World Briefs

WHO A petition to oust the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has now surpassed 500,000 signatures, the media reported. On Jan. 31, a netizen named Osuka Yip started a petition titled, “Call for the resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General,” on Change.org, citing the official’s refusal on Jan. 23 to designate the novel coronavirus a global health emergency.

CHINA A Chinese citizen who was working as a professor in Japan has been detained in China for alleged espionage and has confessed to spying and other unspecified wrongdoing, Beijing’s foreign ministry said yesterday. Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the case against Yuan Keqin was backed up by “clear fact and conclusive evidence” and has been transferred to prosecutors.

HONG KONG An opposition politician has been arrested over an online post criticizing a policeman who blinded a journalist in one eye during anti-government protests last year, local media said. Cheng Lai-king was released yesterday afternoon after being formally charged with sedition earlier in the day, public broadcaster RTHK said.

G20 Leaders of the world’s most powerful economies are convening virtually today [Macau time] in an effort to coordinate a response to the fast-spreading coronavirus, which has shuttered businesses and forced well over a quarter of the world’s population into home isolation.

IRAQ’s military yesterday said at least two rockets hit inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government and home to the American Embassy, in the first attack following a brief lull in violence from earlier this month. The attack came as the U.S.-led coalition pulled out of a second base elsewhere in Iraq, in line with a planned drawdown.

INDIA’s legions of poor and others suddenly thrown out of work by a nationwide stay-at-home order began receiving aid yesterday, as both public and private groups worked to blunt the impact of efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic. India’s finance ministry announced a 1.7 trillion ($22 billion) economic stimulus package that will include delivering grains and lentil rations for three months to 800 million people.

GREEK authorities arrested a Syrian man after finding 12 Egyptian teenagers hidden in his van following a car chase through the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki early Thursday, police said. Police said they arrested the 22-year-old who had allegedly picked up the teenagers, all boys aged between 15 and 17, from the Greek-Albanian border.

EGYPT A trailer-truck smashed into multiple cars stopped on a freeway, killing 15 people and injuring a dozen in Egypt’s capital late Wednesday, authorities and state media reported. The deadly collision occurred a few hours after Egypt’s nighttime curfew took effect to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

FRANCE is pulling out its military forces from Iraq as French forces are increasingly called upon to help fight the coronavirus at home. The chief of staff of the French armed forces said in a statement Wednesday night that France is suspending its anti-terrorism training operations in Iraq.

MEXICO The government said Wednesday it would continue to receive cruise ships “for humanitarian reasons,” but that passengers would be “individually fumigated” before being taken to airports for return flights to their home countries.