World stocks crept higher on Wednesday for the second day in a row, while safe-haven assets such as government bonds and gold lost ground, despite Western scepticism over Russian claims of a troop pullback from Ukraine's borders.

A dozen undocumented migrants on Mexico's southern border sewed their mouths shut on Tuesday in a bid to convince the country's immigration authority to grant them passage toward the U.S. border.

The number of new coronavirus cases globally fell by 19% in the last week while the number of deaths remained stable, according to the World Health Organization. The U.N. health agency said late Tuesday in its weekly report on the pandemic that just over 16 million new COVID-19 infections and about 75,000 deaths were reported worldwide last week.

Russia said Wednesday it was returning more troops and weapons to bases, yet another gesture apparently aimed at easing fears it is planning to invade Ukraine, even as the U.S. said the threat of an attack remained.

Britain’s Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to his accuser’s charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character, a court filing revealed Tuesday.

The National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC), the country’s biggest organization of active members of the press, on Wednesday announced the expulsion from its roster of members, without any possibility of reinstatement, of Jaime Aquino, formerly a provincial correspondent in Pangasinan of the Manila Times.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Wednesday assured that Filipinos in Ukraine would be unharmed amid the Ukraine-Russia border crisis.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday reported 2,671 new cases and 6,130 new recoveries, with active cases falling below 70,000 and are now at 68,829.