Reuters World News Summary

EU says UK, U.S. have vaccine export bans, EU allows exports of Pfizer, Moderna shots European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday that the EU was allowing exports of COVID-19 vaccines, mostly from BionTech/Pfizer and Moderna, while the United States and Britain had mechanism to block them.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Supporters of Myanmar military coup rampage in Yangon

Supporters of Myanmar's military, some armed with knives and clubs, others firing catapults and throwing stones, attacked opponents of the Feb. 1 coup on Thursday, as protests against the new junta continued in the country's largest city. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power and detained civilian government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership after the military complained of fraud in a November election. U.S. moves to speed up releases of unaccompanied migrant children

The U.S. government is taking new steps to speed up releases of unaccompanied children to parents or other sponsors as the Biden administration grapples with a growing number of underage migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, earlier this month reversed a policy put in place by former Republican President Donald Trump that allowed U.S. authorities to rapidly expel migrant children caught at the border without their parents. The expulsion policy is still in place for most migrants, including families and individual asylum seekers. Exclusive: U.S. carries out airstrike against Iranian-backed militia target in Syria - officials

The United States on Thursday carried out an airstrike in Syria against a structure belonging to what it said were Iran-backed militia, two officials told Reuters. The strike comes after a series of recent rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq. U.S. president, Saudi king have phone call ahead of expected Khashoggi report release

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday told Saudi King Salman he would work for bilateral ties "as strong and transparent as possible," the White House said, ahead of the expected release of a sensitive U.S. intelligence report on the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The report is a declassified version of a top-secret assessment that sources say singles out the 85-year-old king's son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for approving the murder of Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Special Report: In Germany's Black Forest, Putin critic Navalny gathered strength and resolve

Just over two weeks after his poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent in Siberia, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began to respond to the words of his wife Yulia and wake from a drug-induced coma. As he emerged from what he would later describe as days of appalling hallucinations, he found himself in Berlin's Charite hospital, where he'd been evacuated for emergency treatment on Aug. 22. He would later recount how he had to be lifted into a chair from his hospital bed and would sit with his mouth open, staring at a single spot on the wall. Paris to suggest three-week lockdown to government: deputy mayor

Paris will submit a plan to the government prescribing a three-week lockdown of the French capital in view of the reopening of all venues, including bars, restaurants and theaters, the city's first deputy mayor told France Info radio on Thursday. The idea is to have "the prospect to reopen everything", Emmanuel Gregoire said. Dutch parliament: China's treatment of Uighurs is genocide

The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding motion saying that the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounts to genocide, the first such move by a European country. Activists and U.N. rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labour and sterilisations. EU says UK, U.S. have vaccine export bans, EU allows exports of Pfizer, Moderna shots

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday that the EU was allowing exports of COVID-19 vaccines, mostly from BionTech/Pfizer and Moderna, while the United States and Britain had mechanism to block them. Von der Leyen told a news conference that approximately 95% of EU-made vaccines that had been exported since Jan. 30 were manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, and the remainder by Moderna. Israel freezes programme to send vaccines abroad, defence minister says

Israel has frozen its programme to send COVID-19 vaccines abroad to buy international goodwill, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Thursday, after the initiative came under legal scrutiny. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under fire for donating COVID-19 vaccines to foreign allies, while Palestinians complained that, as an occupying power, Israel should be supplying more to them. New U.S. ambassador hits ground 'sprinting' at U.N., stresses re-engagement

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield hit "the ground sprinting" as she arrived in New York on Thursday, just days before the United States takes over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council. During her Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, Thomas-Greenfield stressed the importance of U.S. re-engagement with the 193-member world body in order to challenge efforts by China to "drive an authoritarian agenda."