Reuters World News Summary

Legislators voted on Tuesday to declassify the files, after earlier this month backing a report accusing Lasso of connections to possible crimes against state security and public administration. Ukraine war: US and Russian military chiefs in rare talks after drone downed Washington's top general said the crash of a U.S. surveillance drone after being intercepted by Russian jets showed Moscow's increasingly aggressive behaviour while Russia warned Washington that flying drones near Crimea risked escalation.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

South Korea's Yoon seeks friend in Tokyo amid regional tensions

Yoon Suk Yeol arrives in Tokyo on Thursday on the first visit to Japan by a South Korean president in 12 years, seeking a closer relationship amid a perceived increase in regional threats from North Korea and China. Yoon will meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the afternoon when the two are expected to present a united front as they seek to put behind years of animosity arising from Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.

North Korea launches missile ahead of South Korea-Japan summit

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan on Thursday, just hours before South Korea's president was due to fly to Tokyo for a rare summit expected to discuss ways to counter the nuclear-armed North. North Korea has conducted multiple missile launches this week amid ongoing joint South Korea-U.S. military drills that Pyongyang condemns as hostile actions.

Factbox-What is the MQ-9 Reaper drone that collided with a Russian jet?

A Russian Su-27 fighter jet struck the propeller of a U.S. military "Reaper" surveillance drone on Tuesday, causing it to crash into the Black Sea in an incident condemned as "reckless' by the U.S. military. Below is a description of the MQ-9 "Reaper" drone based on information from the Air Force and its maker, General Atomics.

Greek strike over deadly train crash to halt transport

Flights to and from Greece will be grounded and ships will remain docked at ports on Thursday, as Greek workers walk off the job to protest over the country's deadliest train crash on record which killed 57 people on Feb. 28. The 24-hour strike called by Greece's largest private and public sector unions is also expected to shut public services and state schools and disrupt urban transport.

Declassified documents do not mention Ecuador's Lasso -regulator

Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso and his family members do not appear in declassified documents released by the country's companies regulator, the agency said on Wednesday, referring to files which opposition lawmakers had sought to shore up a possible impeachment bid. Legislators voted on Tuesday to declassify the files, after earlier this month backing a report accusing Lasso of connections to possible crimes against state security and public administration.

Ukraine war: US and Russian military chiefs in rare talks after drone downed

Washington's top general said the crash of a U.S. surveillance drone after being intercepted by Russian jets showed Moscow's increasingly aggressive behaviour while Russia warned Washington that flying drones near Crimea risked escalation. A day after the U.S. drone went down over the Black Sea, defence ministers and military chiefs from the U.S. and Russia held rare telephone conversations on Wednesday with relations at their lowest point in decades over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Japan battles to persuade its big brands to join military buildout

As Tokyo spins up its defence industry for the country's largest military expansion since World War Two, it has run into a challenge: some of Japan's best-known brands are reluctant to invest in the military side of their businesses. Japan, which renounced war in 1947, last year unveiled a five-year $315 billion military expansion to deter Beijing from using force in the East China Sea amid growing concern that Russia's attack on Ukraine - which it calls a "special operation" - could embolden China to invade Taiwan.

Exclusive-Tons of uranium missing from Libyan site, IAEA tells member states

U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors have found that roughly 2.5 tons of natural uranium have gone missing from a Libyan site that is not under government control, the watchdog told member states in a statement on Wednesday seen by Reuters. The finding is the result of an inspection originally planned for last year that "had to be postponed because of the security situation in the region" and was finally carried out on Tuesday, according to the confidential statement by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.

Russian hackers preparing new cyber assault against Ukraine - Microsoft report

Russian hackers appear to be preparing a renewed wave of cyber attacks against Ukraine, including a "ransomware-style" threat to organizations serving Ukraine's supply lines, a research report by Microsoft said on Wednesday. The report, authored by the tech giant's cyber security research and analysis team, outlines a series of new discoveries about how Russian hackers have operated during the Ukraine conflict and what may come next.

North Korea convenes meeting on agricultural stability amid food shortage woes

North Korea held a cabinet-level meeting to discuss the issue of agricultural stability on Wednesday amid fears of food shortages, state media KCNA reported on Thursday. The meeting led by Kim Tok Hun, premier of the cabinet, saw senior officials come up with "various detailed action plans" to ensure stable agricultural production, the report said.

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