Reuters World News Summary

Belarus protest leader says she was threatened with expulsion 'alive or in bits' Belarus opposition politician Maria Kolesnikova said security officers put a bag over her head and threatened to kill her when they tried to forcibly deport her to Ukraine earlier this week, according to a complaint filed by her lawyer on Thursday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. AstraZeneca says should know if vaccine works by year-end if trials resume

AstraZeneca's chief executive Pascal Soriot said on Thursday that it should know before the end of the year whether its experimental vaccine would protect people from COVID-19, if the British drugmaker is allowed to resume trials which were paused this week. It suspended the late-stage trials after an illness in a study subject in Britain. The patient was reportedly suffering from neurological symptoms associated with a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis. As war rages, Yemeni girls find strength in kickboxing

At the center of Yemen's capital Sanaa, a city battered by years of war and months of pandemic, a row of young girls in red, white and black white uniforms pummel punching bags and practice self defense. In the corner a mother looks on in pride as a female instructor shows her daughter how to thwart an assailant with a gun. Emergency Brexit talks as EU explores UK plan to break divorce treaty

Britain and the European Union will hold emergency talks on Thursday over Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to undercut parts of the Brexit divorce treaty, a step Brussels has warned could scupper any chance of a trade deal. After Britain explicitly stated that it would act outside international law by breaching the divorce treaty, EU negotiators are trying to gauge how to deal with London after four years of tumultuous Brexit talks. Exclusive: Russian state hackers suspected in targeting Biden campaign firm – sources

Microsoft Corp recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three people briefed on the matter. The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said. School shuts in Spain's Basque Country after teachers test COVID-19 positive

Authorities in Spain's Basque Country region said on Thursday they had shut down a primary school after several teachers tested positive for COVID-19, the first to be closed entirely in the week classrooms reopened across the country. Students have begun to return to school after a six-month shutdown, prompting feelings of relief but also concerns of further infection in the country that already has the most cases in Western Europe. Navalny's condition improving, police guard stepped up: Der Spiegel

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has made further progress in his recovery from poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent and is now able to speak again, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Thursday. The Kremlin critic is being treated in Berlin's Charite hospital after being taken seriously ill on a Russian domestic flight last month. Germany has demanded Russia explain the affair, though Russia denies any involvement. Belarus protest leader says she was threatened with expulsion 'alive or in bits'

Belarus opposition politician Maria Kolesnikova said security officers put a bag over her head and threatened to kill her when they tried to forcibly deport her to Ukraine earlier this week, according to a complaint filed by her lawyer on Thursday. Kolesnikova, one of the most prominent leaders of month-long protests against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko, prevented the attempt to expel her by tearing up her passport. Paris police bans planned weekend 'Yellow Vests' protest

Police have banned a planned demonstration in Paris by the "Yellow Vests" anti-government movement this weekend, on the grounds it could result in public disorder. In a statement on Thursday, police said they were also banning the "Yellow Vests" from gathering in parts of the capital such as the Champs-Elysees, the parliament building and Notre-Dame Cathedral. Big fire at Beirut port rattles residents a month after huge explosion

A large fire erupted on Thursday at Beirut port, sending a huge column of smoke above the city a little more than a month after a massive blast devastated the port and surrounding residential area of the Lebanese capital. The blaze erupted in the shattered duty free zone of the port and one official said it was limited to that area. A migrant mother saw her disabled son walk into the U.S. Then he disappeared

On Aug. 24, after waiting for five months in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez for a U.S. asylum hearing, Elida, a Guatemalan migrant, decided to send her disabled 12-year-old son Gustavo into the United States alone. Elida feared for Gustavo's safety in Mexico, after a stranger tried to take him from her, she said. She had been told by other migrants that as an unaccompanied child Gustavo would be detained by U.S. immigration agents and then released to his grandfather who lives in South Carolina.