Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Portugal's president tests positive for COVID-19, has no symptoms

Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is seeking a second term in an election on Jan. 24, has tested positive for the coronavirus but has so far shown no symptoms, his office said on Monday. The 72-year-old had one major presidential debate scheduled for Tuesday, as well as a meeting with health experts to discuss the details of a planned lockdown to be announced on Wednesday, but his office said he had already cancelled all his public appearances.

Guardians of Congo's gorillas unbowed as ambushed colleague is buried

A line of Congolese park rangers raised their guns in salute on Monday as the coffin bearing their colleague Burhani Abdou Surumwe, a 30-year-old father of four, was buried in the black volcanic soil of a Muslim cemetery outside Goma. Abdou was one of six rangers killed on Sunday in an ambush in Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, a sanctuary for endangered mountain gorillas that is also home to dozens of armed groups.

Gold mine explosion in China traps 22 workers underground: Xinhua

Chinese authorities have dispatched rescue workers to a gold mine in the country's northeast after 22 workers were trapped underground following an explosion, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. The accident happened at 2 p.m. local time on Sunday in Xicheng Township, located in eastern Shandong province. Rescue workers have so far been unable to contact the trapped miners because the blast damaged the communication signal system, the report said.

'Please help us': Migrants, exposed to freezing Bosnia winter, await chance to reach EU

Hundreds of migrants are taking shelter in abandoned buildings in and around the northwestern Bosnian town of Bihac, wrapping up as best they can against the snow and freezing weather and hoping eventually to reach EU member Croatia across the border. Bosnia has since early 2018 become part of a transit route for thousands of migrants from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa aiming to reach Europe's wealthier countries.

Exclusive: Pentagon presses ahead with Afghanistan troop drawdown despite law barring it

The U.S. military has not halted a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Department of Defense told Reuters on Monday, despite a new law prohibiting further reductions without the Pentagon sending Congress an assessment of the risks. "Currently, no new orders have been issued which impact the progression of the conditions-based drawdown expected to reach 2,500 (troops) by Jan. 15, 2021," it said in a statement.

U.S. to designate Yemen's Houthi movement as foreign terrorist group

The outgoing U.S. administration is to designate Yemen's Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization, a move the United Nations warned could undermine peace talks and make it harder to feed Yemenis enduring the world's largest humanitarian crisis. A leader of the Iranian-aligned group, which has been battling a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015 in a war widely seen as a proxy conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, said it reserved the right to respond.

Pope changes Church law to enshrine roles for women

Pope Francis, in another step towards greater equality for women in the Roman Catholic Church, on Monday changed its law to formally codify their roles as altar servers, distributors of communion and readers at liturgies. The pope's decree formalised practices already common in many countries. But the change in the Code of Canon Law means conservative bishops will not be able to block women in their dioceses from taking those roles.

Trump returns Cuba to U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism

The Trump administration on Monday announced it was returning Cuba to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that could complicate any efforts by the incoming Biden administration to revive Obama-era detente with Havana. Just nine days before Republican President Donald Trump leaves office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Cuba was being listed for "repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism" by harboring U.S. fugitives and Colombian rebel leaders.

U.S. imposes sanctions on Ukrainians over election interference

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on several Ukrainian individuals and entities, accusing them of U.S. election interference and associating with a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker linked to efforts by President Donald Trump's allies to dig up dirt on President-elect Joe Biden and his son. "Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, an ally of Trump who last week condemned the violence at the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, said in a statement.

Mexican president details plan to weaken watchdogs

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday laid out plans to restructure the country's freedom of information institute, along with other autonomous watchdogs and regulators, a move critics say would weaken checks on government power. Lopez Obrador has long criticized government watchdogs and regulators as a waste of budget better used for education and welfare. The government itself could handle public information requests without the need for a separate institution, he said on Monday.