Reuters World News Summary

An international team of investigators is expected to travel to China in January, the WHO said on Thursday, more than a year after the first identified cluster of COVID-19 infections was linked to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.

With investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) set to visit China next year, residents of Wuhan are saying they want the team to come to the central city, hoping they could prove the virus did not originate there. An international team of investigators is expected to travel to China in January, the WHO said on Thursday, more than a year after the first identified cluster of COVID-19 infections was linked to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan. Britain, EU strike pessimistic tone in post-Brexit trade talks

Britain and the European Union struck a pessimistic tone in trade talks on Thursday, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was "very likely" there would be no agreement unless the bloc changed its position "substantially". Just over two weeks before Britain finally leaves the bloc's orbit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was also downbeat, saying it would be "very challenging" to overcome the "big differences" that remained. Retired medics, armies enlisted for Europe's vaccine push

(Reuters) - Student medics, retired doctors, pharmacists and soldiers are being drafted into a European COVID-19 vaccination campaign of unprecedented scale, beginning just after Christmas. As coronavirus cases continue to rise in a pandemic that has killed nearly half a million Europeans, the EU announced on Thursday that a bloc-wide inoculation campaign would begin on Dec. 27, four days after European authorities are expected to give approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. India's Supreme Court declines calls to ban farmers' protest

India's Supreme Court on Friday declined calls to ban a weeks-long farmers' protest and asked the government and unions to help form a committee of experts to mediate between them. "We make it clear that we recognize the fundamental right to protest against a law. There is no question of balancing or curtailing it. But it should not damage anyone's life or property," Chief Justice S. A. Bobde said. French court sentences Thalys train attacker to life in jail

An Islamist militant who opened fire aboard a high-speed train travelling through northern Europe but was overpowered by three Americans before he killed anyone was sentenced to life in jail by a French court on Friday. Moroccan national Ayoub el Khazzani was heavily armed when he launched his attack moments after the Thalys train crossed into France from Belgium on Aug. 21, 2015. Nigerian security forces rescue more than 300 schoolboys kidnapped by gunmen

Security forces on Thursday rescued nearly 350 schoolboys who had been kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria and taken into a vast forest, the governor of Katsina state said, bringing relief to many families. It was not immediately clear whether all the missing boys had been recovered. Second COVID-19 wave hits West & Central Africa as weather cools

A second wave of coronavirus infections is hitting West and Central Africa, and experts are warning it could be worse than the first as cooler weather descends on a region where most countries cannot afford a vaccine. Nigeria, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo and Democratic Republic of Congo are all at or near record levels of infection, data compiled by Reuters shows. Infections in Senegal are also rising fast. Macron tests positive for COVID-19, European leaders rush for tests

President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days. Macron, who will turn 43 on Monday, is running France remotely and has gone into quarantine at the presidential retreat of La Lanterne close to the Palace of Versailles, the presidency said. Rome homeless send sunflowers to pope on 84th birthday

Rome's homeless sent sunflowers to Pope Francis for his 84th birthday on Thursday and the pontiff marked the day by sending four ventilators to hospitals in Venezuela, the Vatican said. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the flowers would be used to adorn the altar in Francis's residence and the ventilators sent to Venezuela would be used primarily to help children with lung diseases. Canada floats idea of North American ban on new gasoline-powered cars

Canada wants deeper environmental ties with the United States and one result could be a North American ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks, a senior cabinet member said on Thursday. Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Ottawa and the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden both agreed zero emissions vehicles needed to be deployed faster.