover to investigate ticket scalping; Russia faces intense pressure over sports doping legacy

Olga Matamoros recalls running out of her swaying apartment building, certain that the six-story structure would collapse before she reached safety.

“When I got outside I saw a disaster: Dust everywhere, the building in ruins, and I unable to move,” said Matamoros, 65, sobbing at the recollection....

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Wednesday to shut down a nuclear missile testing and launch site in a development welcomed by President Trump, raising hopes of a second meeting between the two leaders in the quest for a long-sought Korean peninsula denuclearization deal.

Kim made the offer...

A Pakistani court on Wednesday suspended the corruption sentences of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members and ordered them released on bail pending their appeals.

An anti-graft tribunal in July had convicted Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar of...

Facing backlash over the decision to drastically limit the number of refugees who will be permitted to settle in the United States, State Department officials are attempting to defend the move and soften its impact.

But ultimately, the proposed new quota — a third of last year’s number and an all-time...

It was a Barbie-themed birthday party most kids could only dream about, with carnival rides, hundreds of pink balloons and a theater-worthy set featuring gold chandeliers and a rosé-colored throne.

The guests of honor were the 7-year-old twin daughters of the world’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquin...

In Mexico, officials and citizens routinely announce the discoveries of clandestine graves baring skeletal remains from the gang violence that has convulsed the country for years.

The official count of the “disappeared” nationwide exceeds 30,000, and relatives of the legions of missing call that...

Russian officials Tuesday blamed Israel for the downing of a Russian military aircraft near Syria’s Mediterranean coast that killed 15 people, even though the plane was shot down by Syrian air defenses.

The aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-20 reconnaissance turboprop, disappeared from radar screens late...

A single paragraph in lengthy legal papers filed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller in the case of President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has provoked a political whodunit in Jerusalem, where a statement that Manafort “coordinated privately with a senior Israeli government...

If ever there was a good time for America to launch a trade war, this is it.

With its great diversity of ethnic groups, Africa has long needed models of governance that are inclusive, especially after conflicts driven by ethnic differences. For nearly six months, Ethiopia has shown promise of being such a model. A new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has so far achieved a whirlwind of reforms, such as releasing political prisoners and making peace with neighboring Eritrea.

Alaa Faroukh insists he is the future. The jovial psychologist with a toothy smile, who can quote Freud as easily as he can recite the Quran, is speaking from his airy Amman clinic, located one floor below the headquarters of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, the very movement he left. Faroukh is symbolic of a shift sweeping through parts of the Arab world.

“All of you who have come in right now are coming into a business that’s right at the very beginning,” Mr. Davloor tells the three dozen employees gathered at company headquarters in Kincardine, a municipality of about 11,000 on Lake Huron. Adam Schacher, a team lead hired six months ago, breaks in.

Trump hails ‘tremendous progress’ as analysts warn the two leaders have different ideas of what denuclearization entails

The US has said it is ready to “immediately” restart stalled negotiations with North Korea about nuclear disarmament in light of agreements reached at a summit of the two Koreas in Pyongyang.

At that meeting, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, promised to dismantle a missile engine test site and launch pad, and made a conditional offer to shut down his country’s main nuclear complex at Yongbyon.

Comments at Salzburg summit aimed at pressuring EU to be more flexible in future talks

Theresa May has tried to threaten EU leaders over dinner at a special summit in Salzburg by telling them the UK would not seek to delay Brexit, prompting European leaders to warn that the two sides remained far apart on trade and the Irish border despite months of negotiations.

The prime minister told her counterparts “that the UK will leave on 29 March next year” and as a result “the onus is now on all of us to get this deal done” by the end of an emergency summit that the EU confirmed would happen in mid-November.

The ousted leader’s bank accounts allegedly swelled with millions from the state investment fund 1MDB

The ousted Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, has been arrested and will be charged over allegations that $628m linked to state investment fund 1MDB ended up in his personal bank accounts, officials said.

Najib will appear in court on Thursday afternoon where he faces several charges related to abuse of power, the anti-corruption commission said.

Residents’ groups are kicking back against the latest in a long list of banned activities

Authorities in Venice have proposed banning people from sitting and lying on the ground as the city pursues its quest to clamp down on what some officials describe as “boorish” tourists.

The potential rule was suggested by the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, and would mean transgressors being fined between €50 and €500 if implemented.

Chuck Grassley maintained the hearing would take place Monday morning after Ford’s lawyers demanded an FBI investigation

Senate Republicans are refusing to delay a high-stakes public hearing with supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who accused him of sexual assault, as Donald Trump offered a vigorous defense of his embattled nominee.

The hearing was thrown into doubt when Ford’s lawyers demanded an FBI investigation as a pre-requisite to her appearance on Capitol Hill on Monday, setting up a showdown with Senate judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley. He said on Wednesday that the hearing would take place on Monday at 10am in Washington, as scheduled. In a letter to Ford’s lawyers, he gave her until 10am Friday to submit her biography and prepared remarks “if she intends to testify”.

Thomas Borgen admits most of £180bn that passed through Estonian branch was fraudulent

The boss of Denmark’s biggest bank has resigned after admitting that the vast majority of €200bn (£178bn) flowing through its Estonian branch was money-laundered cash flowing illegally out of Russia, the UK and the British Virgin Islands.

“It is clear that Danske Bank has failed to live up to its responsibility in the case of possible money laundering in Estonia. I deeply regret this,” Thomas Borgen said in his resignation statement on Wednesday.

Spanish foreign minister says US president advised tactic to stem migration across the Med

Donald Trump suggested the Spanish government tackled the Mediterranean migration crisis by emulating one of his most famous policies and building a wall across the Sahara desert, the country’s foreign minister has revealed.

According to Josep Borrell, the US president brushed off the scepticism of Spanish diplomats – who pointed out that the Sahara stretched for 3,000 miles – saying: “The Sahara border can’t be bigger than our border with Mexico.”

The South American nation produced a record estimated 1,379 tonnes of cocaine last year – up 31% on 2016

Colombia is desperate to shed its reputation as a nation dogged by the drug trade, but new figures from the United Nations show that it continues to break records for producing cocaine.

In 2017, around 171,000 hectares (423,000 acres) of the South American nation’s land was used to grow coca, the plant whose leaf is the base ingredient of cocaine – up 25,000 hectares (17%) on the year before, according to a report published on Wednesday by the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).