Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Sri Lankan police hunt 140 people after Easter bombings

Sri Lankan police are trying to track down 140 people believed linked to Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings of churches and hotels that killed 253 people, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday. Muslims in Sri Lanka were urged to pray at home and not after the State Intelligence Services warned of possible car bomb attacks, amid fears of retaliatory violence. Germany owes Poland over $850 billion in WW2 reparations: senior lawmaker

Germany could owe Poland more than $850 billion in reparations for damages it incurred during World War Two and the brutal Nazi occupation, a senior ruling party lawmaker said. Some six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war and Warsaw was razed to the ground following a 1944 uprising in which about 200,000 civilians died. Britain's Hammond optimistic of finding Brexit compromise with Corbyn's Labour

British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday that he was hopeful of clinching a Brexit compromise with the opposition Labour Party to allow the ratification of Prime Minister Theresa May's thrice-defeated divorce deal. The United Kingdom was due to have left the EU on March 29, though May has been unable to get her divorce deal approved by parliament. It is now unclear when, how and even if Brexit will happen but the current deadline for leaving is Oct. 31. Austria broadcaster defends journalist who compared far-right poster to Nazis

Austria's public broadcaster ORF defended its top news anchor on Friday after a far right politician threatened the journalist with "consequences" for comparing an anti-immigrant poster to Nazi propaganda. The far-right Freedom Party (FPO) is the junior partner in a coalition government with the conservatives. It says it wants to restructure the ORF which it accuses of left-wing bias. Support for Malaysian PM drops as concerns grow over economy, race: survey

Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office. The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018. Cypriot police search for more victims of suspected serial killer

Cypriot police searched on Friday for more victims of a suspected serial killer, in a case which has shocked the Mediterranean island and exposed the authorities to charges of "criminal indifference" because the dead women were foreigners. The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of Cyprus's justice minister and police chief. North Korea turns to diplomats after Kim sidelines point man in nuclear talks

The demotion of Kim Yong Chol, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's point man for nuclear talks with the United States, signals that long-time diplomats who had been sidelined from the process will return to center-stage, diplomatic sources in Seoul and regional experts said. The hawkish former general and spymaster was recently removed from a key party post, taking the fall for the failed Hanoi summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. Northern Ireland police suspect teenage gunman killed journalist Lyra McKee

Detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland last week suspect the gunman who shot her dead is in his late teens as they made a further appeal to the local community who they believe know his identity. McKee's killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot in Londonderry has sparked outrage in the province where a 1998 peace deal mostly ended three decades of sectarian violence that cost the lives of some 3,600 people. North Korean leader warns of a return to tension, blames U.S. 'bad faith'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russian President Vladimir Putin peace and security on the Korean peninsula depended on the United States, warning that a state of hostility could easily return, North Korean media said on Friday. Kim's remarks, at talks with Putin in Vladivostok on Thursday, will likely add to pressure on the United States to be more flexible on a North Korean demand for an easing of international sanctions. American arrested in Myanmar had permission for 'hemp plantation': lawyer

A U.S. citizen facing narcotics charges in Myanmar had received official permission to establish a hemp plantation in the former royal capital, Mandalay, a lawyer for the American said on Friday. After images of a field of cannabis plants at the plantation spread on Myanmar social media, police raided the 20-acre site on Wednesday and detained John Fredric Todoroki, 63, and two Myanmar nationals under an anti-narcotics law, according to a statement from anti-drug police.