Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. May to rule out no-deal Brexit to stave off rebellion: media reports

British Prime Minister Theresa May will on Tuesday propose formally ruling out a no-deal Brexit in a bid to avoid a rebellion by lawmakers, who are threatening to grab control of the divorce process, The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers reported. If May does rule out a no-deal, it would mark one of the biggest turning points in the United Kingdom's labyrinthine Brexit crisis since the shock 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union. Pressure over Iran nuclear deal forced Zarif to resign: ally

Pressure from hardliners over Iran's nuclear deal with world powers forced Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to resign, an ally said on Tuesday. Zarif - the U.S.-educated architect of the 2015 pact which curbed Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief - gave no reason when he announced his decision on Monday, news which sent Iranian stocks lower. Air strike on Pakistan sparks celebrations in India, seen boosting Modi support

Indians took to the streets in celebration across the country on Tuesday after the government said it carried out air strikes inside Pakistan killing hundreds of militants in a training camp. The reaction may be a sign that support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi is surging months before a general election, pollsters said. Patriotism may be having a greater influence than concerns about low farm incomes and weak jobs growth. North Korea's Kim awaits Trump in Vietnam for second summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump where they will try to reach agreement on how to implement a North Korean pledge to give up its nuclear weapons. Trump is due in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, at about 9 p.m. (1400 GMT). Exclusive: Despite sanctions, Russian tanker supplied fuel to North Korean ship-crew members

A Russian tanker violated international trade sanctions by transferring fuel to a North Korean vessel at sea at least four times between October 2017 and May 2018, two crew members who witnessed the transfers said. Such transactions could have helped provide North Korea with an economic lifeline and eased the isolation of the secretive communist state, whose leader, Kim Jong Un, is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Vietnam this week. Ex-head of Nobel-awarding Swedish Academy leaves in wake of scandal

A former head of the scandal-ridden Swedish body that awards the Nobel Prize for Literature has left after reaching a settlement with ex-colleagues, the Swedish Academy said on Tuesday. A sex scandal involving the husband of another member emerged in late 2017 and mushroomed into the biggest crisis to hit the Academy in its more than 200-year history, forcing a postponement of last year's Nobel literature prize. Monitor says air strikes increase sharply in rebel-held northwest Syria

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was a marked escalation in air strikes in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Tuesday, prompting thousands of civilians to flee the town of Khan Sheikhoun. Syrian state media said insurgents had fired rockets at several towns in the northern part of Hama province, killing one civilian and wounding seven others in what it said was a violation of a de-escalation agreement. Cardinal Pell: Dramatic fall from grace for Vatican treasurer

For two decades, George Pell was the dominant figure in the Catholic Church in Australia - a boy from a gold mining town whose ambition, intellect and knack for befriending influential people propelled him to become the third-most senior official in the Vatican. That came crashing down in December, when a court found Pell, 77, guilty of five charges of child sex offences committed in a Melbourne cathedral 115 km (70 miles) from his hometown of Ballarat. The verdict had been subject to a court order that prevented reporting of the case until the judge lifted the restrictions on Tuesday. Train swapping: North Korea's Kim reliant on Chinese for summit transport

When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rolled into the Vietnamese border station of Dong Dang early on Tuesday, his vaunted specialized train was pulled by a red-and-yellow locomotive emblazoned with China's national railway logo. It was the second time Kim had arrived for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in transport provided by the Chinese, underscoring just how much the young leader's sudden flurry of international engagements has depended on his larger, more powerful neighbor. Kushner, in Gulf, says U.S. Mideast peace plan addresses borders issue

White House adviser Jared Kushner, giving a broad outline of a U.S. peace plan for the Middle East, said it will address final-status issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including establishing borders. In an interview broadcast on Monday on Sky News Arabia during a visit to U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states, Kushner made no specific mention of a Palestinian state, whose creation had been at the foundation of Washington's peace efforts for two decades.