Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Rwanda honors those killed in genocide 25 years ago

Rwanda began a week of solemn ceremonies on Sunday to commemorate the lives of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus murdered during the Rwandan genocide, a three-month-killing spree that began 25 years ago. President Paul Kagame laid a wreath at the Gisozi genocide memorial site, where over a quarter a million of people are buried, before an afternoon of speeches and song. Later, a candelit vigil was held in the packed national soccer stadium. Independent march in Havana believed first for communist-run Cuba, organizers say

Hundreds of Cubans marched peacefully through Havana calling for an end to animal cruelty on Sunday in what organizers believe was the first independent march authorized by the one-party state. Accompanied by their pets, the activists carried placards calling for an animal protection law and chanted "down with animal abuse" as they walked through the central district of Vedado to the surprise of curious onlookers. Netanyahu plays pre-election Trump card: settlement annexation

Palestinians voiced alarm while Israelis weighed the gravity on Sunday of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's sudden election promise to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Some Israeli commentators saw the right-wing leader's pledge on Saturday, as Tuesday's national ballot approaches, as mainly a bid to siphon votes from ultranationalist rivals long advocating annexation. Helping, listening, caring: Japanese prefecture leads dramatic decrease in suicides

Taeko Watanabe awoke one cold March night and found a trail of blood in the hallway, a bloody cleaver on her son Yuki's bed and no trace of him in the house. Then police discovered a suicide note in his bedroom. "They found him in a canal by the temple and wrapped him in a blanket. After an autopsy, he came home in a coffin. I fell apart," she recalled, eyes welling up as she sat by a photo of Yuki and a Buddhist altar laden with flowers and Fuji apples. Compromise? Time ticking down for Britain to come to Brexit agreement

Britain's government held out the possibility of compromise with the opposition Labour Party on Sunday to try to win support in parliament for leaving the European Union with a deal, just days before the latest Brexit date. Prime Minister Theresa May, weaker than ever after her Brexit deal was rejected by parliament three times, made another appeal to the public to explain why she turned to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn after giving up on winning over eurosceptics in her Conservative Party, whose opposition has hardened. Canada’s Trudeau threatens libel suit over SNC-Lavalin crisis, opposition says

The leader of Canada's opposition Conservative Party said on Sunday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threatened to sue him for libel over statements made about a scandal that has dogged Trudeau and his ruling Liberal Party for two months. The Liberals have been in turmoil since former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said in February she had been inappropriately pressured to ensure that construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc escape a corruption trial. UK Novichok victim told all would have died if Russia was behind Salisbury attack

A British man whose partner died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok was told by Russia's ambassador that Moscow could not have been behind the attacks because they would have "killed everyone", he told the Sunday Mirror newspaper. Charlie Rowley, who was also exposed to Novichok after coming across a perfume bottle contaminated with the nerve agent last year, met Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko on Saturday to ask him why Moscow had killed his girlfriend. Australia's opposition Labor on track to win election: polls

Australia's opposition Labor is the favorite to win a national election expected in May, two polls showed on Monday, but its lead has narrowed over the conservative coalition government which announced income tax cuts in its budget last week. A closely watched Newspoll done for The Australian newspaper showed Labor ahead of the Coalition 52-48 on a two-party preferred basis, but that was down from 54-46 in the last poll in March. Iran will retaliate in kind if U.S. designates Guards as terrorists: MPs

Iran will take reciprocal action against the United States if Washington designates the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as terrorists, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA. The United States is expected to designate the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organisation, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labelled another country’s military a terrorist group. Eastern Libyan forces conduct air strikes on Tripoli as U.N. fails to reach truce

Eastern Libyan forces carried out air strikes on the southern part of Tripoli on Sunday and made progress toward the city center, residents said, escalating an operation to take the capital as the United Nations failed to achieve a truce. The Libyan National Army (LNA) force of Khalifa Haftar, which backs a parallel administration in the east, last week launched an advance on Tripoli in the west, home to the internationally recognized government.