Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Exclusive: Hackers acting in Turkey's interests believed to be behind recent cyberattacks - sources

Sweeping cyberattacks targeting governments and other organizations in Europe and the Middle East are believed to be the work of hackers acting in the interests of the Turkish government, three senior Western security officials said. The hackers have attacked at least 30 organizations, including government ministries, embassies and security services as well as companies and other groups, according to a Reuters review of public internet records. Victims have included Cypriot and Greek government email services and the Iraqi government's national security advisor, the records show. North Korea urges citizens to 'break through barriers' as nuclear standoff continues

While a North Korean deadline for the United States to soften its stand on denuclearization talks passed uneventfully over the New Year, state media and propaganda efforts have been focusing on the prospect of a long confrontation with the United States. Optimism that two years of contacts between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump would usher in a new age, and related hopes for economic improvement after decades of deprivation, appear to have faded. Trump to present Middle East plan to Israeli leaders on Monday

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to disclose details of his Middle East peace plan to Israeli leaders on Monday as Palestinian officials decried it as a bid "to finish off" the Palestinian cause. Trump will meet separately with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist opposition leader Benny Gantz in Washington over his long-delayed proposals, which have been kept secret. Italy's Salvini loses key regional vote, in relief for government

Italy's right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini failed to overturn decades of leftist rule in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna on Sunday in an election that brought relief to the center-left and the embattled government. Salvini had campaigned relentlessly in the region since the start of the year, seeking a shock victory that he hoped would bring down the national coalition government, which includes the PD and is riven by internal strife. China extends holiday, businesses shut as virus toll rises to 81

The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 on Monday, as the government extended the Lunar New Year holiday and more big businesses shut down or told staff to work from home in an effort to curb the spread. Premier Li Keqiang visited the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, as the central government stepped up its response while city authorities faced growing accusations from the public of mismanagement and a failure to respond to the outbreak in time. Aircraft crashes in central Afghan province

An aircraft crashed in central Afghanistan on Monday and authorities were trying to locate the wreckage in a mountainous area which is partly controlled by the Taliban, officials said. Two officials from Ghazni province said the crashed aircraft appeared to belong to a foreign company, and not to state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines as officials had previously believed. German Auschwitz prosecutor recalls powerful tales from Holocaust survivors

Of the hundreds of testimonies he heard from survivors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, retired German prosecutor Gerhard Wiese says the one that touched him most was of a Jewish father who had tried but failed to save his twins from the gas chamber. The father had offered his children to Josef Mengele, the Nazi officer known as the Angel of Death for his inhumane genetic experiments focused on twins, hoping they stood a better chance of survival. Inquiry into London's deadly Grenfell fire begins asking who was to blame

A public inquiry into the 2017 fire at London's Grenfell Tower, which killed 72 people, began to zero in on Monday on how the densely populated social housing block was allowed to become a tinder box and who was to blame. The 23-storey tower, owned by the wealthy west London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, was destroyed on the night of June 14, 2017, in Britain's worst fire in a residential building since World War Two. Two Iraq protesters killed as anti-government unrest persists

Unidentified gunmen shot dead two protesters in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya after security forces began a crackdown on months-long demonstrations against the country's largely Iran-backed ruling elite. At least 75 protesters were wounded, mainly by live bullets, in clashes in Nassiriya overnight when security forces attempted to move them away from bridges in the city, police and health source said. Protests against Gambia president bring 137 arrests, multiple injuries

Gambian police arrested 137 people and more than two dozen were injured as protests calling for President Adama Barrow to honor a pledge to step down after three years in office turned violent for the first time, the government said. Barrow came to power after a 2016 election, ending 22 years of authoritarian rule by Yahya Jammeh. But he has reneged on his campaign promise to step down by this month, saying the constitution requires him to serve out a full five-year term.

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