Reuters World News Summary

The 47-year-old will miss Christmas at home and he thinks the official excuse for the border closures - a new variant of the novel coronavirus spreading fast across southern England - is nonsense. Much of the world shut its borders to Britain after a significantly more transmissible mutated coronavirus variant was discovered spreading swiftly across southern England.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. China 'mines' ice from river to build frozen castles, pagoda

For more than 300 "ice miners" in Harbin, work begins in the numbing cold before dawn every day on the frozen Songhua, a broad river that winds its way through the northeastern Chinese city. Wielding long ice picks, the workers break up the frozen surface of the kilometre-wide river into crate-sized blocks of ice. WHO members to meet on Wednesday on new virus variant

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called a meeting of members for Wednesday to discuss strategies to counter a new, more infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain. A spokeswoman said the meeting was designed to help with information-sharing. Europe crosses 500,000 COVID-19 deaths as new variant spreads - Reuters tally

Europe became the first region worldwide to cross 500,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as a new variant of the coronavirus discovered in Britain threatened the region's prevention measures to curb the pandemic. Reports of the mutated variant out of England prompted a pre-Christmas lockdown and have forced dozens of countries close their borders to British travelers this week. 'Good riddance,' China says as Germany leaves U.N. Security Council

Germany's U.N. envoy, during his last scheduled U.N. Security Council meeting, appealed to China to free two detained Canadians for Christmas, prompting China's deputy U.N. envoy to respond: "Out of the bottom of my heart: Good riddance." Germany finishes a two-year term on the 15-member council at the end of this month and Ambassador Christoph Heusgen plans to retire after more than 40 years as a diplomat. Exclusive: India likely to approve AstraZeneca vaccine by next week- sources

India is likely to approve Oxford/AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by next week after its local manufacturer submitted additional data sought by authorities, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. This could be the first country to give the regulatory green light for the British drugmaker's vaccine as the British medicine regulator continues to examine data from the trials. A mysterious village murder raises questions in Lebanon

When Joe Bejjany was shot with a silencer as he got ready to take his two daughters to pre-school, it shocked not only his mountain village but a country already on edge. No clear motive has so far surfaced for the murder of the 36-year-old Lebanese telecoms employee and freelance photographer on Monday. But that did not stop local media and people wondering aloud whether it was linked to an ongoing investigation into August's devastating blast at Beirut port. Exclusive: Leonardo hack targeted military plane details, arrest warrant shows

An investigation into a data theft at Leonardo has found that a hacker working inside the Italian defence group appeared to target details of Europe's biggest unmanned fighter jet programme and aircraft used by the military and police, an arrest warrant shows. The inquiry, which is ongoing, was undertaken by Italian police's cybercrime divisions in Rome and Naples and Naples prosecutors. It began in January 2017 when Leonardo told police of an abnormal outflow of data from some of its computers. Anger grows as truckers stranded in England miss Christmas at home

Dan Jinca, a Romanian truck driver stranded in England after much of the world shut its borders to Britain, is angry, and he is not alone. The 47-year-old will miss Christmas at home and he thinks the official excuse for the border closures - a new variant of the novel coronavirus spreading fast across southern England - is nonsense. Coronavirus reaches end of earth as first outbreak hits Antarctica

The coronavirus has landed in Antarctica, the last continent previously free from COVID-19, Chile's military said this week, as health and army officials scrambled to clear out and quarantine staff from a remote research station surrounded by ocean and icebergs. Chile's armed forces said at least 36 people had been infected at its Bernardo O'Higgins base, including 26 army personnel and 10 civilian contractors conducting maintenance at the base. France to reopen border with England for COVID-clear travellers

France will reopen its borders to passengers from England on Wednesday, ending a blockade intended to stop the spread of a new coronavirus variant, but which has held up thousands of lorries before Christmas. Much of the world shut its borders to Britain after a significantly more transmissible mutated coronavirus variant was discovered spreading swiftly across southern England.