Reuters World News Summary

President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Tuesday the new administration planned a full review of the U.S. approach to North Korea to look at ways to increase pressure on it to return to the negotiating table.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. North Korea sees talks as way to advance nuclear program, says U.S. intel official

The top U.S. intelligence officer for North Korea warned on Friday the country sees diplomacy only as a means to advance its nuclear weapons development, even as the new Biden administration says it will look for ways to bring Pyongyang back to talks. President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Tuesday the new administration planned a full review of the U.S. approach to North Korea to look at ways to increase pressure on it to return to the negotiating table. Swiss court finds Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz guilty of corruption

In a landmark verdict in one of the mining world's most high profile legal cases, a Swiss criminal court found Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz guilty of corruption and forgery on Friday and sentenced him to five years in jail with a sizeable fine. The ruling after a two-week trial is a blow for Steinmetz, a diamond trader, whose pursuit of the world's richest uptapped deposits of iron ore put him at the centre of a battle that has triggered probes and litigation around the world. British PM says new variant may carry higher risk of death

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday the new English variant of COVID-19 may be associated with a higher level of mortality although he said evidence showed that both vaccines being used in the country are effective against it. Johnson said that the impact of the new variant, which is already known to be more transmissable, was putting the health service under "intense pressure". U.S. State Department says working to conclude Houthi terrorist designation review

The U.S. State Department has initiated a review of the terrorist designation of Yemen's Houthi movement and is working as fast as it can to conclude the process and make a determination, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday. President Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that Washington would take a look at the designation, which U.N. officials and aid groups fear is complicating efforts to combat the world's largest humanitarian crisis. 'Choose - I kill you or rape you': abuse accusations surge in Ethiopia's war

The young coffee seller said she was split from family and friends by an Ethiopian soldier at the Tekeze river, taken down a path, and given a harrowing choice. "He said: 'Choose, either I kill you or rape you'," the 25-year-old told Reuters at the Hamdayet refugee camp in Sudan where she had fled from conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region. Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny, on protest eve, says has no plans to commit suicide

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Friday he wanted it known that he had no plans to commit suicide in prison, as he issued a message of support to his followers on the eve of protests the authorities say are illegal. Navalny was detained on Sunday after flying home for the first time since being poisoned with what the West says was a military-grade nerve agent that Navalny says was applied to his underpants by state security agents. Italy tells TikTok to block users after death of young girl

The Italian data privacy watchdog ordered video app TikTok on Friday to block the accounts of any users in Italy whose age it could not verify following the death of a 10-year-old girl who had been using the Chinese-owned app. In a statement, the regulator said that although TikTok had committed to ban registration for children aged under 13, it was nonetheless easy to circumvent this rule. Exclusive: AstraZeneca to supply 31 million COVID-19 shots to EU in first quarter, a 60% cut - EU source

AstraZeneca Plc has informed European Union officials on Friday it would cut deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine to the bloc by 60% to 31 million doses in the first quarter of the year due to production problems, a senior official told Reuters. The decrease deals another blow to Europe's COVID-19 vaccination drive after Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE slowed supplies of their vaccine to the bloc this week, saying the move was needed because of work to ramp up production. Exclusive: Canada deporting thousands even as pandemic rages

Canada deported thousands of people even as COVID-19 raged last year, data seen by Reuters shows, and lawyers say deportations are ramping up, putting people needlessly at risk in the midst of a global health emergency. Like many other countries, Canada is struggling to stop a second wave from spiraling out of control, and its political leaders are begging residents to stay home to prevent the spread. British lawmakers seek investigation into UK-registered firm possibly linked to Beirut blast

Two senior British parliamentarians called on Friday for an investigation into a British-registered company possibly linked to last year's devastating explosion in Beirut, after Reuters found that the firm had not disclosed its beneficial owners. The company, Savaro Ltd, is registered at a London address, and like all British firms is required to list who owns it with Britain's companies register, known as Companies House.

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