Reuters World News Summary

There are at least 170 "prisoners of conscience" in Vietnam, the report said, of which around 70 are currently serving jail terms for online activism, mainly on Facebook and Google's YouTube.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Saudi Arabia agrees to allow Israeli commercial planes to cross its airspace: senior Trump official

Saudi Arabia agreed on Monday to let Israeli airliners cross its airspace en route to the United Arab Emirates after talks between Saudi officials and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, a senior Trump administration official said. Kushner and Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook raised the issue shortly after they arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks. "We were able to reconcile the issue," the official told Reuters. Democracy darkens: Hong Kong activists reel from Chinese moves

Prince Wong was still in her mother's womb when the Chinese government reclaimed control over Hong Kong from the British in the summer of 1997. She was born nearly three months later, on September 27, into what some here call the city's "cursed generation." For her 23rd birthday this year, Wong posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing a pastel-striped paper hat trimmed with pink pompoms. She has a slight smile on her face as she looks down at her birthday cake, a moment of celebration at odds with her words below: "There are great sorrows in life that cannot be washed away with tears. Is life always so painful? Or is it only when I was young?" Macron's party backtracks on plan to curb filming of police officers

French President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party agreed on Monday to completely rewrite a draft plan that would have curbed the freedom to share images identifying police officers, after large protests over the weekend against police violence. More than 133,000 people, including 46,000 in Paris alone, demonstrated against the draft bill and in favour of free speech on Saturday. Vietnam steps up online crackdown, jailed activists at record high: Amnesty

The number of political prisoners in Vietnam has reached its highest on record, according to a tally by Amnesty International, which in a report on Tuesday accused Facebook and Google of censorship in the Southeast Asian country. There are at least 170 "prisoners of conscience" in Vietnam, the report said, of which around 70 are currently serving jail terms for online activism, mainly on Facebook and Google's YouTube. In Sudan camp, a Tigray farmer once displaced by famine now shelters from war

Ethiopian farmer Berhan Halie came to Sudan 35 years ago to escape hunger. Now 65 and walking with a stick, he is back again, this time to escape the bullets and bombs of the conflict in Tigray, fleeing from his village as neighbours lay dead on the ground. Threats, detentions and frozen assets: Nigeria's protesters depict pattern of intimidation

At 7 a.m. on a recent Saturday, Onomene Adene received a call from a man whose voice she did not recognise. The man said he knew her from church and asked for help getting a package to their pastor. She agreed to meet him at a bank near her home in the Nigerian city of Lagos. Scotland's Sturgeon hints at legal move if independence vote blocked

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday ramped up her calls for a new Scottish independence referendum, declining to rule out another vote next year and hinting she might go to court for permission to hold one if London tried to block it. Scots rejected independence in 2014 but Brexit and the British government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis have bolstered support for secession, with most polls showing a majority now favour breaking away from the United Kingdom. Iran opposition suspected alongside Israel in scientist's killing, Shamkani says

A senior Iranian official said on Monday an opposition group was suspected alongside Israel in the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist, an attack that has raised the prospect of a new standoff between Tehran and its longtime enemy. Iran's English-language Press TV reported the weapon used in Friday's killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was made in Israel. Argentines celebrate 'eternal love' for Maradona with tattoos

Under his shirt, pizza shop owner Guillermo Rodriguez is a walking shrine to Diego Maradona. His entire back is covered in tattoos depicting the soccer great, whose death last week at the age of 60 inspired enormous grief in Argentina and beyond. "It is something beautiful to live with him, so for us he did not die, he will continue being there for all of us, the love we have is eternal," said Rodriguez, whose pizza store is called "Siempre al 10", referring to Maradona's jersey's number. NATO must focus more on challenge of rising China, report to say

NATO must think harder about how to handle China and its military rise, though Russia will remain its main adversary during this decade, according to a report to be published on Tuesday on reforming the Atlantic alliance. The report "NATO 2030", prepared by a group of so-called 'wise persons' and containing 138 proposals, comes amid growing doubts about the purpose and relevance of an alliance branded last year by French President Emmanuel Macron as "brain dead".