Reuters World News Summary

Uncertainty is a fact of life in the Palestinian border town, where 4,500 people have crossed into Egypt in the two weeks since one of Gaza's few lifelines to the outside world swung open on Feb. 9.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. EU leaders meet to speed up vaccine rollout in race against variants

European Union leaders will meet on Thursday to try to speed up the production and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in a race against the emergence of new variants that some fear could bring a third wave of the pandemic across the continent. They will also consider how to strike the right balance between restrictions to stop the spread of infections and keeping borders open for a smooth flow of goods and services across the single market. Syrian migrant sets sights on seat in German parliament

Almost six years ago Tareq Alaows drifted across the Aegean in a rubber boat before walking most of the way from Athens to Vienna. Now the migrant who fled military conscription in Syria is trying to win a seat in Germany's parliament. He plans to run for the Greens in a former coal-mining region of western Germany in a national election on Sept. 26 - as long as his application for German citizenship is approved by then. The Greens say Alaows would be the first refugee elected to the federal parliament. China's Xi trumpets 'victory' in campaign to end rural poverty

Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated "complete victory" in the effort to eradicate rural poverty at a ceremony in Beijing on Thursday to mark a signature initiative of his eight-year tenure. State media credit Xi's leadership with lifting nearly 100 million people from poverty, a milestone he declared in December and framed as a birthday gift for this year's 100th anniversary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Myanmar: The revolution will be Facebook-lived

When he heard soldiers had taken power in Myanmar again, Thar Lon Zaung Htet hurried to the office of his news agency in Yangon, grabbed a few essentials and carefully locked up. He has not been back. India, Pakistan militaries agree to stop cross-border firing in rare joint statement

The militaries of India and Pakistan said in a rare joint statement on Thursday that they had agreed to observe a ceasefire along the disputed border in Kashmir, having exchanged fire hundreds of times in recent months. The nuclear-armed neighbours signed a ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir region in 2003, but the truce has frayed in recent years, and there have been mounting casualties among villagers living close to the de facto border. Gaza is open again, to the south. But for how long?

A fleet of yellow Mercedes taxis lines up outside Gaza's newly reopened Rafah crossing into Egypt, polished again and ready to roll, but with no idea for how long. Uncertainty is a fact of life in the Palestinian border town, where 4,500 people have crossed into Egypt in the two weeks since one of Gaza's few lifelines to the outside world swung open on Feb. 9. Special Report: In Germany's Black Forest, Putin critic Navalny gathered strength and resolve

Just over two weeks after his poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent in Siberia, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began to respond to the words of his wife Yulia and wake from a drug-induced coma. As he emerged from what he would later describe as days of appalling hallucinations, he found himself in Berlin's Charite hospital, where he'd been evacuated for emergency treatment on Aug. 22. He would later recount how he had to be lifted into a chair from his hospital bed and would sit with his mouth open, staring at a single spot on the wall. African Union backs call to waive IP rights on COVID-19 drugs

The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines to speed up their rollout to poor countries, the head of its disease control body said on Thursday. South Africa and India, which both manufacture drugs and vaccines, made the proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) last year, arguing that intellectual property (IP) rules were hindering the urgent scale-up of vaccine production and provision of medical products to some patients. Thousands rally in Armenia after PM warns of coup attempt

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned of an attempted military coup against him on Thursday, and thousands took to the streets of the capital to support him after the army demanded he and his government resign. Russia, an ally of Armenia which has a military base in Armenia, said it was alarmed by events in the former Soviet republic and called for the situation to be resolved peacefully and within the constitution. Iran says U.N. investigator lacks authority to comment on downing of Ukrainian plane

Iran dismissed as "immature" a statement by a U.N. investigator that inconsistencies in its explanation of the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane last year raised questions over whether the act was intentional, Iranian media said on Thursday. All 176 people aboard the Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, most of them Canadian, were killed when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff en route from Tehran to Kiev on Jan. 8, 2020.