Reuters: World

Sudan paramilitaries clash with army in apparent coup bid Sudan's main paramilitary group said it had seized the presidential palace, the army chief's residence and Khartoum international airport on Saturday in an apparent coup attempt but the military said it was fighting back. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which accused the army of attacking them first, also said they had taken over the airports in the northern city of Merowe and in El-Obeid in the west. The situation on the ground was unclear. The army said it was fighting the RSF at sites the paramilitaries said they had taken. The army also said it had taken some RSF bases and denied that the RSF had taken Merowe airport. read more

Spanish athlete emerges into daylight after 500 days in cave A 50-year-old Spanish extreme athlete emerged on Friday from a 500-day challenge living 70 metres (230 feet) deep in a cave outside Granada with minimal contact outside. Wearing dark glasses and smiling as she adjusted to the light of spring in southern Spain, elite mountaineer Beatriz Flamini told reporters that time had flown by and she did not want to come out. "When they came in to get me, I was asleep. I thought something had happened. I said: 'Already? Surely not.' I hadn't finished my book," she said. Flamini's support team said she broke a world record for the longest time spent in a cave in an experiment monitored by scientists studying the human mind and circadian rhythms. read more

Airman suspected of leaking secret US documents hit with federal charges A 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard accused of leaking top secret military intelligence records online was charged on Friday with unlawfully copying and transmitting classified material. Jack Douglas Teixeira of North Dighton, Massachusetts, who was arrested by heavily armed FBI agents at his home on Thursday, made his initial appearance in a crowded federal court wearing a brown khaki jumpsuit. At the hearing, Boston's top federal national security prosecutor, Nadine Pellegrini, requested that Teixeira be detained pending trial, and a detention hearing was set for Wednesday. During the brief proceeding, Teixeira said little, answering "yes" when asked whether he understood his right to remain silent. read more

U.S. Supreme Court won't halt $6 billion student debt settlement The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to halt a legal settlement that would erase more than $6 billion in debt owed by former students of colleges - many of them for-profit institutions - who have said they were misled by schools about academics and job prospects. The justices turned away a request from three colleges that are challenging a settlement between the U.S. Education Department and borrowers that linked the colleges to claims of "substantial misconduct," an allegation they dispute. Three of the schools identified in the settlement - for-profit Lincoln Educational Services Corp (LINC.O) and American National University Inc as well as nonprofit Everglades College Inc - challenged the agreement after it was approved by a federal judge in California last November. Around 3,500 borrowers entitled to automatic loan discharge under the settlement attended one of the three schools. read more

Taiwan says China's no-fly zone will affect around 33 flights China's plan to set up a no-fly zone to the north of Taiwan on April 16 will affect about 33 flights, Taiwan's official Central News Agency (CNA) reported, citing the island's transport minister, Wang Kwo-tsai. The impact on flights was greatly reduced after Taiwan said it had successfully urged China to drastically narrow its plan to close air space north of the island, Wang was reported as saying. Reuters first reported that Beijing had initially notified Taipei it would impose a no-fly zone from April 16-18, but Taiwan's transport ministry said this was later reduced to a period of just 27 minutes on Sunday morning after it protested. read more

Macron comments leave senior Taiwanese official 'puzzled' Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron on Taiwan are puzzling, a senior Taiwanese politician said, wondering whether France's founding ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity are now out of fashion. Macron, in comments in an interview on a trip to China that was meant to showcase European unity on China policy, cautioned against being drawn into a crisis over Taiwan driven by an "American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction". He also called for the European Union to reduce its dependence on the United States and to become a "third pole" in world affairs alongside Washington and Beijing. Taiwan parliament speaker You Si-kun, writing on Facebook late Tuesday above a screengrab of a report about Macron's comments on Taiwan, questioned the French commitment to freedom. read more

Ukrainian hackers say they have compromised Russian spy who hacked Democrats in 2016 Ukrainian hackers claim to have broken into the emails of a senior Russian military spy wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for hacking the Hillary Clinton campaign and other senior U.S. Democrats ahead of Donald Trump's election to the presidency in 2016. In a message posted to Telegram on Monday, a group calling itself Cyber Resistance said it had stolen correspondence from Lt. Col. Sergey Morgachev, who was charged in 2018 with helping organize the hack and leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton campaign. Reuters was not immediately able to fully corroborate the claim, but some of Morgachev's purported personal information - which the hackers shared with the Ukrainian publication InformNapalm - lines up with previously leaked data preserved by the cybersecurity research platform Constella Intelligence. read more

Romania aims to buy F-35 fighter planes to boost air defences Romania aims to buy the latest generation U.S. F-35 fighter planes to boost its air defences, the country's supreme defence council (CSAT) said in a statement on Tuesday. The European Union and NATO state has raised defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product this year from 2%, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The country, which shares a 650-km (400 mile) border with Ukraine, is host to a U.S. ballistic missile defence system and, as of last year, has a permanent alliance battlegroup stationed on its territory. read more

South Korea says leaked US intel document 'untrue', amid spying allegations South Korea said on Tuesday that information contained in a purportedly leaked U.S. confidential document that appeared to be based on internal discussions among top South Korean security officials was "untrue" and "altered". Several documents have been recently posted on social media offering a partial, month-old snapshot of the war in Ukraine, sparking a diplomatic row between the U.S. and some allies. One of the documents gave details of internal discussions among South Korean officials about U.S. pressure on Seoul to help supply weapons to Ukraine, suggesting the U.S. could have been spying on South Korea, one of its most important allies, and inviting condemnation from the Asian nation's lawmakers. read more

Dalai Lama apologizes after video asking boy to 'suck my tongue' The Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' 87-year-old spiritual leader, apologised on Monday after footage showed him asking a young boy to "suck my tongue" at a public event. "A video clip has been circulating that shows a recent meeting when a young boy asked his Holiness the Dalai Lama if he could give him a hug," said a statement on the exiled leader's Twitter account, which has 19 million followers. "His Holiness wishes to apologise to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused." read more

Intelligence leak has US officials bracing for impact at home and abroad The U.S. national security community is grappling with fallout from the release of dozens of secret documents, including the impact on sensitive information-sharing within the government and ties with other countries, two U.S. officials said. Reuters has reviewed more than 50 of these documents, labeled "Secret" and "Top Secret", that first appeared on social media websites in early March and purportedly reveal details of Ukrainian military vulnerabilities and information about allies including Israel, South Korea and Turkey. The material did not draw much notice until a New York Times article on Friday. Reuters has not independently verified the documents' authenticity. U.S. officials have said some giving battlefield casualty estimates from Ukraine appeared to have been altered to understate Russian losses. read more

Macron: Europe should not follow US or Chinese policy over Taiwan French President Emmanuel Macron said in comments published on Sunday that Europe had no interest in an acceleration of the crisis over Taiwan and should pursue a strategy independent of both Washington and Beijing. Macron has just returned from a three-day state visit to China, where he received a warm welcome from President Xi Jinping. China began drills around Taiwan on Saturday in anger at President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan's government strongly objects to China's claims. read more