Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. China calls for harmony as it welcomes Qatar emir amid Gulf dispute

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a return to "unity and harmony" on Thursday as he welcomed gas-rich Qatar's emir to Beijing, amid a festering dispute that has seen some Arab states lead by Saudi Arabia severing relations with Doha. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic, trade and transport ties with Qatar in June 2017. They accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism and cultivating ties with Saudi Arabia's regional foe, Iran. EU could offer more backstop assurances if UK moves on customs union: EU lawmaker

The European Union can offer Britain more assurances over the Irish border 'backstop' in a political declaration on post-Brexit ties if London moves toward accepting a permanent customs union, a leading EU lawmaker dealing with Brexit said. Danuta Hubner spoke to Reuters as British Prime Minister Theresa May headed back to Brussels to demand the renegotiation of the legal withdrawal treaty she agreed with the EU but cannot get ratified at home. Brazilians little moved by Vale overtures in wake of disaster

Residents of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais reacted with indifference and in many cases dismissal at a raft of measures mining giant Vale SA pledged to adopt in recent days in the wake of a dam burst that likely killed over 300 people. "Too Late" read the newspaper of record here, O Estado de Minas, after Vale, the world's largest iron ore miner, said it would take up to 10 percent of its production offline and spend 5 billion reais ($1.36 billion) to decommission 10 dams like the one that collapsed at its Corrego do Feijao mine on Friday. Russia plays power broker as U.S.-Taliban talks gather steam

Russia will host the Taliban and Afghan politicians opposed to President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, Russian and Taliban sources said, promoting its role of power broker in what a U.S. official called an attempt to "muddle" the U.S.-backed peace process. Moscow snubbed the Afghan government, sources said, to ensure the participation of the Taliban who refuse to hold talks with Ghani's representatives to end the 17-year-old Afghan war, branding them puppets of the United States. Children, babies dying from cold at camp in northeast Syria: WHO

At least 29 children and newborns are reported to have died in a teeming camp in northeastern Syria over the past 8 weeks, mainly due to hypothermia, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday. The U.N. agency appealed for unhindered access to al-Hol camp, saying the situation has become "critical" for 33,000 people living in bitterly cold winter conditions without tents, blankets or heating. Many have walked for days after fleeing fighting in Deir al-Zor, it said. U.S. to stop complying with nuclear pact with Russia after talks flop

The United States will stop complying with a landmark nuclear pact with Russia as soon as this weekend after last-ditch talks with Moscow to save it fell flat, a senior U.S. arms control official said on Thursday. Washington has long accused Russia of flouting the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), alleging that a new Russian missile, the Novator 9M729, called the SSC-8 by NATO, violates the pact, which bans either side from stationing short- and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe. Kenya bomber's journey offers cautionary tale of intelligence failures

The bomber who blew himself up outside a Nairobi hotel this month, launching an attack that killed 21 people, was already so well-known to Kenyan police that they had emblazoned his face across billboards under the slogan "WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE". Mahir Khalid Riziki was barely 20 when he joined a radical Islamist cell that assassinated police in his home town of Mombasa, officers said. His mosque in the coastal Kenyan city funneled recruits to the Somalia-based Islamist group al Shabaab, which claimed the Jan. 15 attack in Nairobi. China's military-run space station in Argentina is a 'black box'

When China built a military-run space station in Argentina's Patagonian region it promised to include a visitors' center to explain the purpose of its powerful 16-story antenna. The center is now built - behind the 8-foot barbed wire fence that surrounds the entire space station compound. Visits are by appointment only. European powers launch mechanism for trade with Iran

France, Germany and Britain have set up a European mechanism for non-dollar trade with Iran to avert U.S. sanctions, although diplomats acknowledged it is unlikely to yield big commercial transactions Tehran says it needs to keep a nuclear deal afloat. Washington's major European allies opposed last year's decision by President Donald Trump to abandon the 2015 deal, under which international sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for Tehran accepting curbs on its nuclear program. EU parliament recognizes Guaido as Venezuelan interim president

The European Parliament recognized Venezuela's self-declared interim president Juan Guaido as the de-facto head of state on Thursday, a symbolic step that lawmakers said was designed to keep pressure on President Nicolas Maduro. EU lawmakers voted in a non-binding resolution to recognize Guaido as interim leader and called on all EU governments to follow suit.