World News Roundup: Britain expands diplomatic network, U.S charges Chinese officers for jet engine data hack

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Italian police investigate human remains found at Vatican's Rome embassy

Workers have discovered human bones at the Holy See Embassy to Italy and police are investigating the matter, the Vatican said on Tuesday. Italian media said forensic scientists were looking to see if the remains might be those of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who vanished in 1983.

U.N. chief taps Norwegian diplomat as new Syria envoy: letter

Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen will be the new United Nations Syria envoy, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council in a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday. Diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity said Pedersen, now Norway's ambassador to China had the informal approval of the council's permanent five members - Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain.

U.S. charges Chinese intelligence officers for jet engine data hack

Chinese intelligence officers conspired with hackers and company insiders to break into private companies' computer systems and steal information on a turbo fan engine used in commercial jetliners, according to a U.S. indictment unsealed on Tuesday. The indictment said at the time of the intrusions, a Chinese-state owned aerospace company was working to develop a comparable engine for use in aircraft manufactured in China and in other countries.

U.S. general says troop numbers at Mexican border set to rise further

The top U.S. general overseeing a deployment of more than 5,200 troops to the border with Mexico said on Tuesday that troop levels would rise further but declined to say how high or estimate what the operation will cost. Many basic questions remain unanswered a day after the Pentagon announced an open-ended deployment of over 5,200 active-duty troops to the border, including the cost and scope of the mission as well as the Pentagon's assessment of any threat posed by arriving migrants.

Iranian spy service suspected of assassination plot in Denmark: security chief

Denmark said on Tuesday it suspected an Iranian government intelligence service had tried to carry out a plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its soil. The alleged plot, which Denmark's foreign minister said he believed the Iranian government was behind, prompted the Nordic country to call for fresh European Union-wide sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Indonesian divers, 'pinger locators', hunt for doomed plane's cockpit recorders

Indonesia deployed divers on Tuesday to search for an airliner that crashed with 189 people on board, as "pinger locators" tried to zero in on its cockpit recorders and find out why an almost-new plane went down in the sea minutes after take-off. Indonesia, one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, has a patchy safety record. With the now almost certain prospect of all on board having died, the crash is set to rank as its second-worst air disaster.

Britain plans expansion of diplomatic network after Brexit

Britain is to hire nearly 1,000 more diplomatic staff as it looks to expand its links with countries around the world after Brexit, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will announce on Wednesday. They will comprise 335 new positions overseas, 328 in London and 329 new local staff around the world.

Mexican town hit by quake welcomes migrants, quietly defying Trump

An impoverished Mexican town nearly flattened by a 2017 earthquake welcomed thousands of tired and hungry Central Americans in a U.S.-bound caravan this week in quiet defiance of U.S. President Donald Trump's condemnation of the group. On Monday, the same day that Trump ordered 5,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to block the migrants, residents of the southern town of Niltepec, who still live among piles of rubble that once were their homes, prepared for the caravan with homemade soup, medical tents, and diapers for children.

Venezuela a threat to regional stability, security: senior U.S. official

Venezuela poses a clear threat to regional stability and its economic collapse could drag down key U.S. allies in Latin America such as Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, a senior Treasury Department official warned on Tuesday. Marshall Billingslea, assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the Treasury Department, also accused the government of President Nicolas Maduro of contaminating Venezuelan water supplies at gold mining sites.

Merkel says stepping down as CDU leader will not weaken her on world stage

German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed concerns that resigning as leader of her Christian Democrats would leave her a lame duck premier unable to deal effectively with world leaders like the U.S. President Donald Trump or Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan. Speaking at a news conference alongside Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who was in Berlin for a summit on Africa, Merkel said her decision not to contest the party leadership election would give her more time to grapple with issues.

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from agencies.)