Reuters World News Summary

The Trump administration imposed the specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) and foreign terrorist organization (FTO) labels on its last full day in office despite warnings by other governments, aid groups and the United Nations that the sanctions they carried could push Yemen into a major famine.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Brazil's Bolsonaro names new citizenship minister in cabinet reshuffle

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday named Congressman João Roma as citizenship minister, replacing Onyx Lorenzoni who will become the presidential secretary general, according to a notice in the official government gazette. The reshuffle had been expected as part of Bolsonaro's political horse trading to shore up support in Congress around the election this month of new leadership in both houses of the federal legislature. Myanmar police fire rubber bullets, wounding three, as hundreds of thousands protest

Supporters of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi clashed with police on Friday as hundreds of thousands joined nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in defiance of the military junta's call to halt mass gatherings. The United Nations human rights office said more than 350 people, including officials, activists and monks, have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup, including some who face criminal charges on "dubious grounds". U.S. to lift its terrorist designations of Yemen's Houthis on Feb. 16: Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said he will revoke terrorist designations of Yemen's Houthi movement effective Feb. 16, even as he warned that members of the group could be hit with more sanctions. The Trump administration imposed the specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) and foreign terrorist organization (FTO) labels on its last full day in office despite warnings by other governments, aid groups and the United Nations that the sanctions they carried could push Yemen into a major famine. Italy's Draghi to meet president, looks set to form government

President Sergio Mattarella will receive Mario Draghi at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday, his office said, in a sign that the former European Central Bank chief was ready to form a government and unveil his cabinet. Mattarella gave Draghi a mandate to put together a new administration last week following the collapse of the previous coalition, setting him the task of tackling the coronavirus health crisis and economic meltdown. Cuba loses phone, internet connections for about 90 minutes

Cuba's telephone and internet connections were knocked out on Friday in a nationwide failure, though there was no general power outage, witnesses said. All internet service and international communications crashed at around noon (1700 GMT), according to witnesses in Havana and three other provinces. International communications were restored after 90 minutes and the internet 10 minutes later. Britain's Karim Khan elected International Criminal Court prosecutor

Parties to the International Criminal Court on Friday elected Britain's Karim Khan as the new prosecutor for a nine-year term starting on June 16. Khan won a secret ballot against three other candidates to replace lead prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. The 123-member Hague-based court, which began work nearly 20 years ago, handles war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression. Exclusive: EU drugs regulator plans to fast track variant-modified COVID vaccines

Europe's medicines regulator is planning to speed up assessments of any COVID-19 vaccines that are modified to protect against variants of the virus, the head of the agency's COVID-19 task-force told Reuters on Friday. Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaluation team at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said there should be no need for lengthy large-scale trials like those needed to evaluate the first COVID-19 vaccines, since tweaks for new variants can be tested on smaller groups. White House denies Biden is snubbing Israel's Netanyahu

The White House on Friday denied that U.S. President Joe Biden was intentionally snubbing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by failing to include him so far in an early round of phone calls to foreign leaders since taking office on Jan. 20. The lack of direct contact between the Democratic president and the long-serving right-wing premier has fueled speculation in Israel and among Middle East experts that the new administration may be signaling its displeasure over the close ties Netanyahu forged with Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump. U.S. says North Korea an urgent priority for the United States

North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs are an urgent priority for the United States and Washington remains committed to denuclearization of the country, the U.S. State Department said on Friday. The Biden administration's lack of direct engagement with North Korea should not be seen as an indication that the challenge posed by its weapons programs was not a priority, department spokesman Ned Price said. Tajikistan quake shakes north India, Pakistan, no major damage

A strong earthquake struck Tajikistan on Friday and the tremors were felt as far away as north India and Pakistan, witnesses said. Many residents ran out of their homes, but no major damage was reported. The U.S Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 5.9 and centred 35 km (55 miles) west of Murghob in Tajikistan, central Asia.