Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Brexit talks between UK government and Labour to resume on Monday

Talks between the British government and the opposition Labour Party to try to find a Brexit consensus will resume on Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said. The discussions, which the spokesman said were serious and had covered many issues, were due to start at 1600 GMT. Sweden reopens Assange rape investigation, to seek extradition

Sweden reopened an investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday and will seek his extradition from Britain, potentially delaying efforts by the United States to bring him to its courts to face trial over a huge release of secret documents. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson told a news conference she would continue a preliminary investigation that was dropped in 2017 without charges being brought because Assange had taken refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Britain warns of Iran-U.S. conflict, EU to meet Pompeo

Iran and the United States could trigger a conflict by accident in an already unstable Gulf region, Britain's foreign minister said on Monday, urging a period of calm ahead of talks between the European Union and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. President Donald Trump is seeking to isolate Tehran by cutting off its oil exports after pulling out of a 2015 deal aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program. Trump has also sent U.S. warplanes and an aircraft carrier to the Gulf. Iran says it has sentenced Iranian woman to 10 years for spying for UK

Iran said on Monday it had sentenced an Iranian woman to 10 years prison for spying for Britain, as tension rises between Tehran and some Western countries over its nuclear and missile programs. "An Iranian who was in charge of Iran desk in the British Council and was cooperating with Britain's intelligence agency... was sentenced to 10 years in prison after clear confessions," Gholamhossein Esmaili, a judiciary spokesman, said on the state television. Two years into presidency, Macron refocusing economic reform drive

When Emmanuel Macron became French president two years ago he promised a clean break with the past. Within months of taking office he had cut tax on companies and investors and made hiring and firing easier via changes to labor laws. Two years on, and after six months of 'yellow vest' street protests against his pro-business reform drive, the 41-year-old former investment banker is steering the economy with a new focus on households and boosting their incomes. India's Congress party vows to "clean up" economic data gathering if wins election

India's main opposition Congress party will review how economic data is collected and interpreted if it wins a general election this month, a senior party official said, amid doubts over the reliability of official data. Economists and investors are increasingly showing that they have little or no confidence in India's official economic data – presenting whoever is elected as the next prime minister with an immediate problem. And then there was light: Cardinal breaks law to restore power for homeless

A close aide to Pope Francis has drawn the ire of Italy's anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini by climbing down a manhole to restore electricity to hundreds of homeless people living in an occupied building. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, 55, whose job is to distribute the pope's charity funds, went to the disused state-owned building near a Rome cathedral on Saturday night and broke a police seal to re-connect electrical circuit breakers. UK PM May's party slumps to fifth place as pressure mounts for her to go

British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives have fallen to fifth place in an opinion poll ahead of the May 23 European parliamentary election as pressure grows for her to set a date for her own departure. Nigel Farage's Brexit Party was in the lead, up four percentage points, on 34% while May's Conservative Party had just 10%, the YouGov poll for the Times newspaper showed. The opposition Labour Party was down five points on 16%. Duterte expected to strengthen clout after Philippine mid-term 'referendum'

Voting was underway in the Philippines on Monday in mid-term elections seen as a referendum on the rule of maverick President Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to strengthen his grip on power and further marginalize a dwindling opposition. Nearly 62 million of the country's 107 million population are registered to vote in a massive nationwide ballot for 18,000 posts, among them more than 200 mayors and governors and 245 seats in a lower house in which Duterte is all but certain to retain his huge majority. Pompeo to hold talks on Iran in Brussels en route to Russia

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will cancel the Moscow leg of his Russia trip, but will meet President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as planned on Tuesday, a State Department official said. Pompeo, who departed from Joint Base Andrews near Washington en route for Brussels, will hold talks with European officials on Iran and other issues on Monday before heading to Russia, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.