The United States on Wednesday asked the U.N. Security Council to slap an oil embargo on North Korea and freeze the assets of leader Kim Jong-Un, in response to Pyongyang's sixth and most powerful nuclear test.

A U.S.-drafted resolution obtained by AFP also called for a ban on textile exports and an end to payments made to North Korean laborers sent abroad.

U.S. President Donald Trump said military action against North Korea was not the "first choice" of his administration Wednesday, edging away from his harshest threats against the regime in Pyongyang. 

After a phone call with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on how to deal with North Korea's threatening nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Trump did not rule out military strikes, saying "we will see what happens." 

A retired Serbian police general denied charges Wednesday at the start of the trial of 14 people who allegedly sought to overthrow Montenegro's pro-Western government last year.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday he saw no "imminent threat" from Russia's military exercises with Belarus next week but condemned Moscow for a lack of openness about the drills.

Homemade TATP explosives ready for use were found Wednesday in an unoccupied flat near Paris, judicial sources said.

A Swedish man of Rwandan origin will face trial in September in a special Stockholm court for his alleged role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, the court said on Wednesday.

Germany voiced growing skepticism Wednesday about a Russian proposal to let U.N.-mandated forces help protect monitors observing the Ukraine conflict.

China's air force conducted military drills in seas adjacent to the Korean peninsula, an official report has said, as tensions soared over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weaponry.

The Spanish government said Wednesday it has asked the Constitutional Court to block the Catalan parliament from voting on a bill that lays the groundwork for an independence referendum.

At least seven people including two children were killed in an explosion after Bangladesh government forces raided the suspected hideout of a top Islamist extremist, police said Wednesday.