Reuters World News Summary

The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday, said one of the people familiar with the matter. UK calls on Hong Kong to stop targeting tycoon Jimmy Lai British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called on authorities in Hong Kong to stop targeting Jimmy Lai on Monday after the democracy activist and media tycoon was charged under the city's national security law.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Turkey detains 11 over abduction of Iranian dissident -police

Turkey has detained 11 people involved in the abduction and smuggling to Iran of an Iranian dissident wanted by Tehran in connection with a deadly 2018 attack in southwestern Iran, Turkish authorities said on Monday. Habib Chaab, an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist leader, was drugged and kidnapped by a network working "on behalf of Iran's intelligence service" after being lured into flying to Turkey by an Iranian intelligence operative, a senior official said. John le Carre, author of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', dies aged 89

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" author John le Carre, who cast flawed spies on to the bleak chessboard of Cold War rivalry, has died aged 89. David Cornwell, known to the world as John le Carre, died after a short illness in Cornwall, southwestern England, on Saturday evening. 'Narrow path' to Brexit trade deal visible, next few days critical

European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday that sealing a trade pact with Britain was still possible before the country's final break with the 27-nation bloc on Dec. 31 but the next few days of negotiations would be critical. A senior EU diplomat who attended a closed-door briefing by Barnier on the state of play in Brussels said the tortuous trade talks could collapse but for now "the patient is still alive". Special Report-Venezuela wields a powerful 'hate' law to silence Maduro's remaining foes

Francisco Belisario, a Venezuelan mayor, retired general and member of the ruling Socialist party, had enough. His loudest local critic had accused him of bungling the response to the coronavirus outbreak and other big problems. In August, he wrote a state prosecutor and requested an "exhaustive investigation" of his nemesis, Giovanni Urbaneja, a former lawmaker who had become a gadfly to the mayor and other Socialist officeholders. Urbaneja, Belisario wrote in a letter reviewed by Reuters, was conducting a "ferocious smear campaign" on Facebook and elsewhere. Suspected Russian hackers spied on U.S. Treasury emails - sources

Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg. The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday, said one of the people familiar with the matter. Japan, South Korea fret as surging coronavirus undermines leaders' support

Japan and South Korea grappled with surging coronavirus cases and growing public frustration on Monday, with Japan suspending a contentious travel subsidy programme and South Korea closing some schools and considering its toughest curbs yet. Japan reported more than 3,000 new cases on Saturday, yet another record as winter set in, with infections worsening in Tokyo, the northern island of Hokkaido and the city of Osaka. In Latin America, a Biden White House faces a rising China

Donald Trump was clear with Latin America during his four-year administration: don't do business with China. The message failed to hit home. As President-elect Joe Biden readies to enter the White House on Jan. 20, Beijing has tightened its grip over vast swathes of the resource-rich region once seen as the United States' political backyard. UK calls on Hong Kong to stop targeting tycoon Jimmy Lai

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called on authorities in Hong Kong to stop targeting Jimmy Lai on Monday after the democracy activist and media tycoon was charged under the city's national security law. "The Hong Kong National Security Law breaches the internationally-binding Joint Declaration, and is now being used to charge Jimmy Lai," Raab said. China urges EU to stop 'irresponsible remarks' after statement on Bloomberg employee

China said on Monday the European Union should stop making "irresponsible remarks" after it called for the release of all those arrested for reporting in China in a statement on a detained Chinese national working for Bloomberg News. China's foreign ministry said on Friday authorities had detained Haze Fan, who works for the Bloomberg bureau in Beijing, on suspicion of endangering national security. 14 migrants found dead off of Venezuela's eastern coast

Fourteen people believed to have traveled from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago were found dead in waters near the South American nation's coast, Venezuelan authorities said on Sunday, hours after Trinidad and Tobago confirmed the first bodies being found. At least 40,000 Venezuelans live in Trinidad and Tobago, the majority fleeing their country's economic crisis, unemployment and lack of basic public services, often traveling in small rickety boats above their capacity, with limited supplies of fuel and food.