Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Think-tank report on Uighur labor in China lists global brands

Tens of thousands of ethnic Uighurs were moved to work in conditions suggestive of "forced labor" in factories across China supplying 83 global brands, an Australian think tank said in a report released on Sunday. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report, which cited government documents and local media reports, identified a network of at least 27 factories in nine Chinese provinces where more than 80,000 Uighurs from the western region of Xinjiang have been transferred. Child drowns at sea off Greece in first fatality after Turkey opens border

A child died after being pulled from the sea when a boat capsized on Monday off the Greek island of Lesbos, Greek officials said, the first reported fatality since Turkey opened its border last week to let migrants reach Europe. Separately, two Turkish security sources told Reuters a Syrian migrant had died from injuries on Monday after Greek security forces intervened to prevent migrants crossing from Turkey into Greece, but Athens branded the claim "fake news". Russia, Turkey may have carried out war crimes in Syria, U.N. says

Russia killed civilians in air strikes in Syria and rebels allied to Turkey carried out murder and pillage in Kurdish areas, U.N. investigators said on Monday, actions it said could amount to war crimes by both Moscow and Ankara. A report by a U.N. commission, covering the period from July, 2019 to Feb 2020, found that Russia conducted air strikes on a popular market and a camp for displaced people that killed dozens of civilians in July and August. South Korea seeks murder charges as coronavirus kills more than 3,000 worldwide

South Korea sought murder charges against leaders of a secretive church at the center of a ballooning coronavirus outbreak in the country on Monday as the global death toll rose above 3,000. World stock markets regained some calm as hopes for global interest rate cuts to soften the economic blow of the virus steadied nerves after last week's worst plunge since the 2008 financial crisis. Inquiry into London's Grenfell fire suspended as protesters shout 'what's the point?'

The inquiry into the fire the killed 72 people at London's Grenfell Tower was briefly suspended on Monday as protesters started shouting out, angered by a decision to partially shield some witnesses from prosecution. Yells of "it's a disgrace" came from the public seating as the inquiry started hearing evidence on the refurbishment of the tower in the years leading up to the June 2017 blaze. Taliban rules out taking part in Afghan talks until prisoners released

Taliban militants will not take part in intra-Afghan talks until about 5,000 of its prisoners are released, a spokesman said on Monday, presenting a major possible barrier to ending the war. Under an accord between the United States and the Islamist Taliban signed on Saturday, the two sides are committed to working toward the release of combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure. Wristwatch overshadows South Korea sect leader's coronavirus apology

When the elderly leader of a South Korean religious sect knelt before the nation on Monday, he had hoped to defuse public anger over his church's role in spreading the coronavirus. Yet Lee Man-hee's apology for the national "calamity" instead whipped up more outrage - due to a watch he was wearing. North Korea fires two short-range missiles into eastern sea, South Korea says

North Korea fired two short-range missiles off the east coast into the sea on Monday, resuming testing after a three-month pause, South Korea's military said. The missiles were launched from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan and flew 240 km (149 miles) and reached 35 km in altitude, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. North Korea has launched a series of missiles from the area in the past. 'No sense of celebration' as Israel holds third election in a year

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought re-election on Monday under the weight of an imminent corruption trial, with the country's third ballot in less than a year predicted to end in another deadlock. The election follows inconclusive votes last April and September that dimmed the aura of political invincibility once enjoyed by Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who has denied wrongdoing in the three graft cases against him. Clashes in strategic north Syrian town after Turkish strikes

Syrian government forces battled to recapture a strategic rebel-held town in Idlib province on Monday and a Turkish official said Ankara would continue to strike President Bashar al-Assad's troops after escalating its military operations at the weekend. Syrian state television broadcast live footage from inside Saraqeb, which lies on the country's main north-south highway, and said it was under government control. Rebels denied the report, saying they still held the town despite heavy shelling.