Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Iran confirms second failed satellite launch: NBC News

Iran bid to launch a second satellite in the past two months has failed, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with NBC News published on Friday. Its effort to launch a satellite last month also failed. Despite both failures, Zarif's confirmation is likely to raise tensions with the United States, which is concerned the long-range ballistic technology used to send satellites into space could also be used to launch warheads. U.S. and Iceland boost trade ties, discuss Arctic security

The United States and Iceland have agreed to set up formal economic channels to boost trade and business investment, the countries' top diplomats said on Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the NATO ally in the north Atlantic on Friday, also to discuss security relations and China and Russia's growing presence in the Arctic. U.S. raises pressure on Maduro via sanctions, aid airlift

The United States ratcheted up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday by sanctioning some of his top security officials and the head of the state oil company, and unveiling plans to airlift over 200 tons of aid to the Colombian border. The U.S. Treasury said it sanctioned PDVSA chief Manuel Quevedo, three top intelligence officials and Rafael Bastardo, who U.S. officials say is the head of a national police unit responsible for dozens of extrajudicial killings carried out in nighttime raids on Maduro's behalf. Acting Pentagon chief says committed to defeating Islamic State, but allies skeptical

Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Friday the United States was committed to defeating Islamic State in the Middle East and beyond, but officials said European allies were skeptical of Washington's pledges. U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement in December that he was withdrawing all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria surprised and rattled allies. U.S. officials have crisscrossed the Middle East in recent weeks to reassure them that Washington remains committed to the region. Brazil arrests eight Vale employees in alleged cover-up in dam disaster

Brazilian police arrested eight employees of mining firm Vale SA on Friday, accused by state prosecutors of covering up weaknesses at a dam that collapsed and likely killed more than 300 people. Police also executed 14 search warrants as part of the probe of the country's deadliest mining disaster, prosecutors in the mining state of Minas Gerais said. Thirty years on, some Russians want to reframe Soviet war in Afghanistan

Thirty years after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, some Russian politicians are calling for a reassessment of the conflict which critics have long cast as a bloody foreign adventure akin to the U.S. war in Vietnam. Moscow completed the pullout of its troops on Feb. 15, 1989 after a nine-year war that claimed the lives of 14,000 Soviet nationals, many of them repatriated secretly in zinc coffins. Soviet deputies voted in a resolution that same year to formally condemn the intervention. Venezuela opposition's U.S. envoy has no 'crystal ball' on Maduro exit

The Venezuelan opposition’s envoy to the United States said on Friday there was no telling how long it would take to oust President Nicolas Maduro but that efforts to end his rule were "irreversible," despite the failure so far to convince the military to abandon him. In an interview with Reuters, Carlos Vecchio, opposition leader Juan Guaido’s representative in Washington, pushed back against growing perceptions the U.S.-backed campaign to remove Maduro peacefully has stalled since Guaido declared himself interim president more than three weeks ago. Exclusive: U.S. may trim over 1,000 troops from Afghanistan in belt-tightening - general

Even before any peace push-related drawdowns, the U.S. military is expected to trim troop levels in Afghanistan as part of an efficiency drive by the new commander, a U.S. general told Reuters on Friday, estimating the cuts may exceed 1,000 forces. U.S. President Donald Trump told Congress this month he intended to reduce U.S. forces from Afghanistan as negotiators make progress in talks with Taliban insurgents, saying: "Great nations do not fight endless wars." Exclusive: Ex-wife of Russian killed in Syria tells Kremlin - come clean

Olga Markelova's ex-husband was killed two years ago on a clandestine mission in Syria for the Russian state. Now she wants the Kremlin to take responsibility for him and scores of other fighters who died in its service. Exclusive: U.S. general recommends arming, aiding Syrian fighters after pullout

The United States should keep arming and aiding the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) following the planned U.S. withdrawal from Syria, provided the group keeps up the pressure on Islamic State, a senior U.S. general told Reuters on Friday. The recommendation by Army General Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East as head of Central Command, is one of the strongest signs yet of U.S. military hopes for an enduring partnership with the SDF despite the concerns of NATO ally Turkey, which says Kurdish SDF fighters are terrorists.