Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Iran to download plane black box after missile blamed for crash

Iran said on Friday it wanted to download black box recordings itself from a Ukrainian airliner that crashed, killing all 176 people aboard, after Canada and others said the plane was brought down by an Iranian missile, probably by mistake. Iran, which has denied the Boeing 737-800 was downed by a missile, said it could take one or two months to extract information from the voice and flight data recorders. It said it could ask Russia, Canada, France or Ukraine if it needed help. Romanian PM says aims to trigger snap election

Romanian liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Friday he will try to trigger a snap parliamentary election by mid-year in an attempt to restore confidence after years of political instability. The European Union state is currently expected to hold local and parliamentary polls in June and late 2020, respectively, with no more elections scheduled after that until 2024. Previous election years have shown policymaking all but stops until lawmakers are sworn in. Trump sends North Korea's Kim birthday greetings

U.S. President Donald Trump sent a happy birthday message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-Yong said on Friday. Chung, who met Trump in Washington this week, told reporters that he was given a message to pass to North Korea and it was delivered on Thursday. Meghan returns to Canada as British royals seek to solve Harry rift

Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, has gone back to Canada to be with their son after the couple provoked a rift with Britain's royal family by unexpectedly announcing they would be stepping back from their roles to spend more time in North America. Queen Elizabeth and other senior British royals were trying to calm the crisis by thrashing out a plan for Harry and Meghan after the couple blindsided the family by going public with their announcement without consultation. Cleric fears worse bloodshed in Iraq as U.S.-Iran conflict persists

Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric on Friday condemned the U.S.-Iranian military confrontation taking place on Iraqi soil, saying it risked plunging the war-ravaged country and the wider Middle East into deeper conflict. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said attacks by both sides inside Iraq this month showed blatant disregard for its sovereignty and its people stood to suffer most from Washington and Tehran's conflict. Macron defies French unions over retirement age in pension reform

France's government defied trade unions on Friday by including a contested clause on raising the retirement age by two years in its draft legislation, amid signs that weeks of street protests and strikes may be losing momentum. President Emmanuel Macron's proposed reform to streamline France's byzantine pension schemes is the biggest overhaul of the system since World War Two and is central to his ambition to make the labor force more flexible and competitive globally. Obamas, not Kardashians, likely to be model as Meghan and Harry seek fresh brand

As newly liberated royals, Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have the world at their feet with the potential to make money in areas ranging from fashion and speaking engagements to forming their own production company. But the couple, formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, should move wisely to make themselves financially independent in a world where social media influencers like Kim Kardashian reign and where their visibility will be magnified rather than reduced, branding experts and Hollywood observers say. Australia urges quarter of a million to flee as winds fan huge bushfires

Australia urged nearly a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes on Friday and prepared military backup as authorities said the next few hours could be "very, very challenging" even as rain poured down in some parts. Defense personnel stood ready to move to bushfire grounds if conditions became extreme, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters, as soaring temperatures and erratic winds create dangerous conditions. Bulgarian environment minister quits after arrest

Bulgarian Environment Minister Neno Dimov resigned on Friday after he spent a night in detention following questioning over severe water restrictions in western city of Pernik and waste imports, the government said. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has accepted his resignation, the government said in a statement without elaborating. Fearing nuclear proliferation, Europe scrambles to calm Iran tensions

Europe will look on Friday for ways to guide the United States and Iran away from open conflict, knowing that a miscalculation from either side could leave the bloc facing a war and a serious nuclear proliferation crisis at its doorstep. In a rare emergency meeting, EU foreign ministers, to be joined by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, may avoid any tough diplomatic response for now after Washington and Tehran backed off from an outright conflagration following the U.S. killing of an Iranian general in Iraq and retaliatory missile strikes by Iran that avoided military casualties.