Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Trump says U.S. negotiating on release of hostages abroad

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States is holding negotiations to try to win the release of U.S. hostages held abroad, but he declined to say in what countries. Trump made the remark at a White House event welcoming Danny Burch, an oil engineer who Trump said last month was reunited with his family after 18 months in captivity in Yemen. Venezuela arrests American journalist as U.S. pledges wider sanctions

Venezuela's government arrested two journalists on Wednesday, one of them American, while the United States said it was set to sanction banks to ramp up pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro to leave office. In the latest crackdown on a challenge to his rule by opposition leader Juan Guaido, Maduro also expelled the German ambassador, accusing him of repeated meddling in the country's affairs. On Monday, Ambassador Daniel Kriener and diplomats from other embassies had welcomed Guaido home at the Caracas airport. No prosecutions likely over London's Grenfell Tower fire until 2021: police

British police said on Wednesday that it was unlikely that prosecutors would consider whether anyone should face criminal charges over the deadly Grenfell Tower fire until the end of 2021. Grenfell Tower, a social housing block in west London, was engulfed by flames in the middle of the night of June 14, 2017, killing 71 people in the country's deadliest domestic fire since World War Two. Ex-aide to Canada PM denies wrongdoing over SNC-Lavalin; Trudeau to address crisis

A former top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denied on Wednesday inappropriately pressuring a Cabinet member to help a major company as Trudeau planned to address a scandal that is threatening his prospects in an October election. Allegations that Gerald Butts, who resigned last month as Trudeau's principal private secretary, and other officials tried to help construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a corruption trial are fueling the crisis that has cost the Liberal government two senior Cabinet ministers. Lawsuit against Germany over Namibian genocide is dismissed in New York

A U.S. judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to require Germany to pay damages over genocide and property seizures by colonists in what is now Namibia more than a century ago. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said Germany was immune from claims by descendants of the Herero and Nama tribes, depriving her of jurisdiction over its role in what some historians have called the 20th century's first genocide. UK to set up Brexit advisory groups to find alternative arrangements for Irish border

Britain said on Wednesday it was pushing forward with plans to find alternative arrangements to eliminate the need for an Irish "backstop" in Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, part of a bid to break the impasse weeks before Britain exits the EU. Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29 but no withdrawal deal is in place after British lawmakers rejected May's treaty in part due to the backstop, an insurance policy to stop the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit. U.S. senators say Saudi crown prince has gone 'full gangster'

Retired General John Abizaid, President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, defended the U.S.-Saudi relationship on Wednesday as lawmakers accused the kingdom of a litany of misdeeds and criticized its crown prince as going "full gangster." Senators at Abizaid's confirmation hearing including Trump's fellow Republicans as well as Democrats condemned the kingdom's conduct in the civil war in Yemen, heavy-handed diplomacy and rights abuses. Among those were the torturing of women's activists and a U.S. citizen and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Erdogan says Turkey will not go back on missile defense deal with Russia

Turkey will not go back on its agreement to buy S-400 missile defense systems from Russia, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, adding that Ankara may subsequently look into buying S-500 systems. NATO member Turkey has repeatedly said it is committed to buying the Russian missile defense system, despite warnings from the United States that the S-400s cannot be integrated into the NATO air defense system. President Bolsonaro shocks with Brazil 'golden shower' tweet

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has sparked shock and outrage by tweeting a video showing one man urinating on another during his country's massive annual street carnival. "What is a golden shower?" Bolsonaro tweeted on Wednesday, a day after posting the video in which a barely dressed party-goer writhes atop a bus shelter, plays with his behind, and then bends over before another man urinates on his head. Trump would be 'very disappointed' in Kim if North Korea rebuilding rocket site

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be very disappointed in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if reports about rebuilding at a rocket launch site in North Korea were true. Two U.S. think tanks and South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday that work was underway to restore part of North Korea's Sohae Satellite Launching Station even as Trump met with Kim at a second summit in Hanoi last week.