Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Trump: didn't discuss military drills in meetings with North Korea's Kim

President Donald Trump on Monday shot down the idea that he discussed curbing joint military drills with South Korea with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a decision he said could save the United States millions of dollars and has suggested would reduce tensions with North Korea. "The military drills, or war games as I call them, were never even discussed in my mtg w/ Kim Jong Un of NK," Trump tweeted days after he met with Kim in Vietnam in an attempt to reach a denuclearization agreement. U.S. allows lawsuits against Cuban entities but shields foreign firms for now

The Trump administration said on Monday it would allow lawsuits by U.S. citizens against dozens of Cuban companies and other entities on Washington's blacklist but will maintain, for now, a ban against suing foreign firms doing business on the communist-ruled island. The move marked an intensification of U.S. pressure on Cuba and also appeared aimed at punishing Havana over its support for Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. But it stopped short of the more severe step of targeting foreign investments in Cuba - though it left the door open to doing so in the future. Mexico government apologizes for deaths of youths taken by police

Mexican government officials apologized on Monday to families of five youths killed after police kidnapped them and turned them over to a brutal drug gang, a rare instance of officials admitting the state's culpability in such crimes. Relatives said the apology is the first official recognition the four boys and a girl were innocent victims and not criminals as officials initially asserted when they went missing in 2016 in the Gulf state of Veracruz, one of Mexico's most violent. British PM Theresa May's lawyer seeks legal fix to the Brexit riddle

Prime Minister Theresa May's top lawyer will try to clinch a Brexit compromise with the European Union this week in a last-ditch bid to win over rebellious British lawmakers before crunch votes that could delay the divorce. The United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29 but still has no deal in place governing its exit terms, after lawmakers voted in January by 432 to 230 votes to reject an agreement May reached last year with the bloc. Flag comes down on U.S. Palestinian mission in Jerusalem

The United States lowered the flag on Monday at the Jerusalem consulate that had served as its diplomatic channel to the Palestinians, merging the mission with the new U.S Embassy to Israel in the contested city. The Palestinians, who have boycotted the Trump administration since it shifted long-standing U.S. policy in December 2017 by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, voiced anger at what they see as Washington's latest move against them. In major blow to Canada's Trudeau, second minister quits over scandal

In a serious blow to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a second member of his Cabinet resigned on Monday, saying she had lost confidence in how the government had dealt with an escalating political scandal. The departure of recently appointed Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, who was in overall charge of government spending, deprives Trudeau of another powerful female member of cabinet just months ahead of an election that polls show he could lose. Venezuela's Guaido to risk arrest as he returns home to challenge Maduro

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido plans to run the risk of arrest by returning home on Monday, after he ignored a court-imposed travel ban and toured Latin American allies to boost support for his campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro. Guaido's return, details of which his team have kept under wraps, could become the next flashpoint in his duel with Maduro as he seeks to keep up momentum and spur his international backers to further isolate the socialist government. U.S. lawmakers complain Trump has taken 'no meaningful action' on abuse of China Muslims

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers complained to the Trump administration on Monday that its response to rights abuses against China's Muslim minority was inadequate months after it said it was looking into imposing sanctions. "This issue is bigger than just China. It is about demonstrating to strongmen globally that the world will hold them accountable for their actions," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Some IS jihadists surrender in eastern Syria enclave but more remain

Some 200 Islamic State fighters surrendered after a ferocious battle over their last shred of territory in eastern Syria, but around 1,000 may still be holding out, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian force battling them said on Monday. The jihadist group faces defeat in Baghouz on the banks of the Euphrates, but it still holds remote pockets of land further west and has launched guerrilla attacks in other areas where it has lost control. Iran's Khamenei doubted Europe could help Tehran against U.S. sanctions

A closed-door speech last year by Iran's Supreme Leader voicing doubt about the Iranian government's diplomatic overtures to Europe was released on Monday in a sign of feuding over foreign policy that led to a short-lived resignation by the foreign minister. The address by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in mid-2018 appeared to forecast difficulties European countries would have in honoring pledges to protect trade with Iran from new U.S. sanctions after Washington abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.