Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Vatican releases financial figures, says it may have been swindled

The Vatican on Thursday released its most detailed-ever financial figures and, as it comes under scrutiny by the faithful over financial scandals, said it might have been swindled in some of its investment deals. The Vatican economy minister, Father Juan Antonio Guerrero, said the Vatican’s total net assets in 2019 were about 4 billion euros, which is believed to be the first time any such figure has been given.

Kuwaitis await new crown prince as Arab leaders mourn late emir

Arab leaders headed to Kuwait on Thursday to offer condolences for the death of its ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad, who worked to unify a polarised region, as Kuwaitis waited for the new emir to name a crown prince to help guide state affairs. Jordan’s king, the presidents of Egypt and former occupier Iraq, and Oman’s sultan were among those paying respects to Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the brother and successor of Sheikh Sabah, who died on Tuesday aged 91.

Exclusive: Russian operation masqueraded as right-wing news site to target U.S. voters – sources

The Russian group accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has posed as an independent news outlet to target right-wing social media users ahead of this year’s vote, two people familiar with an FBI probe into the activity told Reuters. The latest operation centred around a pseudo media organisation called the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (NAEBC), which was run by people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, the sources said.

The faces of India’s coronavirus pandemic as deaths hit 100,000

Eight months after the novel coronavirus arrived in India, the number of deaths from the disease is due to cross 100,000 imminently. Nearly 6.5 million people have been infected in total, second only to the number in the United States. Reuters met and interviewed relatives of 30 people who died of the virus in India, from coastal Kerala on the country’s southern tip to the Himalayan region of Kashmir in the north.

Cyprus demands Turkey sanctions at EU summit, stalls on Belarus

Cyprus defied mounting pressure on Thursday to approve European Union sanctions on Belarus ahead of a summit, urging fellow EU governments to also sanction Turkey over its oil and gas drilling in the Mediterranean. Meeting in Brussels for a two-day summit from 1400 GMT, leaders are set to confront Cyprus, one the EU’s smallest members, which is accused of holding up approval of economic sanctions on Belarus. The sanctions plan follows an election in August that the West and the opposition say was rigged.

EU takes action over UK’s blow to Brexit bill

The European Union launched a legal case against the United Kingdom on Thursday for undercutting their earlier divorce deal and a senior UK minister said differences remained in talks on a post-Brexit trade agreement. Controversy over the UK’s new Internal Market Bill has thrown the tortuous Brexit process into a fresh crisis while disagreements over corporate subsidies, fisheries and ways to solve disputes overshadow paralell trade negotiations.

Lebanon and Israel agree framework for talks to end border dispute

Lebanon and Israel have agreed to a framework for U.S.-mediated talks aimed at ending a long-running dispute over a border that has been the frontline of several conflicts. Lebanon and Israel, still in a formal state of war, have contested their land and maritime borders for decades, including an area on the edge of three Lebanese energy blocks. Washington been mediating in efforts to bring the two sides to the table.

Russia, France and U.S. call for immediate ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, return to talks

France, Russia and the United States on Thursday called for an immediate ceasefire between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces around Nagorno-Karabakh and urged the rival sides to return to negotiations without delay. The move came as the death toll rose in the heaviest clashes since the 1990s around the region – part of Azerbaijan but run by its mostly ethnic Armenian inhabitants.

Navalny blames Putin for poisoning, vows to return to Russia

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny told a German magazine he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind his suspected poisoning, but said he was not afraid and would return to Russia to resume campaigning. Navalny was flown from Russia to Berlin in August after falling ill on a domestic flight. He received treatment in the Charite hospital for what Germany said was poisoning by a potentially deadly nerve agent, Novichok, before being discharged in September.

Mexico, plagued by cartel wars, on cusp of legal cannabis ‘green rush’

For Guillermo Nieto, a Mexican businessman who grew up smoking pot, the cannabis greenhouse on his family’s vast farmlands in Guanajuato state is part of a bigger dream. One that involves deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies. Nieto and several Mexican businessmen have spent years positioning themselves for a time when the country opens up what would be the world’s biggest legal cannabis market in terms of population, where the drug can be lawfully cultivated and sold.