Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Political deadlock beckons as Spain's PM calls April election

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap national election for April 28 on Friday after parliament voted down his budget bill, spelling an uncertain few months for a country whose political landscape is increasingly fragmented. Spain exited a deep economic slump in 2013 but has been plagued since then by political volatility, driven by deep divisions over an independence drive in Catalonia and the emergence of new, populist parties. Russia detains U.S. founder of Baring Vostok private equity group

Russia has detained the U.S. founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group in Moscow on suspicion of fraud, a spokeswoman for Moscow's Basmanny court told Reuters on Friday. Yunona Tsaryova, the spokeswoman, said Michael Calvey, also a senior partner at the fund, was detained on Thursday. New U.N. Syria envoy seeks Syria constitution talks, no firm timeframe

The new U.N. envoy tasked with forging peace in Syria hopes to convene a constitutional committee in Geneva "as soon as possible", he said on Friday, without giving a firm timeframe for the latest attempt to end the country's devastating war. Formation of a constitutional committee is key to political reforms and new elections meant to unify Syria and end an almost eight-year-old war, which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced about half of Syria's pre-war 22 million population. Brazil police arrest eight people in Vale dam disaster

Brazilian police arrested eight employees of mining company Vale SA as part of a criminal investigation into the causes of the deadly dam disaster in the town of Brumadinho, state prosecutors said on Friday. The police were also carrying out 14 search warrants as part of the probe, prosecutors in the mining state of Minas Gerais said. Japanese man abducted to North Korea decades ago alive: Kyodo

A Japanese man thought to have been kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago but whose presence there had never been confirmed is alive and living in the North Korean capital with his family, Kyodo news agency said on Friday. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korea to be trained as spies a top priority and the news could mean renewed diplomatic pressure on Japan's reclusive neighbor to reveal the truth at a time when ties with South Korea have also become increasingly fraught. Xi says trade talks progress, more meetings next week in U.S

Talks between China and the United States this week made important progress, President Xi Jinping told top U.S. trade negotiators on Friday, adding that efforts would continue in Washington next week to resolve their bruising trade war. Xi met U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin after a full week of trade negotiations at senior and deputy levels in Beijing, and called for a deal both sides could accept, state media said. West ups defense spending to keep ahead of Chinese tech: conference report

The United States led a rise in Western defense spending in 2018 as it moved to keep ahead of Chinese and Russian pushes into advanced military technology, a report said on Friday. And U.S. President Donald Trump will likely press European states to spend even more at a NATO conference in April, the International Institute for Security Studies (IISS) said. European powers would together have to find an extra $102 billion to meet his latest demands, it added. Pompeo meets EU's top diplomat after Pence's Iran accusations

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the EU's top diplomat in Brussels on Friday, a day after Vice President Mike Pence accused America's traditional European allies of trying to undermine U.S. sanctions against Iran. The meeting with Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, was scheduled before Pence's rebuke of European powers during a Middle East peace conference in Warsaw on Thursday, which Mogherini missed, citing a scheduling conflict at NATO. Vatican envoy to France investigated over sex assault allegations: Paris city hall

France has opened an investigation into allegations that Pope Francis's envoy molested a junior official in Paris' City Hall, a City Hall official said on Friday. The official told Reuters that Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, who has held the post in Paris for the past decade, was suspected of having touched the buttocks of the male junior staffer during Mayor Anne Hidalgo's New Year address. Indian PM Modi warns Pakistan of strong response for Kashmir attack

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday promised a strong response to a car bombing in Kashmir that killed 44 paramilitary that his government blamed on Pakistan, ratcheting up tensions with the nuclear-rival. The attack on a military convoy in Jammu and Kashmir where India has been battling an insurgency was the worst in decades and comes just months before Modi's ruling Hindu nationalists face a tight general election.