Reuters World News Summary

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to end the war and urged Moscow to reverse its suspension of the New START nuclear treaty, a senior U.S. official said. U.S. hosts war games for Ukraine ahead of next phase of Russia conflict The United States is hosting war planning exercises in Germany for Ukrainian military officers to help them think through upcoming battlefield decisions, officials said on Thursday, ahead of the next phase of the year-old conflict with Russia.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Italian prosecutors probe response to migrant tragedy

Italian prosecutors are looking into the way emergency services responded to last weekend's migrant boat disaster in which dozens of people were killed after accusations that authorities were slow to react, a police source said on Thursday. Prosecutors from the Calabrian town of Crotone have asked the Guardia di Finanza police for documents on their actions before the boat carrying 150-200 migrants broke up on rocks just a few metres from the shore last Sunday. The same request has been made to the Coast Guard, Italian media reported.

Blinken, Lavrov meet for first time since Ukraine invasion

Russia and the United States' top diplomats spoke face-to-face on Thursday for the first time since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on the sidelines of a G20 meeting where ministers traded blame over the conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to end the war and urged Moscow to reverse its suspension of the New START nuclear treaty, a senior U.S. official said.

U.S. hosts war games for Ukraine ahead of next phase of Russia conflict

The United States is hosting war planning exercises in Germany for Ukrainian military officers to help them think through upcoming battlefield decisions, officials said on Thursday, ahead of the next phase of the year-old conflict with Russia. The multi-day, table top exercises have been carried out at a war-gaming facility at a U.S. Army base in Wiesbaden, Germany, where the top U.S. military officer, Army General Mark Milley, visited on Thursday.

Greek train crash station master "devastated", takes some blame

The station master of Greece's Larissa city, who was charged on Thursday over the country's worst train crash, assumes some responsibility for the disaster but other factors were also at play, his lawyer said. On Tuesday evening, a passenger train with more than 350 people on board collided head-on with a freight train near the city of Larissa, some 220 miles north of the capital Athens. The trains were travelling in opposite directions on the same track.

US expects calls, engagements with China in coming weeks

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not meet China's foreign minister on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in India as the two sides had already had extended talks in Munich last month, the U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Thursday. Speaking at a regular briefing, Ned Price said he expected there would be "additional calls and engagements" with China in the coming weeks.

Ukraine clings to Bakhmut, Blinken tells Lavrov US to back Kyiv all the way

Ukrainian forces held out in the eastern city of Bakhmut against Russian attackers on Thursday, while the top U.S. diplomat told Russia's foreign minister in their first in person encounter since the invasion that the Kremlin must stop the war.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said Russia had been hit by what he called a terrorist attack in its southern Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.

Two dead, dozens of police held hostage in Colombia in protest against oil company

A police officer and civilian were killed during violent protests in Colombia's Caqueta province on Thursday, and 79 officers and nine oilfield workers were taken hostage by rural communities, the human rights ombudsman said. The violence erupted in a rural part of the San Vicente del Caguan municipality, where an oil field belonging to Emerald Energy was attacked and fire started by protesters, according to Colombia's national police.

Biden, Scholz to focus on Ukraine war, touch on China concerns in Friday meeting

U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will focus their discussions on Friday mainly on the war in Ukraine, but could also touch on concerns that China may provide lethal aid to Russia, a senior administration official said. The two leaders are slated to meet for an hour, including a significant one-on-one component, the official said on Thursday.

Australia has assured US its technology is safe in submarine deal -envoy

Australia has assured Washington that U.S. technology will be safe under a plan to supply it with nuclear-powered submarines in a tripartite deal also including Britain, Canberra's ambassador to the United States said on Thursday. Speaking to a U.S. think tank, Arthur Sinodinos also said that when details of the so-called AUKUS submarine deal are announced in mid-March, people would see there had been a "genuine trilateral solution."

US CDC concludes cough syrups likely to blame for children's deaths in Gambia, report shows

Contaminated cough and paracetamol syrups imported into Gambia almost certainly caused the deaths of 66 children due to acute kidney injury, according to an investigation led by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Gambian scientists. The links between the children's deaths and contaminated medicines first came to light in October, when the World Health Organization sent out an alert saying four cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd contained toxic levels of diethylene and ethylene glycol and should be withdrawn.