Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Brazil confirmed COVID-19 cases pass 9 million: health ministry

Brazil has had 61,811 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 1,386 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Thursday. The South American country has now registered 9,058,687 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 221,547, according to ministry data, in the world's third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest. EU warns it could block vaccine exports, wields legal threat at drugmakers

Europe's fight to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies intensified on Thursday when the European Union warned drug companies such as AstraZeneca that it would use all legal means or even block exports unless they agreed to deliver shots as promised. The EU, whose member states are far behind Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States in rolling out vaccines, is scrambling to get supplies just as the West's biggest drugmakers slow deliveries to the bloc due to production problems. U.S. ready to prosecute man acquitted in Pakistan of American reporter's murder: Blinken

The U.S. is prepared to prosecute in the United States the man acquitted by Pakistan's top court of the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday. The Pakistani Supreme Court's decision to acquit Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh "is an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan," Blinken said in a statement, adding that Washington expected Pakistan to review its legal options to "ensure justice is served." Stop endless referendum talk, UK PM Johnson tells Scotland

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Scottish nationalists on Thursday to stop talking "endlessly" about a new independence referendum, saying most people wanted to see Britain "bouncing back more strongly together" after the COVID-19 pandemic eases. On a trip to Scotland to try to stem growing support for another referendum, Johnson opted for a blunt message, saying independence supporters had their chance in 2014 in a vote they had agreed at the time was "a once-in-a-generation event". U.N. chief Guterres hopes for 'reset' in U.S.-China relations

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday he hopes there will be a "reset" in U.S.-China relations, acknowledging that while the countries had "different views" on human rights, they should work together on climate action. Beijing has been pushing for greater global influence in a challenge to traditional U.S. leadership. Tension between the two superpowers hit a boiling point at the United Nations last year, under former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, over the coronavirus pandemic. U.N. chief to foreign forces: 'Leave the Libyans alone'

The U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for thousands of foreign fighters and mercenaries to immediately leave Libya, with Guterres demanding that they "leave the Libyans alone." Libya has been divided since 2014 between the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital Tripoli, in the country's west, and Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA). China sharpens language, warns Taiwan that independence 'means war'

China toughened its language towards Taiwan on Thursday, warning after recent stepped up military activities near the island that "independence means war" and that its armed forces were acting in response to provocation and foreign interference. Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, reported multiple Chinese fighter jets and bombers entering its southwestern air defence identification zone last weekend, prompting Washington to urge Beijing to stop pressuring Taiwan.

Pakistan court orders release of Islamist convicted of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, a decision that has left his family in "complete shock", lawyers said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the decision "an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan" and said Washington was prepared to prosecute Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh in the United States.

Pentagon warns Taliban on failure to meet commitments on violence, terrorism The Biden administration believes it is hard to see a way forward for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban unless the militant group meets its commitments under a 2020 deal, although Washington remains committed to the effort, the Pentagon said on Thursday. Killings of civilians in Afghanistan's conflict rose to more than 2,900 last year, the country's human rights commission has said, despite stepped-up diplomacy to end the war including peace talks taking place in Qatar.

Activists say Polish women seeking abortion panic as restrictions take effect Polish women with scheduled abortions are calling advice services in panic, activists said, as Poland's government put into effect a ruling banning terminations of pregnancies with foetal defects, which amounts to a near total abortion ban. The ruling, first announced on Oct. 22 last year by the Constitutional Tribunal, led to weeks of massive protests, forcing the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government to delay its implementation.

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