Reuters World News Summary

The vote was called after an impasse that meant the Council, the only intergovernmental global body to promote and protect human rights worldwide, began meetings this week leaderless for the first time in its 15-year history.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Hong Kong civil servants given four weeks to pledge loyalty to the government

Hong Kong's 180,000 civil servants were told on Friday they had four weeks to sign a document pledging their loyalty to the Chinese-ruled city's mini-constitution and dedication to the government. More than 4,000 civil servants in the global financial hub have already made the declaration since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in June, which punishes anything China considers to be subversion, secessionism, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Erdogan hopes for positive steps on F-35 jet programme in Biden term

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he hoped positive steps will be taken on Turkey's role in the F-35 jet programme once U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office, describing Ankara's exclusion for purchasing Russian defences as a "serious wrong". Last month, Washington imposed long-anticipated sanctions on Turkey's defence industry over its acquisition of S-400 missile defence systems from Moscow, in a move Turkey called a "grave mistake". Family of Lockerbie bomber lose posthumous appeal against his conviction

The family of Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the only person found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing which killed 270, have failed to overturn his conviction after losing a posthumous appeal in a Scottish court on Friday. Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer who died in 2012, was jailed for life in 2001 after being found guilty of the murder of 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 residents of Lockerbie in the deadliest militant attack in British history. Analysis: Less for more in Turkey: costly food starves economic rebound

Food has become so expensive in Turkey that some people are spending what money they have to stock up on rice and pasta to avoid swallowing even higher prices in the months ahead. Parents have switched to discount baby biscuits, the cost of eggs has nearly doubled in a year, and a mock photo is circulating on Twitter in which a man on bended knee offers a woman a can of cooking oil instead of an engagement ring. Uganda's Museveni takes early election lead as rival alleges fraud

Long-time leader Yoweri Museveni took an early lead in Uganda's presidential election according to preliminary results on Friday, though his main rival said there had been widespread fraud and his supporters had the right to protest. With 29.4% of votes from Thursday's ballot counted, Museveni had won 1,852,263 votes, or 63.9%, while main opposition candidate Bobi Wine had 821,874 (28.4%), the electoral commission said just after 11 a.m. (0800 GMT). Thai protesters scuffle with police, fearing more royal insult charges

Scores of Thai protesters briefly scuffled with police on Friday, saying they feared another student activist would be charged with insulting Thailand's king. But police and the lawyer for activist Chaiyapon Danothai said he did not face lese majeste charges, which have been brought against at least 40 protesters since November and can mean a 15-year jail term if found guilty. Fiji wins presidency of U.N. rights body after vote unblocks leadership impasse

Fiji, the favourite of Western nations, won the presidency of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday, beating Bahrain and Uzbekistan in a secret ballot that resolved a tense deadlock over the selection. The vote was called after an impasse that meant the Council, the only intergovernmental global body to promote and protect human rights worldwide, began meetings this week leaderless for the first time in its 15-year history. Indonesia quake kills at least 35, injures hundreds

A powerful earthquake killed at least 35 people and injured hundreds on Indonesia's island of Sulawesi on Friday, trapping several under rubble and unleashing dozens of aftershocks as authorities warned of more quakes that could trigger a tsunami. Thousands of frightened residents fled their homes for higher ground when the magnitude 6.2-quake struck 6 km (3.73 miles) northeast of the town of Majene, at a depth of just 10 km, shortly before 1.30 a.m. Russia announces exit from Open Skies treaty citing U.S. withdrawal

Russia announced on Friday it was pulling out of the Open Skies treaty, saying that the pact, which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, had been seriously compromised by the withdrawal of the United States. The move, announced by Russia's foreign ministry, comes days before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's Jan. 20 inauguration amid fears of a burgeoning arms race. Moscow's last major nuclear arms pact with Washington is set to expire next month. Indonesia finds casing of crashed Sriwijaya Air jet's cockpit recorder

Indonesian divers have found the casing of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea last week, but are still searching for its memory unit, a navy officer said on Friday. Earlier this week, divers hoisted from the seabed the other so-called black box, the flight data recorder (FDR), of the 26-year-old Boeing Co 737-500 jet.