ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey looks positively on Finland's application for NATO membership, but does not support Sweden's bid, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

Paris 2024 organisers insisted they would abide by the International Olympic Committee's decision on Russian and Belarusian athletes' participation in the Games after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the governing body into banning them from the sport's extravaganza.

Their journey starts with a humanitarian visa for Brazil: one of the few remaining exit routes for Afghans fleeing Taliban rule.

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise its target interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, setting aside the rapid hikes used last year to curb a surge in inflation in favor of a more stepwise hunt for a stopping point.

Divisive internet personality Andrew Tate reiterated claims he was innocent on Wednesday ahead of a court hearing to rule on his appeal against extended detention pending a criminal investigation for alleged human trafficking and rape.

Police investigating a suicide bombing that killed more than 100 people at a Pakistan mosque said on Tuesday that several people had been arrested, and they could not rule out the possibility that the bomber had internal assistance evading security checks.

Shares in Indian tycoon Gautam Adani's conglomerate plunged again on Wednesday as a rout in his companies deepened to $86 billion in the wake of a U.S. short-seller report, with the billionaire also losing his title as Asia's richest person.

Airlines canceled over 1,400 flights in the United States on Wednesday, after an ice storm hit states from Texas to West Virginia.

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australian authorities on Wednesday found a radioactive capsule smaller than a coin that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search involving around 100 people along a 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) stretch of highway, officials said.

Ukrainian police staged a risky rescue mission in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut this week to evacuate a six-year-old girl who had become separated from her pregnant mother.