Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. USAID assistance in the West Bank and Gaza has ceased: U.S. official

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has ceased all assistance to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, a U.S. official said on Friday. The decision was linked to a Jan. 31 deadline set by new U.S. legislation under which foreign aid recipients would be more exposed to anti-terrorism lawsuits. Pope wants 'new page in history' on first trip to Arabian peninsula

Pope Francis is hoping to persuade a country enmeshed in a regional war that he has condemned to give Catholics more freedom when he becomes the first pontiff to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula. Francis will spend less than 48 hours in the United Arab Emirates, which is fighting alongside Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war, and is due to make only two public addresses during the trip that starts on Sunday night. Forty years since revolution, Iran taunts 'declining' America

Forty years after its revolution, Iran has no fear of a "declining" America, a senior cleric said on Friday at the start of official commemorations of the uprising that made the country a permanent enemy of the United States. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a famously hardline cleric who is the secretary of the Guardian Council, a body with huge influence over the way Iran is run, used his speech to mock the leadership of President Donald Trump. Disappearing textbook highlights debate in China over academic freedom

A constitutional law textbook written by one China's best-known reform-minded legal scholars has been pulled from book shops, apparently the latest text to run afoul of a government campaign against "Western influence". The author, Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University known for his advocacy of constitutionalism and judicial reform, dismissed any suggestion his writing excessively promoted Western ideas as "utter nonsense", and said the academic world should not be politicized. One-time presidential hopeful jailed in South Korean #MeToo scandal

A former South Korean provincial governor who once ran for presidential nomination was jailed for three and a half years on Friday for molesting an aide after his earlier acquittal was overturned in one of the country's most high-profile #MeToo cases. An Hee-jung had been a rising star in South Korea’s ruling party before he quit in March 2018, hours after the aide accused him of repeated sexual assault. EU irks Britain by calling Gibraltar 'colony'

Britain could get visa-free access to the European Union for its citizens even after no-deal Brexit but objected on Friday to language used in the proposed EU regulation which described Gibraltar as a "colony". The row highlighted strains over the territory on Spain's southern coast as Britain quits the Union and the remainder of the EU states swing the bloc's policies behind Spain, which is taking advantage of Brexit to ramp up its claim to "The Rock". Brazil's Vale knew of risk to area hit by deadly mine disaster: Folha de S.Paulo

Brazil's Vale knew as recently as last year that some of the areas hit by last week's deadly mining disaster were at risk if its tailings dam burst, according to an internal Vale study published by a local newspaper on Friday. The study seen by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo represents a fresh embarrassment for the world's largest iron ore miner, which has come under intense pressure over the burst tailings dam at its Corrego do Feijao mine last Friday. Hungary opposition unites in challenge to government's overhaul of courts

Hungary's often-divided opposition parties came together on Friday to urge the country's top court to investigate an overhaul of the justice system, which they say could make it vulnerable to government influence. The rare unified political front against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government was forged by concerns about new administrative courts which, from January 2020, will hear cases about government business such as taxation and elections. Jailed Reuters journalists appeal to Myanmar's top court as rights group decries 'fear'

Lawyers for two Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar for breaking a colonial-era official secrets law appealed to the Supreme Court on Friday against their conviction, as a rights group said the government wielded repressive laws against peaceful critics. The appeal, citing evidence of a police set-up and lack of proof of a crime, came as New York-based Human Rights Watch said Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's government had dashed hopes for Myanmar's first democratic leader in decades to protect free speech. Venezuela's Guaido courts Russia; powers divided on Maduro

Global jostling intensified on Thursday between countries that want Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in power and those trying to force him to resign, as opposition leader Juan Guaido made overtures to his rival's allies Russia and China. Guaido told Reuters he had sent communications to both powers, which are Venezuela's top foreign creditors and support Maduro in the U.N. Security Council despite worries about the cash-strapped country's ability to pay.