Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Brazil prosecutor warns Bolsonaro government on indigenous land rights

Brazil's top prosecutor on Wednesday called for right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro's government to respect the land rights of 900,000 indigenous citizens, which have been threatened by a wave of land invasions since he took office. Bolsonaro has said he will not allow new reservations and he put indigenous land decisions under the Agriculture Ministry, a move that many saw as putting farmers' interests above those of native groups, who often making competing claims on land. Iraq parliament approves budget ending weeks of deadlock

Iraq's parliament approved the 2019 budget early on Thursday after an hours-long vote, ending weeks of deadlock over allocations to different provinces and privatization of state projects. Parliament did not vote as planned on three cabinet posts that remain empty, however, leaving Iraq with an incomplete government months after a general election. Why Davos is talking about the fight between two absentees

The two most powerful men in the world are not in Davos this year, but they remain impossible to escape. In a sweeping speech at the World Economic Forum two years ago, President Xi Jinping argued that China was free trade's greatest champion. Any attempt to stop the flow of capital, technology, goods, industries or people between economies "is simply not possible," he said. U.S.-backed forces about to end Islamic State's last enclave in Syria

U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces are on the verge of eliminating Islamic State militants' last remaining enclave in Syria near the border with Iraq after a four-month devastating bombing campaign that has left hundreds of civilian casualties, residents and rebels said on Wednesday. The capture of the village of Baghous comes after a string of other villages fell in recent days to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia alliance with aerial bombing strikes by the U.S.-led coalition. Twenty British ministers discussing plans to stop no-deal Brexit: Telegraph

Twenty British ministers have been meeting secretly to discuss plans to stop a no-deal Brexit, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Wednesday. The group, which includes Amber Rudd, Philip Hammond, David Gauke and Claire Perry last met on Tuesday last week to discuss an amendment tabled by the Labour MP Yvette Cooper on taking no deal off the table, the newspaper said. Trump threatens to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador over caravans

U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat to cut off aid to three Central American countries on Wednesday in response to what he said was a new wave of immigrants headed toward the United States from those countries. Trump, struggling to get a request through the U.S. Congress for money to build a southern border wall, expressed frustration about governments in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador not helping the United States on the migrant problem. Backed by U.S., Maduro rival Guaido claims Venezuela presidency

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president on Wednesday, winning the backing of Washington and many Latin American nations and prompting socialist Nicolas Maduro, who has led the oil-rich nation since 2013, to break relations with the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump formally recognized Guaido shortly after his announcement and praised his plan to hold elections. That was swiftly followed by similar statements from Canada and a slew of right-leaning Latin American governments, including Venezuela's neighbors Brazil and Colombia. U.S. prosecutors press witnesses to testify against Assange-WikiLeaks

U.S. federal prosecutors have stepped up efforts to pressure witnesses to testify against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, WikiLeaks said on Wednesday, in connection with what it said were secret criminal charges filed by the Trump administration. WikiLeaks did not mention any names in its public statement. But Assange's lawyers identified some of those contacted in a document asking the human rights arm of the Organization of American States to demand that the charges be unsealed. 'El Chapo's' wife played key role in escape plots, ex-lieutenant says

The wife of accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman played an important role in plotting his 2015 escape from a Mexican prison and tried to help him escape again after he was recaptured the following year, one Guzman's former top lieutenants testified on Wednesday. Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, has attended nearly every day of her husband's trial in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. She was there on Wednesday as Damaso Lopez Nunez testified that Coronel carried messages from her imprisoned husband about digging a tunnel into his cell. Chinese-Australian writer detained in China

China has detained a Chinese-Australian writer who had flown in from New York last week, the Australian government said, adding it was trying to find out why he was being held. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Chinese authorities on Wednesday had informed the Australian embassy in Beijing that they had detained Yang Hengjun.