World News Roundup: In quake-hit Puerto Rico; Russia seizes Japan fishing boat and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Iran social media posts calling for more protests after the plane disaster

Iranian social media posts urged citizens to take to the streets for a fifth day on Wednesday after public anger erupted following the belated admission by the authorities that they had shot down a passenger plane in error last week. Protesters, with students at the forefront, have staged daily rallies in Tehran and other cities since Saturday, when the authorities admitted their role in bringing down a Ukrainian plane last week, killing all 176 aboard, after days of denials.

In quake-hit Puerto Rico, even the bees are fleeing their homes

Puerto Rican bees are abandoning hives as weeks of earthquakes disrupt colonies, experts said, raising concerns that a subspecies seen as a possible solution to the global bee crisis could take another hit after being decimated by hurricanes in 2017. Bees have deserted up to 25% of hives in towns like Guayanilla in southern Puerto Rico after hundreds of tremors and a 6.4 magnitude earthquake rattled the area, said Hermes Conde, director of the island's Eastern Apiculture School. The quakes have shifted the position of many hives, confused returning bees and caused destruction inside the wooden boxes, he said.

Russia seizes Japan fishing boat near disputed islands

Russian authorities have seized a Japanese cod fishing boat and taken it to a Russian-controlled island claimed by Japan, media reports and a fishermen's association said on Wednesday. Six fishermen were on the boat but further details were not known, an official at Habomai fishermen's cooperative association in Japan's northern region of Hokkaido, said

. Gray pineapples: Volcano devastates Philippines farm

Farmer Jack Imperial woke to a picture of devastation after ash spewed from a volcano in the Philippines - his verdant green pineapple field had been transformed into a dirty dark gray. Imperial said his chances of salvaging produce from his 1-hectare (2.5-acre) farm were small and, in any case, there was no one to sell them to with tourists avoiding the Tagaytay area on the archipelago's biggest island Luzon, 32 km (20 miles) from the Taal volcano.

Iran rejects the idea of a new 'Trump deal' in nuclear row

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed on Wednesday a proposal for a new "Trump deal" aimed at resolving a nuclear row, saying it was a "strange" offer and criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump for always breaking promises. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has praised Trump as a great dealmaker, called on Tuesday for the president to replace Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with major powers with his own new pact to ensure Tehran does not get an atomic weapon.

Germany sets out broad aims for Berlin Libya conference

Berlin hopes to get all international players to use their influence to push for progress on Libya peace talks, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, setting out modest ambitions for a Berlin peace conference this weekend. Spokesman Rainer Breul said the aim was "broader" than the Moscow conference, whose aim had been to secure a ceasefire. Displaced and scared: Yemenis still in limbo after almost five years of war

Widow Samirah Nasser and her eight children tried to return to their Yemeni village but were forced by relentless airstrikes to return to the relative safety of a refugee camp. Shivering through yet another camp winter, she is one of 3.6 million Yemenis - around 12% of the population - displaced during a nearly five-year war that has spawned what the United Nations says is the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis.

Putin proposes to vote on constitutional shake-up that could extend his rule

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday proposed a nationwide vote on sweeping constitutional changes that would shift power from the presidency to parliament and the prime minister, a move that could allow him to extend his rule after leaving the Kremlin. In power as either president or prime minister since 1999, Putin, 67, is due to step down in 2024 when his fourth presidential term ends.

Exclusive: U.N. sanctions experts warn - stay away from North Korea cryptocurrency conference

United Nations sanctions experts are warning people not to attend a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea in February, flagging it as a likely sanctions violation, according to a confidential report due to be submitted to the U.N. Security Council later this month. The warning comes after the independent U.N. experts told the council in August that North Korea generated an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programs using "widespread and increasingly sophisticated" cyberattacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges.

U.N. official blames politicians for Lebanon 'chaos', protesters target banks

Lebanese politicians are watching on as the economy collapses and protests turn angry, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday, rebuking a ruling elite that has failed to agree on a government or rescue plan for a country in deep crisis. With banks tightly limiting access to cash, lenders were targeted in a night of violent protests in Beirut's Hamra district. Bank facades and ATMs were smashed and dozens of people wounded in confrontations with police.