World News Roundup: French President Macron improving after COVID diagnosis; Indonesian military says troops suspected of killing 2 Papuan civilians and more

Israel hopes for rapprochement with fifth Muslim country before Trump exit - minister Israel is working towards formalising relations with a fifth Muslim country, possibly in Asia, during U.S. President Donald Trump's term, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Wednesday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

French President Macron improving after COVID diagnosis - presidency

French President Emmanuel Macron's health is showing signs of improvement after he tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 17, his office said on Wednesday. Macron has been has been self-isolating at Versailles, and BFM TV this week broadcast live images of him chairing a government ministerial meeting via an audiovisual link.

Insider Bazoum emerges as likely winner in Niger's first democratic transfer of power

In a year marked by setbacks for West African democracy, Niger is poised to hold an election on Sunday that will lead to the country's first transition of power between two freely elected presidents. President Mahamadou Issoufou is stepping aside after two five-year terms, in contrast to leaders in Ivory Coast and Guinea who used constitutional changes to extend their tenures to three terms.

Dutch prosecutors asked to check whether Dutch soldiers killed Afghan civilians

The Dutch Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it had asked prosecutors to look into a report by a war veteran that Dutch soldiers fired at and may have killed civilians in the Afghan province of Uruzgan in 2007. The ministry responded to a report by the Dutch veteran, who said he had been ordered to fire heavy artillery at a cluster of houses in the Chora valley because his superiors suspected a Taliban presence there.

Indonesian military says troops suspected of killing 2 Papuan civilians

Indonesia's military on Wednesday named nine soldiers as suspects in the killing in April of two civilians in the country's Papua region, as part of a state probe into violence this year in an area beset by separatist conflict. The military is conducting an internal investigation as part of a fact-finding mission that started in October into several incidents in the Intan Jaya district, including the fatal shooting of a Christian pastor in September. HK court grants tycoon Jimmy Lai bail in national security, fraud case

A Hong Kong court granted HK$10 million ($1.3 million) bail on Wednesday to media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the highest profile pro-democracy activist charged under the city's new national security law on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. An immediate appeal by the prosecution was then denied on the same day. COVID testing chaos infuriates stranded truckers in English port

Truck drivers trapped along hundreds of miles of roads near the southern English port of Dover are facing a riddle: to travel to France they must have a COVID-19 test but they say there are no tests to be had. After turning parts of southern England into a vast truck parking lot by closing the border to incoming freight, France opened its border on Wednesday to truckers who have a negative COVID test that is less than 72 hours old. Brexit trade talks difficult as EU and UK still split on key issues

Britain and the European Union remained divided over competition and fishing on Wednesday as they tried to clinch a Brexit trade deal in time to avoid a turbulent split at the end of the year. Ireland said a deal was still possible before Britain leaves the EU's orbit on Dec. 31, 11 months after it formally quit the bloc and entered a transition period keeping it in the bloc's customs union and single market until the year ends. Turkish journalist gets 27 years in absentia for espionage

Turkish journalist Can Dundar was sentenced in absentia to 27 years and six months in prison for espionage and aiding an armed terrorist organisation, his lawyers said on Wednesday, calling the verdict politically motivated. Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, and a colleague, Erdem Gul, were both sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for publishing a video purporting to show Turkish intelligence trucking weapons into Syria. They were later released pending appeal. Senators Cruz, Rubio warn Pacific ally on Chinese bid for undersea cable project

Prominent U.S. lawmakers warned a Pacific ally that China risked undermining the security of a sensitive undersea cable project if a cut-price, state-backed bid wins a tender process overseen by development agencies, a letter reviewed by Reuters shows. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday rejected the accusation as lies. Israel hopes for rapprochement with fifth Muslim country before Trump exit - minister

Israel is working towards formalising relations with a fifth Muslim country, possibly in Asia, during U.S. President Donald Trump's term, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Wednesday. The White House has brokered rapprochements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco this year. Rabat hosted an Israeli-U.S. delegation on Tuesday to flesh out the upgrade in relations.