Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Hong Kong set to discuss emergency laws as further protests planned

Hong Kong's government is expected to discuss sweeping emergency laws on Friday that would include banning face masks at protests, two sources told Reuters, an unprecedented move to ease months of violent unrest in the Chinese-ruled city. Demonstrations are planned on Friday against any potential anti-mask law, with multiple protests also expected over the weekend as activists denounce the police shooting of a teenaged secondary school student on Tuesday. Exclusive: Iran not 'drawing back' militarily after Saudi attack-US admiral

Iran has not drawn back to a less threatening military posture in the region following the Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Arabia, the top U.S. admiral in the Middle East told Reuters, suggesting persistent concern despite a lull in violence. "I don't believe that they're drawing back at all," Vice Admiral Jim Malloy, commander of the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, said in an interview. Pompeo stops in Montenegro to discuss NATO, no comment on Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began a short trip to two small Balkan countries, Montenegro and North Macedonia, on Friday to discuss their roles in the Western NATO alliance. The streets in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica through which Pompeo's motorcade passed were cordoned off by police. Ecuador detains 275 people, fuel protests continue

Protests over fuel subsidy cuts paralyzed transport in major Ecuadorean cities for a second day on Friday after unrest that has led to 275 arrests and injured 28 policemen, the government said. Witnesses said bus and taxi services remained on strike after fuel prices soared on Thursday following President Lenin Moreno's fiscal measures earlier in the week. Croatia government offers 2% wage hike to teachers, more might follow

The Croatian government has offered a 2% wage hike for teachers this year which is affordable at the moment, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday, ahead of a strike the teachers' unions have scheduled for next week. Croatian teachers plan to go on strike on Oct. 10, saying the government has ignored their demands for a 6% wage increase, the two biggest unions of teachers in primary and secondary education said earlier this week. UK PM Johnson will ask for Brexit extension if no deal by October 19: court documents

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will send a letter to the European Union asking for a Brexit delay if no divorce deal has been agreed by Oct. 19, according to government papers submitted to a Scottish court, the BBC reported. Last month, opposition lawmakers and rebels from Johnson's Conservative Party forced through the "Benn Act" requiring him to delay Britain's departure from the EU if he has not agreed a withdrawal treaty in the next two weeks, to prevent what they say will be a calamitous no-deal Brexit. Dissent grows among the loyalists Macron needs for reform push: sources

Previously-loyal lawmakers inside Emmanuel Macron's party are voicing dissent about its direction, according to interviews with party insiders, exposing new faultlines in the political base the French president needs to deliver his reform agenda. Macron came to power promising to shake up the economy, but he needs a solid powerbase to deliver that in the face of fierce resistance from trade unions, the political opposition and the grass-roots "yellow vest" protest movement. Police open fire on protesters in central Baghdad: Reuters witness

Iraqi police opened fire on protesters in central Baghdad on Friday as hundreds gathered to demonstrate against the government, shooting and critically wounding at least one person, a Reuters witness said. Police snipers had taken positions on rooftops and fired single shots at protesters as they gathered, hitting one of them in the neck. Death toll surges to 46 as Iraq unrest accelerates; cleric blames politicians

The death toll from days of violent demonstrations across Iraq surged to 46 on Friday, most of them killed in the last 24 hours as unrest rapidly accelerated and the country's most powerful cleric placed the blame squarely on politicians. In a rare intervention, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose word is law for most of Iraq's majority Shi'ites, called on protesters and the security forces to avoid violence. But he also ordered political factions to respond to protest demands. After pressing Iran for answers, IAEA reports improved cooperation

Iran has improved its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA's acting chief said on Friday, as it presses for answers to questions it will not spell out but that diplomats say include how uranium traces were found at an undeclared site. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which polices Iran's nuclear deal with major powers, told Tehran last month that "time is of the essence" in addressing what it describes in its jargon as concerns about the completeness of Iran's safeguards declarations to the agency.

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