LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. cable company Comcast Corp made a 22 billion pound ($31 billion) offer for pay-TV group Sky on Wednesday, beating an already agreed takeover bid from Rupert Murdoch's Fox by 16 percent.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil edged higher on Wednesday, nearing three-year highs reached the previous day, as rising U.S. fuel inventories and production weighed on an otherwise bullish market.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Gunmen killed an Afghan journalist on his way to work in the southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday, officials said, an attack that highlights the risks faced by media workers in Afghanistan.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have made a record cocaine seizure, finding nearly 9 tonnes of the drug hidden among boxes of bananas in a shipping container at the southern port of Algeciras, the customs office said on Wednesday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Airbus and Dassault Aviation have signed an initial agreement for cooperation on Europe's Future Air Combat System (FCAS), the two companies said on Wednesday.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania jury of seven men and five women was due to begin deliberations on Wednesday to decide whether to convict comedian and actor Bill Cosby of sexual assault, attempting to reach a verdict where a previous jury was hopelessly deadlocked.

AUSTIN, Texas, April 25 (Reuters) - Texas plans to execute on Wednesday a man convicted of opening fire at a children's birthday party in 2008, believing a rival gang member was present and fatally shooting a woman and her five-year-old granddaughter in a spray of bullets.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A plan to make it obligatory to display crosses in Bavaria's government buildings has drawn a furious reaction from opposition politicians and one prominent cleric accused the regional government of hypocrisy ahead of an election.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Eurofighter on Wednesday said he did not expect the United States to slow certification of the European fighter's ability to carry nuclear weapons as a way to influence a competition to replace Germany's aging 90 Tornado jets.