LONDON: UK Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to meet Jeremy Corbyn, opposition leader, later to work with Labor leader to break the Brexit deadlock.

PM Theresa hoped that she can hold talks with Corbyn to come up with a modified version of the deal with the EU, which can secure MPs backing.

Meanwhile, Corbyn said he wanted a customs union and workers’ rights to be the priorities.

Likewise, Tory Brexiteer Boris Johnson has accused PM Theresa of entrusting the final handling of Brexit to the Labour Party.

Another prominent Brexiteer, Jacob Rees-Mogg, termed the offer as unsatisfactory. He accused PM May of planning to work together with a known Marxist. (Agencies)

LITHUANIA: A Lithuanian man flying to Italy got a pleasant surprise when he boarded the plane. He was the only passenger on the Boeing 737-800.

Skirmantas Strimaitis, who was flying from capital Vilnius to the northern Italian city of Bergamo for a skiing holiday March 16, had the whole plane — which usually carries up to 188 people — to himself. The only others onboard were two pilots and five crew members.

The Novaturas travel agency said it had chartered the plane to fly a group home from Italy, and to avoid flying empty, one-way tickets were sold. Only one person bought one.

Strimaitis told  Tuesday the flight, which lasted more than two hours, was “a once in the lifetime experience.”

LONDON: Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May said she would hold a cabinet meeting after lawmakers again failed to agree on proposals for the next steps in the Brexit process.

Lawmakers voted on four alternatives to PM May’s withdrawal deal, but none gained a majority.

The UK is due to leave the EU on 12 April. (Agencies)

ANKARA: – Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan suffered a setback as his ruling AK Party lost control of Ankara in a local election.

Erdogan, who ruled his country with an ever tighter grip, campaigned relentlessly for two months ahead of Sunday’s vote, media reports said.

He had earlier described the elections as a “matter of survival” for Turkey.

However, the president’s rallies and supportive media coverage failed to win over the country’s capital.

Media reports said the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavas won a clear victory in Ankara. (Agencies)

ANKARA: Turks voted in local elections on Sunday which President Tayyip Erdogan has described as a matter of survival for Turkey.

President Erdogan, who dominated Turkish politics for more than 16 years, has become the country’s most popular, yet also most divisive, leader in modern history.

However, observers say the President could be dealt an electoral blow with polls indicating his ruling AK Party (AKP) may lose control of the capital Ankara as well as in Istanbul. (Agencies)

SEOUL: North Korea has dubbed a break-in at its embassy in Spain last month as a “grave terrorist attack”, reports said.

Releasing its first official comment, Pyongyang has called for an investigation saying it was closely watching rumors that the FBI had played a role.

A group committed to ousting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Cheollima Civil Defense, on Wednesday said, it carried out the raid.

The group said it took computers and data and gave its evidence to the FBI.

The North Korea, however, stopped short of blaming Washington directly for the raid. It has asked the Spanish authorities to conduct the investigation in a responsible manner. (Agencies)

PARIS: The Eiffel Tower was plunged into darkness as Paris switched off the lights on its best-known tourist attraction to mark the Earth Hour, media reports said.

The global event sees nearly 200 major landmarks around the world unplugged at 8:30 pm local time for its 13th annual edition.

The major landmarks include New York’s Empire State Building, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil and the Sydney Opera House.

The annual Earth Hour is gradually becoming popular since the first event in 2007. It is currently marked in more than 180 countries and territories, according to the organizers. (Agencies)

LONDON: Lawmakers of the United Kingdom have rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement on the day the UK was due to leave the EU, media reports said.

The government lost by a margin of 58 votes – 344 to 286.

Now that the UK has missed an EU deadline to delay Brexit to 22 May and leave with a deal.

Prime Minister May said the UK would have to find “an alternative way forward”.

She said that the outcome was “a matter of profound regret”. “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Downing Street said it was still not an “inevitability” that the country would have to take part in elections to the European Parliament in May. (Agencies)

PARIS: A group representing Muslims in France said it was suing Facebook and YouTube. The group has accused the social media platforms of inciting violence by allowing the streaming of footage of the Christchurch massacre.

The group, French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), said the social media companies disseminated materials that encouraged terrorism. The group also alleged that the disseminated materials on Facebook and YouTube harmed the dignity of human beings.

It should be noted that the March 15 shooting at two mosques in New Zealand killing 50 people was live-streamed on Facebook, and then copied and shared on social media sites.

Later Facebook, however, said it removed hundreds of thousands of such copies. (Agencies)

ATHENS: Attackers riding on a motorcycle threw an explosive device at the Russian consulate in Athens this morning, local media reports said.

Media quoted police as saying that the explosive device could probably be a hand grenade. However, no one was injured, police said.

Police cordoned off the area after the incident. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the consulate. (Agencies)