Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Russia jails Jehovah's Witness for six years in landmark case

A Russian court on Wednesday found a Danish adherent of the Jehovah's Witnesses guilty of organizing the activities of a banned extremist organization and jailed him for six years in a case Western governments cast as a test of religious freedom. Armed police detained Dennis Christensen, a 46-year-old builder, in May 2017 at a prayer meeting in Oryol, some 200 miles (320 km) south of Moscow after a court in the region outlawed the local Jehovah's Witnesses a year earlier. Russia will exit INF nuclear pact in six months: Ifax

Russia will exit the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in six months as part of a symmetrical response to the United States' pullout, the Interfax news agency cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin said at the weekend that Russia had suspended the Cold War-era pact after Washington announced it would withdraw in six months unless Moscow ends what it says are violations of the 1987 pact. NATO announces December summit in London

Leaders of the NATO allies will hold a summit in December in London, Jens Stoltenberg, the Western military alliance's secretary general, said in a statement on Wednesday. The choice of location has added symbolism, as Britain prepares to leave the European Union next month while asserting that it will retain a key role in the continent's security. 'Get out of Syria,' Iran tells U.S.

Senior Iranian figures said on Wednesday that Syria was a top foreign policy priority and American troops should withdraw, as planned by U.S. President Donald Trump. "Whether they want to or not, the Americans must leave Syria," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reported as saying. China hacked Norway's Visma to steal client secrets: investigators

Hackers working on behalf of Chinese intelligence breached the network of Norwegian software firm Visma to steal secrets from its clients, cyber security researchers said, in what a company executive described as a potentially catastrophic attack. The attack was part of what Western countries said in December is a global hacking campaign by China's Ministry of State Security to steal intellectual property and corporate secrets, according to investigators at cyber security firm Recorded Future. British PM May seeks a border compromise in Northern Ireland

British Prime Minister Theresa May tried to break the deadlock over Brexit on Wednesday by thrashing out alternative proposals for the Irish border with political parties in Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is on course to leave the European Union on March 29 without a deal unless May can convince the bloc to reopen the divorce deal she agreed in November and then sell it to skeptical British lawmakers. With eye on Afghanistan talks, Trump vows to stop 'endless wars'

President Donald Trump told Americans on Tuesday his administration had accelerated talks for a political settlement in Afghanistan and would be able to reduce U.S. troops there as negotiations advance to end America's longest war. "Great nations do not fight endless wars," Trump said in his annual State of the Union address to Congress, in which he also said U.S. troops had nearly defeated Islamic State militants in Syria and it was time to bring them home. As opium poppies bloom, Mexico seeks to halt heroin trade

In the mountains of Mexico's tropical sierra, an ever-growing expanse of pink poppy flowers has pushed prices so low for opium paste, the gummy raw ingredient of heroin, that farmer Santiago Sanchez worries how he will feed and clothe his family. The area of Mexico that illegally farms opium poppies grew by more than one-fifth last year, to an area the size of Philadelphia, according to a U.N.-backed study published in November. Thailand blames Australia for arrest of refugee Bahraini footballer

Thailand defended on Wednesday its arrest of a Bahraini footballer with refugee status in Australia, saying officials only detained him because Australian authorities sent an Interpol "red notice" after he boarded a plane to Bangkok. Hakeem Al Araibi's case has drawn international criticism as a Thai court considers an extradition request from Bahrain for him to serve a 10-year sentence related to the Arab Spring uprising of 2011. He denies the charges. Netanyahu election rival moots West Bank settlement removals

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's toughest election rival voiced openness on Wednesday to a future removal of settlements from the occupied West Bank, sparking debate over diplomacy with the Palestinians as a U.S. peace plan looms. The secret plan is widely expected to be unveiled after Israel's April 9 ballot. Any recommendations it might contain to hand over territory to the Palestinians - and how Israelis respond - could affect the composition of Israel's next coalition government.