Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Divided and riven by crisis, Britain searches for Brexit 'plan B'

Prime Minister Theresa May will on Thursday try to break the impasse in Britain's political elite over how to leave the European Union by searching for a last-minute exit deal though there was so far little sign of compromise. After May's two-year attempt to forge an amicable divorce was crushed by parliament in the biggest defeat for a British leader in modern history, May called for party leaders to put self-interest aside to find a way forward.

Turkey deports Dutch journalist, alleges link to al Qaeda offshoot

Turkey on Thursday deported a 31-year-old journalist working for a leading Dutch financial daily newspaper, accusing her of links to the militant Nusra Front, an al Qaeda offshoot involved in neighboring Syria's war. The Financieele Dagblad (FD) newspaper defended Ans Boersma, calling her expulsion a "flagrant violation of press freedom".

Zimbabwe doctors treat 68 for gunshot wounds, police arrest hundreds

Zimbabwean doctors said on Thursday they had treated nearly 70 people for gunshot wounds while police rounded up hundreds after violent protests this week triggered by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's decision to steeply raise fuel prices. While some businesses and banks opened after the three-day stay-at-home strike, inflation data for December showed the annual consumer price index soaring to 42 percent, adding more woes to citizens struggling with daily life.

Sex seminar model who claimed Trump secrets deported from Thailand

A model from Belarus who was arrested during a "sex training seminar" in Thailand and then claimed to have evidence of Russian interference in U.S. President Donald Trump's election was deported on Thursday. Thai authorities said Anastasia Vashukevich, 27, two other Belarussians and five Russians were being sent to their home countries two days after they pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and soliciting.

Nineteen people still missing after deadly militant attack in Kenya: Red Cross

Nineteen people remain unaccounted for two days after Somali militants attacked a hotel complex in Nairobi and killed at least 21 people, the Red Cross said on Thursday, raising the possibility of a considerably higher death toll. Al Shabaab, a Somalia-based al Qaeda affiliate fighting to impose strict Islamic law, said it carried the assault on the upscale dusitD2 compound over U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. It

China brushes off outrage over death sentence, Canada fires back

China said on Wednesday it was "not worried in the slightest" by mounting international concern over the death sentence handed to a Canadian for drug smuggling. Monday's sentence for Robert Schellenberg for smuggling 222 kg (489 lbs) of methamphetamines prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accuse China of "arbitrarily" applying the death penalty.

Pompeo's North Korea counterpart arrives in Beijing: South Korea's Yonhap

North Korea's top envoy involved in talks with the United States arrived in Beijing on Thursday and is thought to be en route to Washington, South Korean wire service Yonhap said on Thursday. U.S. and South Korean media previously quoted unidentified sources as saying U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol were expected to meet in the U.S. capital on Friday to discuss a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Hundreds of Rohingya families flee India after deportations

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslim families have left India for Bangladesh since seven Rohingya men were deported to their home country Myanmar in October, community leaders said on Thursday, and more were preparing to flee a crackdown. India's Hindu nationalist government regards the Rohingya as illegal aliens and a security risk, and has ordered that tens of thousands of them who live in scattered settlements and slums be identified and repatriated.

Germany: We'll do all we can to ensure Britain has a deal when it quits EU

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany would do all it could in the coming days to ensure that a deal is in place for when Britain leaves the European Union but he also stressed Germany would step up preparations for a disorderly Brexit. "In the coming days and weeks, we will do everything we can so that Britain exits with and not without an agreement," Maas told the Bundestag lower house of parliament on Thursday.

Canadian kidnapped in Burkina Faso found dead: security ministry

A Canadian kidnapped in Burkina Faso on Tuesday has been found dead, a spokesman for the security ministry told Reuters on Thursday. The man was abducted after nightfall by a dozen gunmen on a mining site owned by Vancouver-based Progress Minerals near the border with Niger, in an area that the government says is under growing threat from armed jihadists.