A hike in the cost of wheat is alarming French households who fear a possible rise in the price of the prized baguette, seen by many as a barometer of the country's economic health.

Many boulangeries around France are putting up signs, warning customers that the long, crunchy staple could be going up in price by 3 to 5 centimes (4 to 6 cents), from its average of about 89 centimes (just over $1).

Pharmaceutical company Merck agreed to allow other drug makers to produce its COVID-19 pill, in a move aimed at helping millions of people in poorer countries get access to the potentially life-saving drug, a United Nations-backed public health organization said on Wednesday.

The Medicines Patent Pool said in a statement that it had signed a voluntary licensing agreement for molnupiravir with Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

Coca-Cola Co. is getting its fizz back.

Revenue jumped 16% to $10 billion in the third quarter as stadiums, movie theaters and other venues reopened around the world.

The European Union acerbated a standoff with Poland over judicial independence and the primacy of EU or national law Wednesday as the bloc's top court fined the recalcitrant member nation $1.2 million a day to prevent what it called "serious and irreparable harm" to the EU's legal order and values.

The European Court of Justice imposed the penalty after a weeklong war of words in which Poland told the EU to stay out of its judicial affairs while other EU member states insisted that Warsaw could not continue to hog subsidies while disregarding the bloc's democratic and rule of law principles at will.

A Moscow-bound EgyptAir flight returned to the Egyptian capital shortly after takeoff Wednesday due to a threatening message found onboard, authorities said.

A statement by Egypt's flagship airliner said flight MS728 had returned safely to Cairo International Airport some 22 minutes after takeoff. The flight was heading to the Russian capital, it said.

An Israeli committee convened Wednesday to approve 2,800 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a day after the Biden administration issued its strongest condemnation yet of Israeli settlement construction.

The Defense Ministry's higher planning council, which authorizes West Bank construction, met to authorize the housing units, with more than half of them getting final approval before building starts. The start of the meeting was confirmed by the Israeli defense body COGAT.

The U.S. government is scheduled to ask Britain's High Court on Wednesday to overturn a judge's decision that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be sent to the United States to face espionage charges.

In January, a lower court judge refused an American request to extradite Assange o n spying charges over WikiLeaks' publication of secret military documents a decade ago.

The United Nations Security Council and the United States have imposed sanctions on a Libyan official over the alleged abuse and torture of migrants in a detention center.

The Security Council and the U.S. said in separate statements late Tuesday that Osama al-Kuni is the de facto head of a detention center in the North African nation's west. Migrants there are said to have been subjected to torture, sexual and gender-based violence and human trafficking.

President Joe Biden and China's Premier Li Keqiang will join an annual summit of 18 Asia-Pacific nations by video Wednesday in a region where the world powers have dueled over trade, Taiwan, democracy, human rights and Beijing's increasingly assertive actions in disputed territories.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also speak at the East Asia Summit, a wide-ranging forum on political, security and economic issues organized by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Asian stock markets fell Wednesday after Australian inflation increased, highlighting global pressure for prices to rise, while investors looked ahead to U.S. economic growth data due out this week.

Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong all retreated.