Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Lebanese firefighters douse remains of Beirut port fire

Lebanese firefighters and army helicopters on Friday put out the remains of a huge fire at Beirut’s port that had flared up a day earlier, barely a month after a massive blast devastated the port and surrounding area. Thursday’s fire, which officials said was sparked by welding during repair work after last month’s explosion, covered several districts of Beirut in a huge cloud of black, acrid smoke, causing panic in a city still on edge after the blast. China imposes curbs on U.S. diplomats in response to U.S. move

China on Friday said it had imposed restrictions on staff at the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in mainland China and Hong Kong, responding to U.S. measures announced early this month. China’s Foreign Ministry did not specify the measures, which it described as reciprocal. Viva Maria: Belarusian protesters celebrate leader who chose jail over exile

Maria Kolesnikova’s decision to rip up her passport and risk prison rather than exile has burnished the musician-turned-politician’s status as a hero to the mass protest movement against veteran Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Dozens of people were detained this week as protesters took to the streets chanting her name and holding up placards, some reading “Viva Maria”. Her face was superimposed on the image of a Soviet World War Two poster and projected onto the side of a building in Minsk. Explosive material found in Beirut port after blast was stored for years, says president

Several tonnes of highly explosive material found at Beirut’s port, just weeks after the same chemical was blamed for causing a massive detonation there, had been in storage for 15 years, the Lebanese president said on Friday. The army said on Sept. 2 it had discovered a stockpile close to the port of 4.35 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, the highly explosive chemical blamed for the huge Aug. 4 blast that killed about 190 people and ruined a swathe of Beirut. Russia and China dismiss Microsoft allegations of bids to hack Biden and Trump camps

Russia and China dismissed on Friday allegations by Microsoft Corp that hackers linked to Moscow and Beijing were trying to spy on people tied to both U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Advisers to both presidential campaigns are assessing risks from digital spies around the globe, as the two candidates face off on Nov. 3 in one of the most consequential U.S. presidential elections in decades. EU boosts ‘no-deal’ planning as UK refuses to give way in Brexit stalemate

The European Union stepped up planning for a “no-deal” Brexit on Friday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government refused to revoke a plan to break the divorce treaty that Brussels says will sink four years of talks. Britain said explicitly this week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed in January, when it formally left the bloc. England’s COVID-19 infections doubling each week – Imperial College study

The spread of the coronavirus is speeding up across all parts of England with the number of cases doubling about every week, according to a new study by Imperial College, which will fuel concerns that renewed restrictions may need be introduced. The infection rate is rising in all age groups apart from those over 65, and cases are no longer clustering in hospitals or care homes as they were a few months ago, suggesting the virus is circulating more widely, Imperial found. Abe plan for land-attack counterpunch could mark major military shift for Japan

Months before he announced his resignation, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set in motion a policy change that could for the first time allow Japan’s military to plan for strikes on land targets in China and other parts of Asia. Japan’s Self Defence Forces are geared toward stopping attackers in the air and the sea. The policy change would direct the military to create a doctrine for targeting enemy sites on land – a mission that would require the purchase of long-range weapons such as cruise missiles. China, India agree to disengage troops on contested border

China and India said on Friday they had agreed to de-escalate renewed tensions on their contested Himalayan border and take steps to restore “peace and tranquillity” following a high-level diplomatic meeting in Moscow. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met in Moscow on Thursday and reached a five-point consensus, including agreements that troops from both sides should quickly disengage and ease tensions, the two countries said in a joint statement. Russia says it wants to send investigators to Germany in Navalny case

Moscow said on Friday it would ask to send investigators to Germany in the case of Alexei Navalny, a proposal all but certain to be brushed off by Berlin, which says the Russian opposition politician was poisoned with a banned nerve agent. The Kremlin has been facing calls from the West for strong action to punish Russia unless it provides an explanation for what Berlin has called an attempt to murder Navalny.