Reuters World News Summary

Aid agencies may stop Yemen work, Houthis say raids near border kill 43

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition struck Yemeni provinces near the Saudi border overnight, killing at least 43 civilians, Houthi sources said, as aid agencies warned that fuel shortages could halt their efforts to tackle Yemen's humanitarian crisis. Houthi fighters fired mortar bombs and Katyusha rockets at the Saudi border town of Najran on Tuesday, their first cross-border attack on Saudi Arabia since the coalition's military campaign against them began on March 26.

U.S. aims to make Iran nuclear deal immune to Russian, Chinese veto

Washington wants to be certain that any nuclear deal between Iran and major powers includes the possibility of restoring U.N. sanctions if Tehran breaks the agreement without risking Russian and Chinese vetoes, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. United Nations sanctions and a future mechanism for Iran to buy atomic technology are two core sticking points in talks on a possible nuclear deal on which Tehran and world powers have been struggling to overcome deep divisions in recent days, diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

Britain's closest election in a generation goes down to the wire

Campaigning in Britain's most unpredictable election in a generation entered its final day with the two main parties level in most polls and neither on track to command a majority in the parliament of the world's fifth largest economy. Despite five weeks of campaigning, neither Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party nor Ed Miliband's opposition Labour has a clear lead, teeing up a potentially messy and uncertain outcome after Thursday's vote.

At Greek port, migrants dream and despair in abandoned factories

Rapper Mahdi Babika Mohamed's journey to a better life in Europe started in his native Sudan and passed through Libya and Turkey before abruptly ending in a squalid abandoned factory at Greece's western port of Patras. There, the 37-year-old is one of hundreds of migrants making desperate attempts to board ferries to Italy by hanging on to the underside of cargo trucks - usually unsuccesfully.

Assad says army to reinforce besieged troops in northwest Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that troops would head to an insurgent-held town to help besieged soldiers holed up on its outskirts and said army setbacks were part of normal warfare. Last month Islamist insurgents including al Qaeda's wing in Syria, Nusra Front, captured the town of Jisr al-Shughour in Syria's Idlib province, edging closer to the government-held heartland of Latakia along the coast.

King's changes make Saudi policy less predictable

Changes in Saudi Arabia's leadership have concentrated power in an inner circle of the Al Saud dynasty, removing constraints on the monarch and making the conservative kingdom's strategic positions less predictable. The world's top oil exporter has always prized stability, developing policies slowly and altering them rarely, partly because of the need to balance rivalries among ruling family members and their conflicting interests.

Obama expected to push for Gulf missile defense at U.S. summit

President Barack Obama is expected to make a renewed U.S. push next week to help Gulf allies create a region-wide defense system to guard against Iranian missiles as he seeks to allay their anxieties over any nuclear deal with Tehran, according to U.S. sources. The offer could be accompanied by enhanced security commitments, new arms sales and more joint military exercises, U.S. officials say, as Obama tries to reassure Gulf Arab countries that Washington is not abandoning them.

Philippines, Japan coast guards hold anti-piracy drills

Philippine and Japanese coast guard teams staged an anti-piracy drill on Wednesday, featuring the storming of a cargo vessel after a mock hijack, in a show of maritime cooperation between the two nations amid rising tension in Asian waters. Both nations face a challenge from China's growing assertiveness over territorial claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, where it uses coast guard and fishing vessels to press into disputed areas.

Germanwings pilot rehearsed crash on outbound flight-investigators

The Germanwings co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a jet in the Alps in March practiced entering the fatal descent settings on the previous, outbound flight, investigators said. The changes in autopilot settings, mimicking those which crashed the jet on its way back to Duesseldorf from Barcelona some two hours later, would barely have been noticeable because the jet was already descending, investigators said.

Russia's Putin, Germany's Merkel to discuss Ukraine on May 10

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will discuss the crisis in Ukraine at talks in Moscow on Sunday, a Kremlin aide told reporters on Wednesday. Outlining Putin's planned meetings with foreign leaders during events this weekend marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe, foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said China may provide around 300 billion rubles ($6 billion) in financing for a railway link between Moscow and the Russian city of Kazan.