Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Belarusian leader reshuffles security chiefs in face of mass protests

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko promoted hardline loyalists to top posts in his security apparatus on Thursday in an effort to strengthen his grip on the former Soviet republic after weeks of mass protests and strikes. Lukashenko, facing the biggest challenge to his 26-year rule, accompanied the reshuffle with instructions to act tough in the face of what he has repeatedly alleged is foreign aggression ahead of talks with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and a Russian government delegation. Kremlin tells West not to rush to judge it on Navalny as sanctions talk starts

Russia said on Thursday the West should not rush to judge it over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and that there were no grounds to accuse it of the crime, as talk in the West of punishing Moscow intensified. The Kremlin was speaking a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Navalny had been poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him and that she would consult NATO allies about how to respond. Brazil’s Bolsonaro says COVID-19 vaccinations will not be mandatory

Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, reiterated on Thursday that COVID-19 vaccinations will not be obligatory when they become available. “Many people want the vaccine to be applied in a coercive way, but there is no law that provides for that,” Bolsonaro said in a Facebook live chat with his supporters. Mexico has world’s most health worker deaths from pandemic, Amnesty International says

More health workers have died from the coronavirus in Mexico than any other country on the planet, Amnesty International said on Thursday, highlighting the high toll the pandemic was taking on frontline medical staff around the globe. At least 7,000 health workers around the world have died after becoming infected with the coronavirus, including 1,320 in Mexico, Amnesty said. Lebanese army finds more explosive chemicals outside Beirut port after huge blast

Lebanon’s army said on Thursday it had found 4.35 tonnes of ammonium nitrate near the entrance to Beirut port, the site of a huge blast last month caused by a large stockpile of the same highly explosive chemical. Army engineers were “dealing with it,” according to an army statement carried by the state news agency NNA. The statement said the chemicals were found outside entrance nine to the port. Rival Palestinian factions hold rare joint meeting over Israel-UAE deal

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a rare meeting with rival factions on Thursday as they sought to present a united front over Israel and the United Arab Emirates’ deal to normalise ties. The meeting was held through video-conference between Ramallah in the West Bank and Beirut, where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ziyad al-Nakhalah attended. ‘My life’s work’: Venezuelan union leader vows to defend workers after pardon

One of Venezuela’s most influential union leaders has vowed to press on with his fight for workers’ rights after his release this week from two years of detention in a military prison on what he calls trumped up charges. Soldiers detained Ruben Gonzalez, one of 110 people pardoned on Monday by President Nicolas Maduro, in 2018 after he led a protest to demand the Socialist leader defend Venezuela’s once-potent steel industry. Bolivia says it hired U.S. lobbying firm linked by Facebook to fake news

Bolivia’s interim presidency said on Thursday it had hired a Washington-based lobbying firm that Facebook Inc accuses of launching fake news campaigns to skew democratic debate. Bolivia’s interim government, which assumed power in a vacuum after the resignation of longtime leftist leader Evo Morales late last year, said it hired CLS Strategies in December in an effort to shore up its international support. Brazil’s coronavirus cases pass the four million mark: ministry

Brazil has recorded more than 4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 43,773 new cases and 834 deaths from the disease caused by the virus reported in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday. Brazil has registered 4,041,638 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 124,614, according to ministry data, in the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak outside the United States. How Abe’s right-hand man made his play for Japan’s top job

In the days leading up to Shinzo Abe’s surprise resignation last month as rumors of his ill health swirled in Japan, the prime minister’s right-hand man, Yoshihide Suga, was courting a ruling party boss whose backing could make him king. In a secluded dining room in an upscale Tokyo hotel, Suga met with Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), for a traditional Japanese meal. They shared stories from their youth when they both worked as secretaries for powerful politicians, according to a columnist who dined with them.