Reuters World News Summary

U.S. formally exits global climate pact amid election uncertainty The United States formally exited the Paris Agreement on Wednesday, fulfilling an old promise by President Donald Trump to withdraw the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter from the global pact to fight climate change.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Video evidence confirms lone Vienna gunman theory: minister

Video evidence confirms the theory that a gunman who killed four people in Vienna on Monday acted alone, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told reporters on Wednesday. Slovak intelligence had informed Austria about the gunman's attempt to buy ammunition but the information about the Islamic State sympathiser got lost in a communications breakdown, he added, announcing an independent panel would look into what went wrong. In Venezuela, many hope Trump will win to keep pressure on Maduro

Many Venezuelans are hoping for the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose campaign of aggressive sanctions against the South American nation's ruling Socialist Party has won over a broad swathe of President Nicolas Maduro's critics. The Trump administration has promised that sanctions will cause the ouster of Maduro, who has overseen a catastrophic economic meltdown that fueled a mass exodus of migrants. Ex-rebel calls on Ivory Coast army to mutiny, join opposition

An influential ex-rebel leader told Ivory Coast's army to mutiny on Wednesday and back a rival breakaway government in the wake of a contested presidential election that the opposition says was illegal. President Alassane Ouattara won the election with 94% of the vote, according to the electoral commission. U.S. formally exits global climate pact amid election uncertainty

The United States formally exited the Paris Agreement on Wednesday, fulfilling an old promise by President Donald Trump to withdraw the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter from the global pact to fight climate change. But the outcome of the tight U.S. election contest will determine for how long. Trump's Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has promised to rejoin the agreement if elected. In China, bemusement and scorn over unresolved U.S. election

Chinese social media users watched election day in the United States with bemusement and mockery, as President Donald Trump complained of a "major fraud on our nation" and falsely claimed victory before millions of votes had been tallied. "Whether he wins or loses, his final mission is to destroy the appearance of American democracy," one user on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform wrote on Wednesday. Eta becomes tropical storm inland after battering Nicaragua, Honduras

Eta weakened to a tropical storm over Nicaragua on Wednesday after unleashing floods and landslides over the country and in neighboring Honduras, reportedly killing at least three people and stranding dozens of fishermen in the Atlantic. Eta, one of the most powerful storms to strike Central America in years, hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, before weakening to a tropical storm as it forged inland in the impoverished country. Londoners hit the town one last time before new lockdown

Londoners shrugged off a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic and flocked to pubs and restaurants on Wednesday night, hours before the introduction of a new month-long lockdown across England. While the UK's death toll from the coronavirus rose on Wednesday by 492, the most since mid-May, London's Soho entertainment district was busy with revellers seeking one last night out before lockdown. Kosovo war crimes suspect Krasniqi transferred to The Hague

Former Kosovo Liberation Army spokesman and veteran Kosovar politician Jakup Krasniqi was arrested and transferred to The Hague on Wednesday, the Kosovo war crimes tribunal said in a statement. Krasniqi, the former speaker of parliament, will face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Kosovo Specialist Chamber added. It did not give details about the indictment against him. Italy locks down financial capital Milan and much of industrial north

Italy's latest restrictions to try to rein in the coronavirus include a partial lockdown of its richest and most populous region Lombardy around the financial capital Milan, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday. Earlier, the government published its new package of measures which toughen up nationwide curbs and divide the country into three zones - red, orange and yellow, according to the intensity of the epidemic. As America counts, the world holds its breath for U.S. election outcome

A day after Americans voted in a bitterly contested election, the rest of the world was none the wiser on Wednesday, with millions of votes still to count, the race too close to call and a mounting risk of days or even weeks of legal uncertainty. Donald Trump's pre-emptive declaration of victory at the White House was condemned by some U.S. political commentators and civil rights groups, who warned about the trampling of long-standing democratic norms.