Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Maldives opposition wins election in potential blow to China

Maldives opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the Indian Ocean archipelago nation's presidential election on Monday, delivering a possible blow for China which has invested millions of dollars in projects under the outgoing administration. Incumbent Abdulla Yameen, who had cultivated ties with both Beijing and Saudi Arabia, conceded defeat after the Election Commission said Solih had won Sunday's election by a margin of 16.7 percent.

UK's Raab says confident we can make progress and clinch a Brexit deal

British Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said on Monday that he was confident that the United Kingdom will make progress and eventually clinch a Brexit deal with the European Union.

Exclusive: EU to agree new sanctions regime for chemical attacks

European Union envoys are set to agree a new mechanism to punish chemical weapons' attacks by targeting people blamed for using banned munitions regardless of their nationality, diplomats said. The legal regime, based on a French proposal to combat what Paris and London say is the repeated use of chemical weapons by Russia and Syria, would allow the EU to impose sanctions more quickly on specific individuals anywhere in the world, freezing their assets in the bloc and banning them from entry.

Iran warns U.S., Israel of revenge after parade attack

The deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned U.S. and Israeli leaders on Monday to expect a "devastating" response from Tehran, accusing them of involvement in an attack on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz. "You have seen our revenge before ... You will see that our response will be crushing and devastating and you will regret what you have done," Hossein Salami said in a speech before the funeral of the victims broadcast live on the state television.

Gloom in the newsroom as Hungary's independent media recedes

The new owners of the largest independent news outlet in Hungary say they will not meddle in its editorial policies. Reporters at Index.hu are far from sure, and recent history shows why. Dozens of newspapers, radio and television stations critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban have changed hands in the past four years. Some subsequently closed down, while others quickly and dramatically changed their tune.

Russian detained in Oslo for alleged spying sees 'misunderstanding': lawyer

A Russian citizen detained in Oslo on suspicion of illegal intelligence activities is a Russian state employee but has denied wrongdoing, seeing the matter as a "misunderstanding", his Norwegian lawyer said on Monday. The unidentified man was detained at Oslo airport before a flight out of the country on Friday, a day after attending a seminar on digitalization in Norway's parliament.

Syrian jihadists to state position on Idlib deal 'in coming days'

The main jihadist group in northwest Syria will announce its position on a Turkish-Russian deal over Idlib in the next few days, it said on Monday, with its acceptance or rejection vital to the success of efforts to contain the war. Tahrir al-Sham's stance will be critical to last week's deal which has, for now, averted a full-scale Syrian government offensive in Idlib, which along with adjacent areas of the northwest is the rebels' last major foothold.

Hong Kong pro-independence party formally outlawed in first such move since handover

Hong Kong authorities formally banned on Monday a group promoting independence from China - the first outlawing of a political organization since Britain handed its former colony back to Chinese rule in 1997. The city's Secretary for Security John Lee announced the ban on the Hong Kong National Party in a brief statement published in the government's gazette, 10 days after the party submitted arguments against the move.

I got it wrong over spymaster, Merkel admits, after row resolved

Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted on Monday she had misjudged her response to allegations of far-right sympathies against Germany's spymaster, after resolving a row over his redeployment that threatened to pull her government apart. BfV intelligence agency head Hans-Georg Maassen's political views came under the microscope this month after he questioned the authenticity of video footage showing radicals hounding migrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

Soros foundation turns to Strasbourg court to get Hungary's NGO law repealed

U.S. billionaire George Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF) said on Monday it would challenge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg Hungarian laws that make it a crime to help asylum-seekers. But Budapest, which accuses Soros and the liberal groups and causes he backs of trying to destroy Europe's Christian culture by promoting mass migration, said it would not repeal the laws, whatever the outcome of the court appeal.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)