World Briefs

SOUTH KOREA reported just eight more cases of the coronavirus yesterday, the first time a daily increase has dropped to single digits in about two months. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the additional figures raised the country’s total to 10,661, including 234 deaths.

IRAN’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged yesterday it had a tense encounter with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf last week, but alleged without offering evidence that American forces sparked the incident.

INDIA Rebels fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir attacked a paramilitary post on Saturday, killing three soldiers and wounding two others, an Indian official said. At least two militants on a motorbike opened gunfire at the post in the northwestern Sopore area on Saturday evening, said Pankaj Singh, an Indian paramilitary spokesman.

UNITED STATIONS Experts have recommended blacklisting 14 vessels for violating sanctions against North Korea in a report that accuses the country of increasing illegal coal exports, imports of petroleum products and continuing with cyber attacks on financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to gain illicit revenue.

AUSTRIA has shut down its last coal-fired power plant as part of a plan to end the use of fossil fuels for energy production by 2030. Utility company Verbund said the plant in the southeastern town of Mellach was powered down Friday.

GERMANY A group of 47 unaccompanied children evacuated from refugee camps in Greece landed in Germany on Saturday, German officials said. The Interior Ministry said the minors landed in Hanover on a flight from Athens. They were all tested for the coronavirus before departure and will remain in two-week quarantine before moving on to other German states

JERUSALEM A small group of Christian clerics celebrated the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Saturday as the coronavirus pandemic prevented worshippers from taking part in the ancient ritual.

SPAIN Passengers on a luxury liner’s around-the-world cruise, begun before the globe was gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, are finally approaching the end of their odyssey after 15 weeks at sea. The ship, the Costa Deliziosa, was heading toward a port in Spain before ending its journey in Italy.

AFRICA now has more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday, while Nigeria said the president’s chief of staff had died. A total of 52 of the continent’s 54 countries have reported the coronavirus, with the overall number of cases surpassing 20,000 on Saturday.

CANADIAN police yesterday asked residents in a rural area of the Atlantic coast province of Nova Scotia to stay in their homes as they look for a suspected shooter who may be driving a police car and in police uniform. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they had identified the gunman in Portapique, Nova Scotia as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman and that several people were shot.

BRAZIL Hundreds of people denouncing pandemic lockdown measures opposed by President Jair Bolsonaro snarled traffic in major Brazilian cities on Saturday. Protesters in trucks, cars and motorcycles, some wrapped in the country’s green and yellow flag, honked horns in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and the capital of Brasilia, calling for governors to resign over measures that have forced most businesses to close for weeks.