Following is a summary of current world news briefs. British newspaper distribution hit by Extinction Rebellion blockade

Distribution of several British newspapers was disrupted on Saturday after climate change activists blockaded printworks used by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, publisher of The Times and The Sun, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Extinction Rebellion said nearly 80 people had blocked roads leading to two printworks, at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, north east of London, and at Knowsley, near Liverpool. Hertfordshire police said they made 42 arrests and Merseyside police made 30. ‘Hands off the children’: masked men arrest protesting Belarusian students

Masked security agents dragged students off the streets and bundled them into vans as new protests broke out against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday on the fourth weekend since his disputed re-election. Up to 30 people were detained for taking part in unsanctioned protests, Russian news agency TASS quoted the Minsk police as saying. No sign of end to Far East anti-Kremlin rallies after nearly two months

Weekly rallies against the Kremlin in Russia’s Far East showed no sign of ending after nearly two months, with around 10,000 people taking to the streets on Saturday in one of the longest-lasting movements of provincial discontent of the Putin era. Though mainly focused on a provincial political crisis in the Khabarovsk region more than 6000 km (3700 miles) east of Moscow, demonstrations have also seen support for suspected poison victim Alexei Navalny and opposition protests in Belarus. Rowdy protests get Mali transition talks off to chaotic start

Talks in Mali about a transition back to civilian rule following last month’s military coup got off to a chaotic start on Saturday as opponents of the deposed president accused the ruling junta of excluding them from some of the negotiations. Hundreds of representatives from the junta, political parties and civil society groups attended the start of talks in the capital Bamako which are meant to chart a path forward after the Aug. 18 coup that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Rescuers search Beirut rubble for third day, with nation transfixed

Rescue workers continued to dig through the rubble of a Beirut building for a third day on Saturday, still hoping to find someone alive more than a month after a massive port explosion shattered Lebanon’s capital. About 50 rescue workers and volunteers, including a specialist team from Chile, had yet to locate anyone after sensors on Thursday detected signs of breathing and heat. But they said they would continue while there was a small chance of finding a survivor, and had narrowed their search. Iran’s friends should have defied U.S. sanctions during pandemic – President Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani castigated Iran’s friends on Saturday for not standing up to the United States and ignoring U.S. sanctions during the coronavirus pandemic. Iran, with over 380,000 registered cases and over 22,000 deaths from coronavirus, is one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic in the Middle East. Russia says it has seen hostile comments from abroad on Navalny’s health

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had noticed multiple hostile statements directed at Russia on the topic of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s health, after Germany said he had been poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent. “In relation to these presumptuous comments that… (Novichok) was developed here, it is imperative to say the following,” the ministry wrote in statement. Facebook blocks livestream of euthanasia campaigner’s death

Facebook has blocked a terminally ill French euthanasia campaigner from livestreaming his own death. Alain Cocq, who has been suffering for 34 years from a rare and incurable degenerative disease, said he would find another way to broadcast his death. He has stopped taking food, drink or medicine, and says he wants his death to be seen to help persuade French authorities to lift a ban on medically assisted suicide. Two French soldiers killed, one injured in Mali – Presidency

Two French military personnel were killed while on an operation in Mali on Saturday when an improvised explosive device destroyed their armoured vehicle, the French Presidency said. According to the statement, a third soldier was injured in the blast, which took place in the Tessalit region of Northern Mali. North Korea leader tours typhoon-hit area, directs recovery effort

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday toured areas hit by a typhoon, replaced a local provincial party committee chairman and ordered Pyongyang officials to lead a recovery effort, state media reported on Sunday. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said more than 1,000 houses were destroyed along the coastline areas of South and North Hamgyong provinces and “not a few public buildings and farmlands were inundated.”