World News Round Up: Peru opposition, U.S. raises pressure, Trump, Putin

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Peru opposition leader detained, cries 'political persecution'

Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former autocrat Alberto Fujimori, was arrested on Wednesday as part of a far-reaching campaign financing probe, striking a fresh blow to the country's most powerful conservative movement. The arrest came a week after a judge revoked a pardon for Keiko's father, a rightwing populist who ruled Peru with an iron fist from 1990-2000 and was later imprisoned for human rights crimes.

U.S. raises pressure on Saudi Arabia over missing journalist

U.S. President Donald Trump increased pressure on Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to provide information on what happened to miss Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and said he wanted to get the bottom of what he called "a very serious situation." In a fresh clue, a pro-government Turkish daily on Wednesday published preliminary evidence from investigators it said identified a 15-member Saudi intelligence team involved in Khashoggi's unexplained disappearance on Oct. 2.

Trump, Putin may meet again in Helsinki next year: report

U.S. President Donald Trump may meet Russia's Vladimir Putin in Helsinki next spring, the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat said in its online edition on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Officials have started looking at possible dates for the meeting, it said.

Apple Watch, hired jet, mystery vehicle figure in search for missing Saudi dissident

Jamal Khashoggi believed he was safe in Turkey. Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist and newspaper editor, had lived in exile in Washington for more than a year, writing a column for the Washington Post in which he regularly criticized his country's crackdown on dissent, its war in Yemen and sanctions imposed on Qatar.

Quake kills three people in Indonesia's Java, rattles Bali

A magnitude 6 earthquake struck off the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, killing three people in Java and damaging some buildings while causing panic among residents. The quake, located in the Bali Sea, also shook buildings on the resort island and some residents briefly left their homes in Bali's capital, Denpasar.

Myanmar newspaper journalists held after handing themselves in to police

Three senior journalists at Myanmar's largest private newspaper were remanded in custody after handing themselves in to police on Wednesday, facing accusations of causing "fear or alarm" following a complaint from the Yangon regional government. One of the men, Eleven Media Group's editor-in-chief Kyaw Zaw Linn, had earlier told Reuters that police raided the paper's offices at about 7 p.m. on Tuesday, but he and two other journalists sought by the authorities were not there.

Russian website names third GRU officer involved in Salisbury poisoning

The Russian news website Fontanka named on Wednesday a third GRU military intelligence operative, Sergey Fedotov, as having been involved in trying to kill ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury. The website said records show Fedotov visited Britain in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and left the country on March 4 this year, the same day as two other GRU agents who have already been named.

Earthquake of magnitude 7 hits Papua New Guinea: USGS

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck remote New Britain island in Papua New Guinea on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, though there were no immediate reports of damage. The quake hit about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the town of Rabaul at a depth of almost 40 km, just before 7 a.m. local time (2100 GMT Wednesday).

Former Fernandez confidant sentenced in Argentine corruption case

A member of former President Cristina Fernandez's cabinet was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on Wednesday, one of the highest-profile convictions in a corruption crackdown that has also ensnared Fernandez. Julio De Vido, who served for 12 years as planning minister under Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner, was sentenced to five years and eight months on charges that he siphoned money from public works projects, indirectly causing a 2012 wreck of a passenger train that left 51 people dead and 700 injured.

In tech-laggard Cuba, President Diaz-Canel launches twitter account

Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel launched a Twitter account on Wednesday after saying that digitizing one of the western hemisphere's least connected countries is a priority to boost the economy and defend the revolution. Diaz-Canel, who took office from Raul Castro on April 19, tweeted a photo of a ceremony celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Cuban war of independence from former colonial power Spain from his account @DiazCanelB.