Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Saudi Arabia winds down 15-month anti-corruption campaign

Saudi Arabia has ended a sprawling crackdown on corruption ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that it said had recovered more than $106 billion through settlements with scores of senior princes, ministers and top businessmen. A royal court statement said the government had summoned 381 people, some as witnesses, under the campaign launched in November 2017, but it provided no names. It said 87 people confessed to charges against them and reached secret settlements that included the forfeiture of real estate, companies, cash and other assets. Nigerian opposition candidate to create $25 billion fund for infrastructure

Nigeria's main opposition candidate for president said on Wednesday he would create a $25 billion fund to support private sector investment in infrastructure if elected next month, as part of plans to revive the economy. Atiku Abubakar, a businessman who served as vice president between 1999 and 2007, has promised to double the size of Nigeria's economy to $900 billion by 2025. Sudan opposition leader's daughter detained as professors protest

Security forces detained the daughter of Sudanese opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi on Wednesday, her family said, as anti-government protests spread to the capital's main university. Two security vehicles arrived at Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi's home in Khartoum in the morning and took her away, her sister Rabah told Reuters, a day after Sudan's security chief ordered the release of dozens of detained protesters. Saudi-led coalition ready to use 'calibrated force' to push Yemen port deal: UAE

The Saudi-led coalition is prepared to use "calibrated force" to push the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement to withdraw from Yemen's Hodeidah port city under a U.N.-sponsored deal, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Wednesday. Yemen's warring parties have failed to pull troops from the country's main port under a month-old truce, reviving the threat of an all-out assault on Hodeidah that could unleash famine. Canada to reduce staff at Cuba embassy after another diplomat falls ill

Canada has decided to cut the number of diplomatic staff in Cuba by up to half after another person fell ill, Ottawa said on Wednesday, bringing the total to 14 Canadians suffering mysterious symptoms since 2017. Canadian and U.S. diplomats in Havana first began complaining of dizziness, headaches and nausea in the spring of 2017. The United States reduced embassy staffing in Cuba from more than 50 to a maximum of 18, after more than two dozen personnel developed unusual illnesses. Venezuela power struggle heats up with Guaido curbs, protest plans

The struggle for control of Venezuela intensified on Wednesday, as the government prepared an investigation that could lead to the arrest of opposition leader and self-declared interim president Juan Guaido, who has called for new street protests. Venezuela's Supreme Court imposed a travel ban on Guaido and froze his bank accounts in apparent retaliation for oil sanctions imposed by the United States that are expected to severely damage the OPEC member's already collapsing economy. Israeli ex-general gains ground after inaugural campaign speech: polls

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's toughest rival in Israel's April election, a popular former general, made strong gains on Wednesday in the first opinion polls released after his inaugural campaign speech. But in a multi-party contest whose ultimate winner has always been determined in Israel by post-election wheeling and dealing, Netanyahu is still on course to build a right-wing coalition in parliament similar to the one he now heads, according to commentary accompanying the surveys. Chile court convicts six in assassination of ex-President Frei

A Chilean judge convicted six people on Wednesday of assassinating former President Eduardo Frei Montalva during the 1973 to 1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Judge Alejandro Madrid sentenced the ex-president's doctors, his chauffeur, an army officer and a former intelligence agent to between three and 10 years in jail for the poisoning of Frei in a Santiago clinic in 1982. Brexit brinkmanship: UK demands a fresh exit deal, EU says: 'non'

British Prime Minister Theresa May was locked into a collision course with the European Union on Wednesday after lawmakers demanded she renegotiate a Brexit divorce deal that the other members of the bloc said they would not reopen. Less than two months until the United Kingdom is due by law to leave the EU, investors and allies are trying to gauge where the Brexit crisis will ultimately end up with options including a disorderly Brexit, a delay to Brexit or no Brexit at all. U.S.-approved trustee for Russia's Deripaska has worked with him for years

A law firm appointed to act as a buffer between Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska and one of his businesses, under a deal that allowed Washington to lift sanctions on the firm, has worked closely with Deripaska for years. Asked about the law firm, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would vigorously monitor arrangements to ensure Deripaska cannot influence board members of the businesses. A representative for Deripaska said there was no scope for the businessman to influence how the law firm acted.