Reuters World News Summary

In a sharply worded letter, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said AstraZeneca's failure to comply with the agreed deliveries was compromising the massive vaccination campaign the Balkan country launched late last week. Iran has not formally responded to a U.S. offer last week to talk with Iran in a joint meeting with the countries that negotiated the deal.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. 'Immense joy' as Senegal begins public vaccine distribution

Senegal kicked off its wider COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, after an official launch ceremony the day before saw dozens of officials vaccinated to demonstrate its safety. Around 100,000 people are expected to be vaccinated with 200,000 doses purchased from China's Sinopharm, which arrived in Senegal last week. EU mulls vaccination passports to resurrect tourism after COVID-19

European Union leaders will agree on Thursday to work on certificates of vaccination for EU citizens who have had an anti-COVID shot, with southern EU countries that depend heavily on tourism desperate to rescue this summer's holiday season. Lockdowns to slow the pandemic caused the deepest ever economic recession in the 27-nation bloc last year, hitting the south of the EU, where economies are often much more dependent on visitors, disproportionately hard. Britain's GCHQ cyber spies embrace the AI revolution

Britain's cyber spies at the GCHQ eavesdropping agency say they have fully embraced artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover patterns in vast amounts of global data to counter hostile disinformation and snare child abusers. AI, which traces its history back to British mathematician Alan Turing's work in the 1930s, allows modern computers to learn to sift through data to see the shadows of spies and criminals that a human brain might miss. U.N. aid chief urges Gulf states to step up to avert Yemen famine

U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock urged Gulf states to step up next Monday when the world body seeks to avert a large-scale "man-made" famine in Yemen by raising $3.85 billion for humanitarian operations in the war-torn Arabian Peninsula country for 2021. The United Nations describes Yemen as the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the people in need. Lowcock warned that if the world body does not receive the money it needs at a virtual pledging conference on Monday "we're going to see is the worst famine the world has seen for decades." Biden CIA nominee Burns to focus on 'authoritarian adversary' China

President Joe Biden's nominee to be director of the CIA, William Burns, told a Senate committee on Wednesday that he saw competition with China - and countering its "adversarial, predatory" leadership - as the key to U.S. national security. Burns, 64, a former career diplomat during both Democratic and Republican administrations, is expected to easily win confirmation to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Burns has already been confirmed by the Senate five times for his stints as ambassador to Jordan and Russia and three senior State Department positions. Bulgaria accuses AstraZeneca of taking country's vaccine 'hope' away

Bulgaria's health minister has accused AstraZeneca of failing to stick to its delivery schedule of COVID-19 vaccines to the country and demanded the immediate shipment of at least 52,800 doses that were postponed to March 1. In a sharply worded letter, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said AstraZeneca's failure to comply with the agreed deliveries was compromising the massive vaccination campaign the Balkan country launched late last week. Australian parliament passes news media bargaining code

The Australian parliament on Thursday passed a news media and digital platforms mandatory bargaining code that will make it compulsory for Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc to pay media companies for content. The code will be reviewed within one year of its commencement, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a joint statement. U.S. report on Khashoggi death expected to single out Saudi crown prince-sources

A declassified version of a U.S. intelligence report expected to be released on Thursday finds that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, four U.S. officials familiar with the matter said. The officials said the report, for which the CIA was the main contributor, assessed that the crown prince approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi, whose Washington Post column had criticized the crown prince’s policies. U.S. patience with Iran on renewing nuclear talks 'not unlimited': State Department

The United States' patience with Iran on returning to discussions over the 2015 nuclear deal is "not unlimited," State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday. Iran has not formally responded to a U.S. offer last week to talk with Iran in a joint meeting with the countries that negotiated the deal. North Korea's Kim calls for tougher discipline in his military: KCNA

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chaired a Central Military Commission meeting, state media KCNA said on Thursday, where he called for more control and discipline within the military. The meeting comes amid Kim's drive to rally his ruling Workers' Party to implement new policy goals for the next five years that were disclosed in a rare congress last month, including the ramping up of military power and greater nuclear war deterrence.