World briefs

TRAVEL Amazon and other big companies are trying to keep their employees healthy by banning business trips, but they’ve dealt a gut punch to a travel industry already reeling from the virus outbreak. Amazon’s nearly 800,000 workers postpone any non-essential travel within the United States or around the globe. Description

Nestlé told its 291,000 employees worldwide to limit domestic business travel and halt international travel until March 15. L’Oréal issued a similar ban until March 31.

DUBAI Six more people with links to the canceled UAE Tour cycling race have been infected with the virus spreading around the world. The Ministry of Health in the United Arab Emirates said that two Russians, two Italians, one German and one Colombian have been diagnosed with the virus. They were all linked to two previous cases involving Italians, it said.

NORTH KOREA In her first known official statement, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un leveled diatribes and insults against rival South Korea for protesting her country’s latest live-fire exercises. Kim Yo Jong (pictured) is in charge of propaganda. But her statement carried by state media was the first of its kind and indicated a further elevation of her political status.

CHINA-US Dozens of countries are voting in a pivotal phase of an election to choose the next head of the U.N.’s intellectual property agency, a contest for a key post in the Digital Age that has pit the United States against China’s candidate. The results of the closed-door voting by 83 states on a key committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization to choose its next director-general could come today.

MALAYSIA’s new leader has postponed the next session of Parliament by more than two months, effectively delaying plans by Mahathir Mohamad’s former ruling alliance to seek a no-confidence vote against him. Lawmakers will reconvene on May 18 instead. He said the decision was based on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s (pictured, center) order, but no reason was given for the postponement.

USA Less than a month ago, Joe Biden’s campaign was in free fall. Even after he mounted a comeback in South Carolina, he confronted the reality of competing in crucial Super Tuesday contests with little money and no discernible campaign infrastructure. It didn’t matter. The former vice president swept to victory across the country. 

GREEK authorities were firing tear gas and stun grenades yesterday to repulse a push by migrants to cross its land border from Turkey, as pressure continued along its frontier after Turkey said its own border with Europe was open to whoever wanted to cross. The clashes were near the border village of Kastanies, along a border fence that covers much of the land border.