Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Berlin: We've had no recent talks with Beijing on cybersecurity

The German government has not held talks with Beijing about cybersecurity issues in recent weeks, a spokesman said when asked about a report that Chancellor Angela Merkel was seeking a no-spying deal with China over the Huawei issue. WirtschaftsWoche had on Tuesday cited security sources as saying Merkel was seeking such an agreement. Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is facing intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with the Chinese government and allegations of enabling state espionage, which it denies. Thailand defends cybersecurity law amid concerns over rights, abuse

Thailand on Friday defended a controversial cybersecurity law approved this week, following an outcry from rights groups and internet users over privacy and surveillance concerns. Thailand's rubber-stamp parliament approved the Cybersecurity Act unanimously on Thursday, the latest in a wave of new laws in Asia that assert government control over the internet. Pakistan prepares to return Indian pilot as confrontation cools

Pakistan prepared to release a captured Indian pilot on Friday as the nuclear powers scaled back their confrontation, at least temporarily, while Indian opposition politicians raised doubts over whether an initial airstrike had destroyed a militant camp in Pakistan. World powers have urged restraint from the two nations, as tensions escalated following a suicide car bombing that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Feb. 14. South Korea to work with U.S. and North Korea after failed nuclear talks

South Korea will work with the United States and North Korea to ensure they reach agreement on denuclearization, the South's president said on Friday, a day after talks between the U.S. and North Korean leaders collapsed over sanctions. A second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in Vietnam, was cut short after they failed to reach a deal on the extent of sanctions relief North Korea would get in exchange for steps to give up its nuclear program. Gun battle rages between Al Shabaab and Somali troops after hotel attack

A gun battle raged in Mogadishu on Friday between Somali soldiers and Al Shabaab fighters, holed up in a building next to a hotel they had hit with a suicide car bomb the previous evening. Heavy gunfire resounded across the Somali capital through the night and as dawn broke, police said the death toll, put at 13 so far, was rising following the blast at the Hotel Maka Al-Mukarama, located on a street lined with hotels, shops and restaurants. U.S.-backed SDF expects 'fierce battle' in final Islamic State enclave

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expect a "fierce battle" with Islamic State militants who are still holed up in the group's last enclave in eastern Syria, Mustafa Bali, the head of the SDF media office, told Reuters on Friday. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the SDF had retaken 100 percent of the territory once held by Islamic State. At least 84 die fleeing Islamic State in Deir al-Zor in east Syria: U.N.

At least 84 people, two-thirds of them young children, have died since December on their way to al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria after fleeing Islamic State in the Deir al-Zor region, the United Nations said on Friday. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been poised for several weeks to wipe out the last vestige of Islamic State's territorial rule at the besieged village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border, but the operation has been held up by efforts to evacuate thousands of civilians. Minister urges Vatican to aide French investigation into papal envoy

France's European affairs minister suggested on Friday that the Vatican should lift the diplomatic immunity granted to its papal envoy in France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, who is under investigation after accusations of sexual molestation. French prosecutors opened an investigation in January after a junior official at Paris City Hall accused Ventura, 74, of molestation. Authorities have been unable to question Ventura because of the diplomatic immunity he enjoys as papal nuncio, equivalent to ambassador. Venezuela's Maduro moves an office of state oil company to Moscow: VP

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday that President Nicolas Maduro had ordered a European office of state oil company PDVSA to move to Moscow. China says Canada has questions to answer on judicial independence

China's Foreign Ministry grabbed a chance to question the state of judicial independence in Canada on Friday, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government faced accusations at home that it had tried to intervene to stop a corruption trial. Trudeau's domestic troubles have attracted attention in Chinese state media due to his previous assertion that his government cannot interfere in the case of a senior Huawei Technologies Co Ltd executive arrested in Canada and now fighting extradition to the United States.