World News Roundup: Khashoggi murder probe; May girds for Brexit battle; China appears to relax N. Korea sanctions

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

As relationship sours, Macron tells Trump France is not vassal of U.S.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday told Donald Trump that France was the United States' ally and not a vassal state after the U.S. president attacked him in a series of tweets that demonstrated how much their relationship had soured. In five posts sent on Tuesday after a visit to Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, Trump reminded France of its near-defeat by Germany in two wars, took a swipe at its wine industry, and mentioned Macron's falling approval ratings.

Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar will not begin on Thursday: source

The repatriation of Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar will not begin on Thursday as planned, said a source directly briefed of the matter late on Wednesday. "It is not happening tomorrow as nobody wants to go back," said the source, who spoke on condition on anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

China appears to relax North Korea sanctions: report to U.S. Congress

A U.S. congressional commission said on Wednesday that China appears to have relaxed enforcement of sanctions on North Korea and called on the Treasury Department to provide a report on Chinese compliance within 180 days. In its annual report, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said the Treasury report should include a classified list of Chinese financial institutions, businesses, and officials involved in trading with North Korea that could be subject to future sanctions.

After cabinet backing, May girds for Brexit battle in UK parliament

British Prime Minister Theresa May won the backing of her senior ministers for a draft European Union divorce deal on Wednesday, freeing her to tackle the much more perilous struggle of getting parliament to approve the agreement. More than two years after the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the EU, May told reporters outside her Downing Street residence that she had won over her divided cabinet, which includes some senior Brexiteers.

South Korean firms to plead guilty to rigging U.S. military fuel bids

Three South Korean companies will plead guilty to criminal charges and pay $236 million for their role in a conspiracy to fix the price of fuel sold to U.S. military bases in South Korea, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. SK Energy Co Ltd; GS Caltex Corp, 50 per cent owned by Chevron; and Hanjin Transportation Co Ltd agreed to pay $154 million in civil damages to the United States and $82 million in criminal fines, the department said.

In APEC host Papua New Guinea, China and the West grapple over strategic port

When Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill flagged the possibility of China bankrolling a port development off his country's northern coast in June, the consternation in neighboring Australia set off a lightening-fast response. Despite a change in leadership in Australia's government in August, a rival offer was swiftly formulated, government and diplomatic sources told Reuters, amid concern the strategically-located Manus Island port could regularly host Chinese military vessels.

Fight against Islamic State in last Syria stronghold may end soon: U.S. envoy

The Trump administration hopes that the U.S.-backed fight against Islamic State in its last foothold in northeastern Syria will end within months but American forces will remain to ensure the "enduring defeat" of the militant group, a top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday. Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative for Syria engagement, said the United States believes the way forward in Syria includes defeating Islamic State, reinvigorating the political process and winding down the long-running civil war.

'Not enough room': migrant flows strain Mexican border shelters

The arrival in the Mexican border city of Tijuana of the first few hundred travelers from migrant caravans is stretching to the limit shelters already overflowing with other people, and sparking signs of friction among the population. Lugging heavy bundles and small children, an unprecedented caravan of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants set off for the United States in mid-October, many of them fleeing violence and poverty at home. Two other copycat groups of mainly El Salvadorans followed behind.

Brazil's Bolsonaro names Trump fan top diplomat as Cuba relations sour

Brazil's far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro chose an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump's conservative nationalism as his top diplomat on Wednesday, while escalating tensions with communist Cuba over a medical aid program. Bolsonaro's pick of career diplomat Ernesto Araujo, 51, underscored Brazil's sharp turn to the right and the reversal of nearly a decade and a half of diplomacy under leftist Workers Party governments that focused on alliances with South American allies and ideological partners - including Cuba.

Turkey calls for international investigation into Khashoggi murder

An international investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is essential, Turkey's foreign minister said on Wednesday and reiterated Turkish decisiveness to solve the murder. "We will do whatever it takes to bring the murder to light. We have shown the evidence to all those who wanted to see," Mevlut Cavusoglu told the parliament.

(With inputs from Reuters)