Reuters World News Summary

U.S. imposes new Iran sanctions that may spook European banks The United States on Thursday slapped fresh sanctions on Iran's financial sector, targeting 18 banks in an effort to further choke off Iranian revenues as Washington ramps up pressure on Tehran weeks ahead of the U.S. election.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Azeris and ethnic Armenians fight as Russia, U.S. and France seek ceasefire

Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians fought with artillery and heavy guns on Thursday as the United States, France and Russia stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire and avert a wider war in the South Caucasus. The Kremlin said late on Thursday the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia had been invited to take part in talks in Moscow on Friday, adding that the invitation followed calls with the two countries' leaders. Quebec's new social gathering curbs risk dragging on as COVID-19 cases rise

Government crackdowns on social gatherings in parts of Quebec, Canada's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, could drag on longer in hotspots like bars and restaurants, public health experts warned, as COVID-19 hospitalizations have kept rising. The province reported 1,078 new cases on Thursday, accounting for about 60% of Canada's daily tally, and Quebec Premier Francois Legault urged Quebecers to stay home this long weekend when Canada celebrates its Thanksgiving holiday on Monday. American Louise Gluck wins Nobel Prize for Literature

American poet Louise Gluck won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature for works exploring family and childhood in an "unmistakable...voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal", the Swedish Academy said on Thursday. Academy Permanent Secretary Mats Malm said that Gluck, 77, also a multiple winner of U.S. literary awards, was "surprised and happy" at the news when it came in the early morning hours U.S. time. She gave no comment to journalists gathered outside her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Coronavirus lit fuse in Kyrgyzstan, spreading unrest in Putin's back yard

When protesters stormed Kyrgyzstan's government building this week their anger was fuelled by COVID-19 hardship, some of them said, the second time the pandemic has stoked unrest across a region Russia's Vladimir Putin considers his backyard. Kyrgyzstan is the fourth ex-Soviet state to be convulsed by instability this year after protesters angry over what they said was a stolen election took over state buildings and rival opposition groups claimed power on Tuesday, a chaotic process still unfolding. U.S. imposes new Iran sanctions that may spook European banks

The United States on Thursday slapped fresh sanctions on Iran's financial sector, targeting 18 banks in an effort to further choke off Iranian revenues as Washington ramps up pressure on Tehran weeks ahead of the U.S. election. The move freezes any U.S. assets of those blacklisted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them, while extending secondary sanctions to those who do business with them. This means foreign banks risk losing access to the U.S. market and financial system. Canada games out scenarios for U.S. election, frets over potential disruption

Canada's foreign ministry is gaming out scenarios for the U.S. election and what the implications could be, especially if the aftermath is unpredictable, five sources familiar with the matter said. Ottawa is talking to other members of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations who are working on similar initiatives that plan out responses to various election outcomes, one source said. Trump unchained? Afghan troop surprise shows pre-election impulse to upend policy

Less than a month before the election, U.S. President Donald Trump's abrupt vow to bring home troops from Afghanistan by year-end is a sign of how he may feel increasingly unchained to push through a foreign policy "wish list" he hopes could appeal to voters, current and former officials say. Trump, a former businessman from New York who boasts about his deal-making skills, has made finishing up what he has called "ridiculous endless wars" a cornerstone of his foreign policy. Lebanon's Sunni leader Hariri says he fears civil strife as financial crisis hardens

Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician, former premier Saad al-Hariri, said on Thursday he feared civil strife as the country sinks into its worst financial crisis since a 1975-1990 civil war. "I fear a civil war and what is happening in terms of carrying arms and what we are seeing in terms of military displays in the street ... means the collapse of the state," Hariri said in a TV interview. Lock down or face state of emergency, Spanish government tells Madrid

Madrid must enforce travel restrictions ordered by the health ministry to limit novel coronavirus outbreaks or the national government will impose a state of emergency that would force it to comply, the government said late on Thursday. In the latest escalation of tensions between the two administrations, the government said it would hold an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Friday morning to decree the state of emergency if Madrid does not impose the restrictions or request intervention. Photo agency settles with Harry and Meghan over photos of their son at home

Britain's Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have reached a settlement with a celebrity photo agency that took unauthorized pictures of their young son at home, according to court documents filed on Thursday. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex filed a lawsuit in July alleging that unnamed paparazzi photographers used drones and helicopters to take "illegal" photos of their son, Archie, at the family's private residence in California when he was 14 months old.