World briefs

JAPAN The Tokyo Olympic flame has been taken off public display in Japan. And it’s not clear when it will reappear again or where — or under what conditions.

AFGHANISTAN released 100 Taliban prisoners yesterday, claiming they were among 5,000 detainees to be freed under a deal between insurgents and the U.S. The Taliban said, however, they have yet to verify those released were on the list they handed over to Washington during negotiations.

THAILAND Health authorities said forty-two of the 76 all-male Muslim pilgrims returning from a trip to a mass religious meeting in Indonesia who arrived on a charter flight on Monday were found to be carrying the virus when they were tested the following day.

ITALY A huge bridge section has collapsed in Tuscany, the latest case of Italy’s infrastructure crumbling after years of neglect. Police and fire crews roped off the access road to the bridge over the Magra River in Albiano Magra in the province of Massa Carrara, according to Carabinieri footage of the scene yesterday.

THE VATICAN said yesterday that Pope Francis has created a new commission of experts to examine whether women can be deacons, an ordained role in the Catholic Church currently reserved for men.

USA Sen. Bernie Sanders, who saw his once strong lead in the Democratic primary evaporate as the party’s establishment lined swiftly up behind rival Joe Biden, ended his presidential bid yesterday. The Vermont senator’s announcement makes Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in November.

FRENCH aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle headed back to port yesterday due to a possible virus on-board outbreak of the new coronavirus, France’s Defense Ministry said. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that around 40 sailors showed symptoms compatible with COVID-19, the disease the virus causes.

FRENCH counter-terrorism prosecutors have opened a judicial investigation after a knife attack south of Lyon left two people dead on Saturday. In a statement, prosecutors said charges will be pressed against the assailant, who was arrested by police minutes after the attack as he was kneeling on the sidewalk praying in Arabic.

EUROPEAN UNION The head of the top science organization has quit at the height of the coronavirus crisis, a move he attributed to disappointment with the EU’s response to the pandemic and an EU spokesman said came after other scientists requested their colleague’s resignation. Mauro Ferrari resigned yesterday [Macau time] as president of the European Research Council, a position he held only since Jan. 1.

UK A truck driver accused in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants whose bodies were found inside a refrigerated container in England pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday. Maurice Robinson, 25, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, entered the plea at Central London Criminal Court. Robinson appeared in court via video link alongside four co-defendants.

PUERTO RICO’s governor yesterday asked federal officials to ban all flights from U.S. cities with a high number of coronavirus cases to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. territory. The petition by Gov. Wanda Vázquez to the Federal Aviation Administration came after officials accused some visitors of taking medicine to lower their fevers to avoid being placed in quarantine