Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Iran government faces angry online backlash over activists' abuse claims

In early January, labor activist Esmail Bakhshi posted a letter on Instagram saying he had been tortured in jail, attracting support from tens of thousands of Iranians online. Bakhshi, who said he was still in pain, also challenged the intelligence minister, a cleric, to a public debate about the religious justification for torture. Late last month, Bakhshi was rearrested. Iran presents new Fateh submarine armed with cruise missile: TV

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday inaugurated a new domestically-built submarine armed with cruise missiles, Press TV reported. "It weighs 600 tonnes and enjoys state-of-the-art weaponry, including torpedoes, naval mines and cruise missiles that could be launched from a submerged position," it said. Iran's Zarif accuses Israel, U.S. of seeking war

Iran's foreign minister on Sunday accused Israel of looking for war and warned that its actions and those of the United States were increasing the chances of a clash in the region. Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Mohammad Javad Zarif, also criticized the U.S. administration after Vice President Mike Pence this week called on European powers to pullout of the nuclear deal with Iran. Zarif urged France, Germany and Britain to do more to save that accord. In Iraq visit, U.S. general eyes longer-term Islamic State threat

The general overseeing U.S. forces in the Middle East flew into Iraq on Sunday for talks with U.S. and Iraqi officials expected to focus on ensuring that Islamic State cannot stage a resurgence after U.S. troops withdraw from neighboring Syria. U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, made no remarks to reporters upon landing in Iraq, where he was expected to get battlefield briefings on the final push to retake the remnants of Islamic State's once vast territory in Syria. Syrian's Assad: U.S. will sell out groups relying on it

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday that Washington would not protect the groups "betting on" it, in an apparent reference to U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in the north. "The Americans will put you in their pockets so you can be tools in the barter, and they have started with (it)," he said, without naming the groups. "Nobody will protect you except your state." U.S. envoy on Syria tells allies troop withdrawal won't be abrupt

The United States will not make an abrupt and rapid withdrawal of its troops from Syria and will consult closely with its allies on the issue, its special envoy on Syria said on Sunday. "We've been telling them (allies) continuously this is not going to be an abrupt, rapid withdrawal but a step-by-step withdrawal," James Franklin Jeffrey told the Munich Security Conference, addressing concerns from allies over the U.S. decision to pullout 2,000 troops. China surveillance firm tracking millions in Xinjiang: researcher

A Chinese surveillance firm is tracking the movements of more than 2.5 million people in the far-western Xinjiang region, according to a data leak flagged by a Dutch internet expert. An online database containing names, ID card numbers, birth dates and location data was left unprotected for months by Shenzhen-based facial-recognition technology company SenseNets Technology Ltd, according to Victor Gevers, co-founder of non-profit organization GDI.Foundation, who first noted the vulnerability in a series of social media posts last week. Rouhani says Iran ready to improve ties with Gulf states

Iran is ready to work with all of its neighbors to secure peace in the Middle East in the face of U.S. and Israeli aggression, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, in his latest attempt to weaken ties between regional rival Saudi Arabia and America. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been fighting proxy wars for years, backing opposing sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Germany sees big rise in hacker attacks on infrastructure: paper

Germany has experienced a big increase in the number of hacker attacks on critical infrastructure such as power grids and water suppliers, the Welt am Sonntag weekly reported on Sunday. Citing information from the BSI federal cybersecurity agency, the newspaper said Germany had learned of 157 hacker attacks on critical infrastructure companies in the second half of 2018 compared to 145 attacks in the whole of the previous year. Miner Vale evacuates 200 people near Brazilian dam on fears of instability

Around 200 residents were evacuated from an area near a tailings dam in Brazil operated by Vale SA late on Saturday, amid fears that it was structurally weak and could burst like a similar barrier failure last month that killed 300 people. Vale said in a statement that it had evacuated people living near the inactive B3/B4 dam of the Mar Azul mine about 25 kilometers south of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, after revising security data on the structure.