Reuters World News Summary

Mali soldiers promise civilian transition after president's ouster Soldiers who staged a military coup in Mali leading to the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his government said on Wednesday they plan to form a civilian transitional government that will organise fresh elections.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Mali soldiers promise civilian transition after president's ouster

Soldiers who staged a military coup in Mali leading to the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his government said on Wednesday they plan to form a civilian transitional government that will organise fresh elections. Keita resigned and dissolved parliament late on Tuesday hours after mutinying soldiers detained him at gunpoint, plunging a country already facing a jihadist insurgency and mass protests deeper into crisis. West Bank settlers say Netanyahu duped them with annexation backtrack

Israel’s settler leaders say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defrauded them of their long-held dream of annexing the occupied West Bank as part of the country's normalisation deal with the United Arab Emirates. Their anger could be a problem for right-wing Netanyahu, whom they accuse of repeatedly floating the idea of annexation only to cave in to international pressure when the terms of the UAE deal required him to walk back his promises. China evacuates 100,000 as floods threaten heritage site

Floods on the upper reaches of China's Yangtze river forced authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 people on Tuesday and threatened a 1,200-year-old world heritage site. Staff, police and volunteers used sandbags to try to protect the 71-metre (233-foot) Leshan Giant Buddha, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southwestern Sichuan province, as muddy flood water rose over its toes for the first time since 1949, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Lebanon's top Sunni cleric urges international investigation into blast

Lebanon's leading Sunni cleric on Wednesday joined calls for early parliamentary elections and an international investigation into the explosion at the Beirut port, which he said deepened the country's existential crisis. At least 179 people were killed and 300,000 left effectively homeless when massive amounts of highly explosive material stored unsafely for years detonated early this month, destroying swathes of the city and prompting the government's resignation amid mass protests. Mali president Keita vowed to end coups. Now he's been toppled too

A month after becoming president of Mali in 2013, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita declared that the days of mutinous soldiers undermining the power of government in the capital Bamako were over. "Kati will no longer scare Bamako," he said, referring to the Kati military base outside the capital where a mutiny the previous year had toppled then-President Amadou Toumani Toure. Belarusian leader orders police to put down protests

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered his police on Wednesday to put down protests in the capital Minsk, signalling an escalation after a week and a half of mass demonstrations against his rule. Lukashenko's order came even as European Union leaders were holding an emergency summit over the political crisis in Belarus, long Russia's most loyal neighbour, which has heavily militarised borders with the EU. Canada's Trudeau plans sweeping social welfare reform, sources say

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is weighing sweeping changes to the country's social welfare system and a series of economic measures that will align Canada with ambitious climate goals, according to people familiar with the matter. The economic recovery plan to bolster the social safety net will especially help those hurt most by the pandemic and come after Trudeau replaced a fiscally cautious finance minister. Keeper of Beirut's past looks to architectural future after blast

Standing in front of the rubble of a house destroyed in Beirut's port blast, Henry Loussian brushes off the dust and dirt from fragments of its architecture all but lost among a tangle of scaffolding obscuring a grand ceiling and elaborate chandelier. Such heritage houses were once commonplace, but many were razed during the 1975-1990 civil war and then decades of high-rise redevelopment. Pope warns rich countries against coronavirus vaccine nationalism

Rich countries should not hoard a coronavirus vaccine and should only give pandemic-related bailouts to companies committed to protecting the environment, helping the most needy and the 'common good', Pope Francis said on Wednesday. "It would be sad if the rich are given priority for the Covid-19 vaccine. It would be sad if the vaccine becomes property of this or that nation, if it is not universal and for everyone," Francis said at his weekly general audience. Czechs won't join WHO's coronavirus vaccine programme, prefer EU plan

The Czech Republic will not take part in the World Health Organization-led COVAX plan to develop and distribute a vaccine against COVID-19 and will opt instead for an initiative of the European Union, Health Minister Adam Vojtech said on Wednesday. The WHO has struggled to bring wealthier countries on board for a global vaccine pact, saying on Tuesday that nations that hoard possible COVID-19 vaccines while excluding others will deepen the pandemic.