BRIEF – ME! – DAILY NEWS BRIEFING

In today’s briefing update, The headlines are – markets fell in Asian on Friday as the coronavirus has spread around the world, more confirmed cases. 

Turkey is in a social media blackout after reports of an airstrike in Syria killing dozens of Turkish soldiers.

In the Philipines, the president has said the country can fight Muslim extremists and insurgents without the help of the US military.

Mexico jails a man over his role in the day-light murder of acclaimed journalist Valdez. 

Entertainment, film director Roman Polanksi has pulled out of attending the French Oscars amid fears of a public lynching. 

All this and more in today’s news briefing – A daily roundup of all the news headlines that you need to know, summarised as part of WTX News Briefing.

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Coronavirus: Markets fall as the virus spreads around the world

BBC News says stock markets fell in Asia on Friday after losses in the US and Europe on Thursday.

COVID-19 has been reported in sub-Saharan Africa – in Lagos state, Nigeria. New Zealand, Belarus, the Netherlands and Lithuanian also confirmed their first cases. 

South Korea confirmed another 256 new cases, bringing the total to above 2,000. China confirms another 327 cases – mainly in Hubei. 

As COVID-19 continues to spread, K-POP stars BTS cancelled four concerts in Seoul in  April and two Disney theme parks in Japan have closed for two weeks. 

Watch the live updates on  BBC News

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Philippines’ Duterte says the country can fight insurgents, Muslim extremists without US military

Fox News says Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said Filipino forces can fight insurgents and Muslim extremists without American military help, in a defence of his recent decision to terminate a US security pact.

The president also said in a speech that he would stick to a decision made early in his presidency, when he was enraged by former president Barack Obama’s criticism of his deadly anti-drug crackdown, that he will not travel to the US.

The brash leader has often criticised US security policies while praising China and Russia since taking office in mid-2016 for a six-year term. 

Read the full story on Fox News

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Turkey in social media blackout amid fears of all-out-war in Syria

RT news says social media platforms across Turkey winked out after reports of an airstrike in Syria killing dozens of Turkish soldiers fueled rumours of an all-out-war. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Youtube were all reported down. 

Twitter went down first, with national provider Turk Telecom shutting off access around 11:30 pm local time on Thursday. The blackout came just after news broke that at least nine – the number has continued to rise – Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria’s Idlib province. 

Other social networks soon followed, clustered by the provider, according to multiple services monitoring internet outages across the globe.

Read the full story on RT News

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Mexico court jails man over murder of journalist Valdez

France24 says one of the killers of acclaimed journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas was sentenced Thursday to 14 years and eight months in prison by a Mexican court. 

Heriberto Picos Barraza, aka “El Koala” was one of the perpetrators of the crime committed in Culiacan in May 2017, according to the prosecution. 

He had served as a driver for two men, Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto and Luis Idelfonso Sanchez, who shot Valdez outside his office. 

Read the full story on France24

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Polanski to skip French Oscars to avoid a public lynching

Aljazeera says French-Polish movie director Roman Polanski will not attend the Cesar Awards ceremony in Paris on Friday, amid criticism after his latest film led award nominations despite several accusations of sexual assault. 

Polanski’s new film – An Officer and a Spy – premiered in France last year, a few days after a French actress accused him of having raped her in 1975 when she was 18-years-old, during a ski holiday in Switzerland. 

“Activists are already threatening me with a public lynching”, Polanski, 89, said in a statement. He has denied the accusation. 

Read the full story on Aljazeera

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