|  | | | | | | | | | Top News | | Kim Jong Un warns of a return to tension. North Korean leader 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. 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. | | | | | | | | Guarded by soldiers, defiant Sri Lankan Muslims pray for peace. As the Islamic call to prayer echoed through the subdued streets of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, crowds of Muslims were greeted with an unusual sight: their golden-domed Mosque flanked by soldiers armed with assault rifles. Fears of retaliatory sectarian violence have already caused Muslim communities to flee their homes amid bomb scares, lockdowns and security sweeps. The Sri Lankan government said nine homegrown, well-educated suicide bombers carried out the attacks, eight of whom had been identified. One was a woman. Police are trying to track down 140 people believed linked to Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings, President Maithripala Sirisena said. | | | | | | | | U.S. measles outbreak triggers quarantine at two Los Angeles universities. A nationwide measles outbreak has led health officials to quarantine dozens of people at two Los Angeles universities, officials said on Thursday. The United States has confirmed 695 measles cases so far this year, the highest level since the country declared it had eliminated the virus in 2000, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. Many of the cases occurred in the states of New York and Washington. | | | | | Politics | | U.S. judges order Michigan to revamp Republican-drawn districts in gerrymandering case. A panel of federal judges ordered Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature to redraw nearly three dozen state and U.S. congressional districts, ruling that the existing lines illegally dilute the power of Democratic voters. The decision gives lawmakers until Aug. 1 to approve new district maps, which would need to be signed by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Tech | | The armed wing of Hamas is using increasingly complex methods of raising funds via bitcoin. The Gaza-based Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, which is proscribed by the United States and the European Union, has been calling on its supporters to donate using the digital currency in a fundraising campaign announced online in late January. Originally, it asked donors to send bitcoin to a single digital address, or wallet. However, according to research shared with Reuters by leading blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, in recent weeks it has changed the mechanism, with its website generating a new digital wallet with every transaction. | | | | | | | | Huawei hopes for Britain-like solution in New Zealand 5G bid. China’s Huawei said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans. Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of the 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters. In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the U.S., the Government Communications Security Bureau in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns. | | | | | | | | | | | | | Europe | | 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. The right-wing Law and Justice has revived calls for compensation since it took power in 2015 and has made the promotion of Poland’s wartime victimhood a central plank of its appeal to nationalism. 3 min read | | | | French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered that further cuts to income tax must be matched euro-for-euro by cuts in public spending to keep the budget deficit from spiraling out of control, his finance minister said. 4 Min Read | | | | Russia is confident it can soon resolve a problem of polluted Russian oil contaminating a major pipeline serving Europe and affecting supplies as far west as Germany, a senior official said on Friday at talks with importers about the issue. 4 min read | | | | 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. 3 min read | | | | | | | | | | | | | Top Stories on Reuters TV | | | | | | | |
