Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Angelina Jolie pushes for women to be part of Afghan peace talks

Academy Award-winning actress and refugee activist Angelina Jolie pushed for the inclusion of women in peace talks to end the conflict in Afghanistan during an address to ministers and diplomats at the United Nations on Friday. Peace talks between U.S. and Taliban officials began late last year. However, some women fear the freedoms eked out since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 could slide backwards, and complain their voices are being sidelined. Mueller report on Trump and Russia to be made public by mid-April: Barr

U.S. Attorney General William Barr plans to make public a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, "if not sooner," he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday. "Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees. Trump says additional sanctions on North Korea not necessary

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he decided not to put additional sanctions on North Korea last week because he wanted to maintain a good relationship with leader Kim Jong Un and because the North Korean people were already "suffering greatly." "I didn't think that additional sanctions at this time were necessary. It doesn't mean I don't put them on later," Trump told reporters at his Florida resort. Guatemalan migrant girl in U.S. custody died of sepsis: autopsy report

The death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl in U.S. federal custody in December was caused by strep-induced sepsis, a Texas medical examiner's autopsy report released on Friday showed. Jakelin Caal traveled with her father to a remote stretch of U.S. border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico, where they turned themselves in to border agents on Dec. 6. They were among tens of thousands of Central American migrants who have attempted to cross the U.S. southern border in recent months in a bid to escape poverty or violence in their home countries. Exclusive: With a piece of paper, Trump called on Kim to hand over nuclear weapons

On the day that their talks in Hanoi collapsed last month, U.S. President Donald Trump handed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a piece of paper that included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States, according to the document seen by Reuters. Trump gave Kim both Korean and English-language versions of the U.S. position at Hanoi's Metropole hotel on Feb. 28, according to a source familiar with the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity. It was the first time that Trump himself had explicitly defined what he meant by denuclearization directly to Kim, the source said. Fresh documents keep up pressure on Canada's Trudeau over scandal

A former cabinet member at the heart of a crisis that could cost Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau his job on Friday released documents to back up her case that she had been pressured to help a large corporation avoid a corruption trial. Trudeau has been on the defensive since Feb. 7 over allegations that officials inappropriately leaned on former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to ensure construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc escaped a trial by paying a fine instead. Struggling May puts stripped-down Brexit deal to a vote in parliament

Prime Minister Theresa May puts a stripped-down version of her Brexit divorce deal to a vote in parliament on Friday in an attempt to break the impasse over the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union. The vote, on the day the country was originally due to exit the European Union, illustrates the depth of the three-year Brexit crisis that has left it uncertain how, when or even if it will ever leave. Honduras rejects Mexican comments on 'Mother of all Caravans'

The government of Honduras said on Friday it rejected comments by a Mexican minister that the "mother of all caravans," with more than 20,000 people, was being organized in the Central American nation. Honduran foreign minister Maria Dolores Aguero sent a letter to her Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard, calling the statements "unsubstantiated" and potential "triggers for illegal migration." Exclusive: Trump eager for trade deal with post-Brexit Britain - Bolton to Reuters TV

White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Friday that President Donald Trump is eager for a U.S. trade deal with Britain once it breaks away from the European Union. "President Trump remains very eager to cut a bilateral trade deal with an independent Britain. It's what the people voted for in 2016, and when they get out, whether it's now, April 12 or later, we’ll be standing right there waiting for them," Bolton said in an interview with Reuters Television. Exclusive: Trump eyeing stepped-up Venezuela sanctions for foreign companies - Bolton

U.S. President Donald Trump is considering imposing sanctions on companies from other countries that do business with Venezuela to cut off revenues to President Nicolas Maduro, Trump's national security adviser John Bolton told Reuters TV on Friday. "We're moving exactly in that direction," Bolton said when asked whether Trump would consider what are known as "secondary sanctions."