Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. U.S. State Department bans business with Cuban bank BFI

The U.S. State Department on Friday added a Cuban commercial bank to its restricted list, saying it will prevent the Cuban military from benefiting from financial transactions. The State Department placed Banco Financiero International S.A. in the Cuba Restricted List starting in early January, calling it "a Cuban military-controlled commercial bank that benefits directly from financial transactions at the expense of the Cuban people." UK reactivates emergency COVID-19 hospitals, closes London primary schools

Britain reactivated emergency hospitals built at the start of the pandemic and shut primary schools in London on Friday to counter the rapid spread of a much more infectious variant of the coronavirus. With more than 50,000 new daily cases of COVID-19 for the last four days, the health service said it was preparing for an anticipated rush of patients and needed more beds. Rescuers find body after landslide in Norway

Rescuers found one body on Friday, two days after a landslide in southern Norway swept away at least nine buildings, police said, with nine people still missing. Another 10 people were injured after Wednesday's landslide in the residential area in the Gjerdrum municipality, about 30 km (19 miles) north of the capital, Oslo. With little ado, a divided United Kingdom casts off into the Brexit unknown

The United Kingdom began the New Year outside the European Union's orbit on Friday after ending a tempestuous 48-year liaison with the European project, its most significant geopolitical shift since the loss of empire. Brexit took effect in substance on Thursday at the strike of midnight in Brussels, or 2300 London time (GMT), at the end of a transition period that largely maintained the status quo for 11 months after Britain formally left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020. Suddenly overwhelmed, Ireland says thousands of COVID-19 cases yet to be added to tally

Ireland said on Friday it had under-reported coronavirus cases in recent days by thousands more than previously known as its system came under strain, suggesting the EU's fastest growing outbreak is worsening even more rapidly than figures showed. More than 9,000 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have yet to been added to the official tally of confirmed cases, the National Public Health Emergency Team said. A day earlier it had estimated the number of positive tests still pending registration at just 4,000. UK to close all London primary schools as coronavirus cases surge

The British government has decided to close all primary schools in London for the next two weeks to counter the rapid spread of a more infectious variant of the COVID-19 virus, the capital's mayor said on Friday. On Wednesday, the education minister, Gavin Williamson, outlined a plan to delay the reopening of secondary schools, but open most primary schools for children under 11 years old on time next week at the end of Christmas break. Pope reappears after pain flare-up, calls for peace in New Year message

Pope Francis reappeared on Friday after chronic sciatic pain forced him to miss the Church's New Year services, and made no mention of his ailment as he delivered his traditional appeal for world peace. The pope was unable to attend services on Thursday and again on Friday morning because of the sciatica - a relatively common problem that causes pain along the sciatic nerve down the lower back and legs. Ethiopian rights body says security forces killed at least 76 in summer unrest after musician's killing

Ethiopia's state-appointed human rights commission said on Friday that security forces killed at least 76 people and wounded nearly 200 during violent unrest in June and July that followed the killing of a popular singer. The commission also detailed brutality by civilians involved in the clashes, saying some attackers beheaded and tortured people after dragging them from their homes and using ethnic slurs. Witness detentions cast shadow over Egyptian 'MeToo' movement

Student Seif Bedour wanted to support his friend, a witness in a high-profile rape case, by accompanying her to a Cairo police station when she was brought in by officers on Aug. 28 after offering to testify on behalf of the victim, his sister says. At the station, Bedour was detained and has been held in jail for four months on morality charges, relatives and activists say, even though the then 14-year-old had no connection to alleged rape and was not at the scene when it occurred at Cairo's Fairmont Nile City Hotel in 2014. Iran commander vows 'resistance' a year after Soleimani killing

The U.S. killing of top general Qassem Soleimani will not deter Iranian resistance, a senior commander said on Friday as tensions mounted in the build-up to the first anniversary of the drone strike. The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2020. Washington had accused him of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.