Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Iran calls on Britain to release seized oil tanker immediately

Iran called on Britain on Friday to immediately release an oil tanker that British Royal Marines seized last week on suspicion it was breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman told state news agency IRNA. "This is a dangerous game and has consequences ... the legal pretexts for the capture are not valid ... the release of the tanker is in all countries' interest," the spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said.

Russia delivers missile system to Turkey in challenge to NATO

Russia began delivery of an advanced missile defense system to Turkey on Friday, a move expected to trigger U.S. sanctions against a NATO ally and drive a wedge into the heart of the Western military alliance. The first parts of the S-400 air defense system were flown to a military air base near the capital Ankara, the Turkish Defense Ministry said, sealing Turkey's deal with Russia which Washington had struggled for months to prevent.

Taiwan president in U.S. after warning of threat from 'overseas forces'

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen arrived in the United States on Thursday on a trip that has angered Beijing, warning that democracy must be defended and that the island faced threats from "overseas forces," in a veiled reference to China. China, which claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its own and views it as a wayward province, had called on the United States not to allow Tsai to transit there on her overseas tour.

Explainer: Von der Leyen's rocky path to confirmation as EU Commission chief

European Union lawmakers are likely to confirm Germany's Ursula von der Leyen as president of the bloc's executive Commission in a secret ballot next Tuesday, but there is a risk she could fall short of the absolute majority she needs. Many members of the European Parliament are angry that EU leaders, horse-trading over top posts at a bruising summit last week, brushed aside the so-called "Spitzenkandidaten", the main parliamentary groups' candidates for the job.

In Myanmar's conflict-torn Rakhine, fresh allegations of 'war crimes'

When 35-year-old Ah Hla showed up to a police station in western Myanmar in late April hoping to see her husband among the prisoners, she didn't know whether he was alive or dead. Several dozen men, including her fisherman husband, had been detained weeks earlier when the military raided their village in central Rakhine state's Mrauk-U township and accused them of belonging to a rebel army, residents told Reuters.

Germans fret about Merkel after shaking episodes

"Does Merkel travel too much?" asked mass-selling daily Bild on Friday as Germans fret about the health of their chancellor, who sat rather than stood at a ceremony on Thursday after shaking for the third time in as many weeks when standing a day earlier. The shaking episodes - all while standing at ceremonies - have unnerved many Germans, who look to Angela Merkel as a rock in an unstable world, and have raised questions about her health and whether her punishing schedule is proving too much.

Chastised French minister: I hate caviar and suffer a lobster intolerance

France's widely lampooned environment minister denied having a taste for the high life and said on Friday he would not resign over accusations he squandered taxpayer money, in a scandal that risks upsetting the government's reform drive. Investigative website Mediapart reported Francois De Rugy and his wife, a gossip magazine journalist, hosted lavish dinners, mostly for friends, at his official residence in Paris while he was speaker of parliament from June 2017-October 2018.

Exclusive: Singapore cautions wealth managers on aggressively courting HK business

Singapore has cautioned wealth managers against aggressively marketing their services or making other efforts to woo clients to the city state by capitalizing on rival Hong Kong's political turmoil, people with knowledge of the matter said. Officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) made the request last month to wealth managers, including DBS and a unit of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, the people said, declining to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

New North Korea constitution calls Kim head of state, seen as step to U.S. peace treaty

Kim Jong Un has been formally named head of state of North Korea and commander-in-chief of the military in a new constitution observers said was possibly aimed at preparing for a peace treaty with the United States. North Korea has also long called for a peace deal with the United States to normalize relations and end the technical state of war that has existed since the 1950-1953 Korean War concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

South Korea calls for probe as forced labor feud with Japan deepens

South Korea called on Friday for an international investigation of what it said were accusations by Japanese officials that it had passed some high-tech materials imported from Japan on to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions. The call is the latest twist in a dispute between the U.S. allies that could disrupt supplies of chips and displays from South Korea's tech giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix , which count Apple Inc and other smartphone makers as customers.