Reuters World News Summary

No diplomatic ties to Qatar yet, but trade, travel resuming, says UAE Arab states boycotting Qatar could resume travel and trade links with Doha within a week under a U.S.-backed deal, but restoring diplomatic ties requires more time as parties work to rebuild trust, a United Arab Emirates official said on Thursday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Australia's Brisbane to enter three-day lockdown after UK COVID-19 variant case

Australia's Queensland state will enforce a three-day lockdown in Brisbane, the state capital, from Friday evening after a quarantine hotel worker tested positive for the more contagious variant of COVID-19 that has emerged in Britain. "We know that the level of infection is very high in this particular variant. We have to act differently to what we had before. Any delay could see significant, if not catastrophic results," state Health Minister Yvette D'Ath told reporters on Friday. Germany's Spahn mulls running as chancellor for Merkel's party - Bild

German Health Minister Jens Spahn is considering putting himself forward to stand as chancellor for Angela Merkel's conservative bloc in a September federal election, top-selling Bild daily reported on Friday. Merkel has said she will not run for a fifth term in the election and her Christian Democrats (CDU) are to pick a new leader next week. The winner would be a favourite to stand as chancellor but someone else could stand, not least because the CDU's Bavarian sister party has to back the candidate. World shocked by Trump supporters' attack on U.S. democracy

World leaders have expressed their shock after supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, encouraged by him, stormed https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election/its-insurrection-biden-says-as-trump-supporters-storm-u-s-capitol-idUSKBN29B2PU the U.S. Capitol building as Congress met to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Among adversaries, China compared the violence to protests in Hong Kong, Russia said it showed the weakness of Western democracy, and Iran called Trump an unchecked threat to the world's security. Allies of the United States condemned the attack, and Trump, but said U.S. democracy would ultimately reassert itself. No diplomatic ties to Qatar yet, but trade, travel resuming, says UAE

Arab states boycotting Qatar could resume travel and trade links with Doha within a week under a U.S.-backed deal, but restoring diplomatic ties requires more time as parties work to rebuild trust, a United Arab Emirates official said on Thursday. Gulf powerhouse Saudi Arabia announced the breakthrough in ending a bitter dispute at a summit on Tuesday, with its foreign minister saying Riyadh and its allies would restore all ties with Doha severed in mid-2017. Ethiopian general says Eritrean troops entered Tigray: video clip

A senior Ethiopian general said in a video clip posted on social media this week that Eritrean troops had entered the country uninvited while his soldiers were battling a rebellious force in the northern region of Tigray. The video, whose authenticity Reuters could not independently verify, shows Major General Belay Seyoum addressing a meeting in the Tigrayan capital Mekelle in late December. Premature to talk about compensation for Iran's 2020 downing of airliner, says Canadian aide

It is too early to discuss how much compensation to pay relatives of those killed when Iran shot down an airliner last year, even though Tehran has suggested an amount, a Canadian adviser said on Thursday. Many of the victims were Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Last month Iran's cabinet allocated $150,000 for each family of the 176 people who died when Revolutionary Guards downed the Ukraine International Airlines plane near Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020. UK extends England entry ban to travellers from 11 African countries for COVID variant

The United Kingdom said on Thursday it would extend a ban on travellers entering England to southern African countries in a measure to prevent the spread of a new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa. The restriction will take effect on Saturday and remain in place for two weeks, the government said in a statement https://bit.ly/3pTvmsk. EU citizens will be banned from using ID cards to enter UK from October: The Telegraph

European Union citizens will be banned from using ID cards to enter Britain from October amidst growing concern about the proliferation of fake European IDs, the Telegraph reported https://bit.ly/3q5gdod on Thursday. British interior minister Priti Patel is using Brexit to change the rules so that EU ID cards can no longer be used as travel documents. Instead, visiting EU nationals will have to present passports at UK borders, the report said. North Korea's party congress discusses South Korea, foreign policy

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un explored ways to renew inter-Korean ties and vowed to expand foreign relations, state media said on Friday, as he hosted a rare party congress less than two weeks before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office. The eighth congress of the ruling Workers' Party came amid a prolonged gridlock in negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes in return for U.S. sanction relief. Explosion heard in Yemeni city of Aden -residents

A loud explosion was heard in the Yemeni city of Aden on Thursday evening, residents and a security source told Reuters. The explosion took place just outside a central prison in the southern port city, they added.