World News Roundup: How close is Iran to produce nuclear bomb; Pentagon denies underplay injuries from Iran attack and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Explainer: How close is Iran to produce a nuclear bomb?

The central achievement of the Iran nuclear deal - keeping Tehran at arm's length from nuclear weapons - is eroding. The 2015 accord's many restrictions on Iran's atomic activities were built around one objective: to extend the "breakout time" Tehran would need to produce enough fissile material for one atomic bomb - if it decided to do so - to at least a year from around 2-3 months.

Pentagon denies trying to underplay injuries from Iran attack

The Pentagon said on Friday there had been no effort to play down or delay the release of information on concussive injuries from Iran's Jan. 8 attacks on a base hosting U.S. forces in Iraq, saying the public learned just hours after the defense secretary. U.S. President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and others throughout the U.S. government for a week had said that Iran's attack on bases in Iraq, in retaliation for the killing of an Iranian general, had not killed or injured any U.S. servicemembers.

U.S. House committee renews push for Pompeo Iran testimony, subpoena threat

A U.S. House of Representatives committee renewed a threat on Friday to subpoena Secretary of State Mike Pompeo if he does not provide information about Iran policy and President Donald Trump's ordering of the strike that killed an Iranian military commander. Representative Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he scheduled a public hearing with Pompeo for Wednesday, Jan. 29.

Canada says black boxes from Iran crash should be sent to France

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday urged Iran to send the black boxes from the passenger plane shot down by its forces to France for analysis and said the first remains of victims should soon arrive back in Canada. Trudeau told a news conference in Ottawa that France was one of the few countries with the ability to read the flight and cockpit data recorders from the jet, which he said were badly damaged.

UK Labour's Long-Bailey launches leadership bid with call for 'new professionalism'

Britain's Labour Party needs to do more to promote aspiration and look more like a government-in-waiting, the party's business spokeswoman, Rebecca Long-Bailey, said when she formally launched her leadership campaign on Friday. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is stepping down, after the party's worst election performance since 1935 gave Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives a large majority in parliament.

No Big Ben bongs: UK government plans light show to mark moment of Brexit

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street residence will be lit up with a countdown to Britain's exit from the European Union on Jan. 31, as part of a light display to mark the moment of Brexit, the government said on Friday. Johnson had proposed a crowdfunding campaign to allow the Big Ben bell in parliament's clock tower to sound even though it has been largely silent since 2017 while renovation work is carried out on the tower.

'You have not seen anything yet,' climate activist Greta says ahead of Davos

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched with 10,000 protesters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday and said "you have not seen anything yet" before some head to Davos next week to challenge the global financial elite to fight climate change. The 17-year-old, who launched the #FridaysforFuture movement that has sparked worldwide protests, denounced a lack of government action to cut heat-trapping emissions before it is too late.

Can't sell your presidential plane? Mexico mulls raffle instead

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday floated the idea of raffling off his predecessor's $130 million jet after the government's efforts to sell the plane over the past year came to nothing. Mexico has yet to find a buyer for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which the leftist Lopez Obrador has cast as a symbol of excess and corruption in previous governments in a country where around half the population lives in poverty.

Iran's Khamenei stands by Guards after unrest over downed plane

Iran's supreme leader threw his support behind the elite Revolutionary Guards in a rare sermon on Friday after their belated admission that they had accidentally downed an airliner triggered days of street protests. In his first Friday prayers sermon for eight years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also told worshippers chanting "Death to America" that the elite Guards could take their fight beyond Iran's borders after the U.S. killing of a top Iranian commander.

Iraqi security forces kill one protester, wound 25: sources

Iraqi security forces killed at least one protester and wounded 25 others on Friday when they launched tear gas canisters to break up a crowd trying to breach Baghdad's Sinak bridge, security and medical sources told Reuters. The bridge is close to the capital's central Tahrir Square where thousands have been camped out for months, with recent clashes causing the authorities to restrict access to the crossing. The protester died after a tear gas canister was launched directly at his neck, the medical sources said.

(With inputs from agencies.)