Reuters World News Summary

U.N. envoy plans trip to Yemen and Saudi Arabia after Aden attack U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths will visit Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the next few days to meet with the Yemeni president and senior Saudi officials following an attack on Aden airport last week, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Ex-chairman of China Huarong Asset Management sentenced to death

The former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co has been sentenced to death, a court in the northern city of Tianjin said on Tuesday, in one of the country's highest profile corruption cases. Lai Xiaomin was convicted of receiving or seeking bribes totalling 1.788 billion yuan ($276.72 million) from 2008 to 2018, when he was also a senior banking regulator, according to the Secondary Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin. Vietnam jails journalists for 'propaganda' critical of state

A court in Vietnam on Tuesday sentenced three freelance journalists known for their criticism of government to between 11 and 15 years in prison, after finding them guilty of spreading anti-state propaganda. Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Le Huu Minh Tuan were convicted of "making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the state" at a one-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Public Security said. EU worried about Iran enrichment, aims to save nuclear accord

The European Commission said on Tuesday it regretted that Iran has resumed 20% uranium enrichment at an underground nuclear facility, breaching a 2015 nuclear pact, but believed that the accord was worth saving. "We are highly concerned by the measures taken by Iran. This action is in breach of Iran's nuclear commitments and will have serious implications," a spokesman for the Commission told a regular briefing. "It is regrettable but it is also highly important and ... that we maintain the agreement," he said. Britons ordered to stay at home as third national lockdown begins

Britain began its third COVID-19 lockdown on Tuesday with citizens under orders to stay at home and the government calling for one last major national effort to stem the virus before mass vaccinations turn the tide. Finance minister Rishi Sunak announced a new package of business grants worth 4.6 billion pounds ($6.2 billion) to help keep people in jobs and firms afloat until measures are relaxed gradually, at the earliest from mid-February but likely later. Pakistan's Hazara say no end to Quetta sit-in without justice for slain miners

Members of the Shi'ite Hazara minority in Pakistan who have blockaded a highway in Quetta with the bodies of slain coal miners said on Tuesday they will not withdraw until Prime Minister Imran Khan meets them and the killers are brought to justice. Islamic State militants slit the throats of 11 miners in a residential compound near a mine site in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Sunday, filming the entire incident and later posting it online. Saudi and Qatari leaders hug before summit focused on Gulf detente

Gulf Arab leaders arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a summit focused on ending a long-running dispute with Qatar as Washington pushes for a united Gulf front to contain Iran. Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was met in the historic city of al-Ula by de facto Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The two men, wearing face masks, embraced on the tarmac. Iran denies seized Korean ship and crew are being held as hostages

Iran denied on Tuesday it was using a South Korean ship and its crew as hostages, a day after it seized the tanker in the Gulf while pressing a demand for Seoul to release $7 billion in funds frozen under U.S. sanctions. The seizure of the MT Hankuk Chemi and its 20-member crew near the strategic Strait of Hormuz has been seen as an attempt by Tehran to assert its demands, just two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office in the United States. Iran tests drones in military exercise

Iran launched exercises featuring a wide array of domestically produced drones on Tuesday, Iranian media reported, days after the anniversary of the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general by a drone strike in Iraq. Iran and the regional forces it backs have increasingly relied in recent years on drones in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf. U.N. envoy plans trip to Yemen and Saudi Arabia after Aden attack

U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths will visit Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the next few days to meet with the Yemeni president and senior Saudi officials following an attack on Aden airport last week, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Attacks on the southern port city of Aden on Dec. 30 killed at least 22 people as officials in a government backed by Riyadh arrived there. Saudi-led coalition warplanes then retaliated by striking targets in Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa the next day. At least 22 killed in eastern Congo village

At least 22 people were killed in an overnight raid on a village in a part of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo plagued by Islamist rebel attacks, local authorities said on Tuesday. The militants struck late on Monday, killing residents of Mwenda village with machetes and guns, its civil society leader Jeremi Mbweki said.