Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Ex-Canada minister says she confronted PM Trudeau over SNC-Lavalin case

Former Canadian Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said on Wednesday that government officials inappropriately pressured her to help a major firm facing a bribery trial and that she confronted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the matter. Wilson-Raybould's lengthy remarks to the House of Commons justice committee looked certain to deepen what is already the biggest crisis of Trudeau's tenure. Theresa May gains two weeks' Brexit reprieve from British lawmakers

Prime Minister Theresa May won a two week reprieve on Wednesday from British lawmakers, who postponed a threatened rebellion aimed at blocking a no-deal Brexit after she agreed to a possible delay to Britain's departure from the EU. But the opposition Labour Party announced it would now support a new public vote on Brexit, the first time since Britain voted in 2016 to leave the EU that one of its main parties has backed giving voters a chance to change their minds. White House bars four reporters from Trump-Kim dinner

The White House barred reporters from Reuters, the Associated Press, Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times from covering a dinner between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday after two of them asked Trump questions during his initial interactions with Kim. The reporters are part of the White House press pool, which covers the U.S. president wherever he goes. Brazil Senate okays dam safety bill after Vale disaster kills hundreds

Brazilian Senate committees on Wednesday passed a bill to tighten dam safety in the country, after a mining dam owned by Vale SA burst and killed an estimated 300 people in the town of Brumadinho. The legislation, which tightens safety regulations on all types of dams, is similar to a regulation bill that failed to gain traction three years ago. It will now pass to the lower house for consideration, provided Senators do not file an appeal within five working days, which would require it to go to a vote of the full chamber. Trump and Kim hold second day of summit in Hanoi

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold another day of talks at their second summit in eight months on Thursday, after swapping compliments at a dinner but giving no sign of progress on the key issue of denuclearization. Trump hailed "a very special relationship" when he met Kim in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Wednesday and said he was satisfied with the pace of talks, despite some criticism they were not moving quickly enough. Venezuela's Guaido to visit Brazil in bid to keep pressure on Maduro

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido was to arrive in Brazil on Wednesday night to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as part of a tour of several nations to drum up international pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step down. Guaido last month invoked constitutional provisions to assume an interim presidency, arguing Maduro's re-election was fraudulent. He has since recognized by most Western nations - including Brazil - as Venezuela's rightful leader. Exclusive: Venezuela removed 8 tons of central bank gold last week - legislator

At least 8 tons of gold were removed from the Venezuelan central bank's vaults last week, an opposition legislator and three government sources told Reuters, in the latest sign of President Nicolas Maduro's desperation to raise hard currency amid tightening sanctions. The gold was removed in government vehicles between Wednesday and Friday last week when there were no regular security guards present at the bank, Legislator Angel Alvarado and the three government sources said. Kushner makes little headway on Mideast peace plan in Gulf

White House adviser Jared Kushner made a whirlwind visit this week to rally U.S.-allied Gulf Arab allies to support his still- unannounced Middle East peace plan, the leaked contours of which suggest little has been done to address Arab demands. Kushner's approach to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not appear to have progressed since his last regional tour in June, focusing largely on economic initiatives at the expense of a land-for-peace deal long central to the official Arab position, two sources in the Gulf told Reuters on Wednesday. Stay in your job, Iranian president tells moderate ally Zarif

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected his foreign minister's resignation as "against national interests" on Wednesday, bolstering a moderate ally who has long been targeted by hardliners in factional struggles over the 2015 nuclear deal with the West. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a U.S.-educated veteran diplomat, announced his resignation on Monday in what an aide said was anger at being excluded from meetings that day with Syria's president, who was visiting Tehran. Kashmir conflict heats up as India, Pakistan claim to down each other's jets

India and Pakistan both said they shot down each other's fighter jets on Wednesday, with Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a 1971 war, prompting world powers to urge restraint. Both countries have ordered air strikes over the last two days, the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have done so, while ground forces have exchanged fire in more than a dozen locations.