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U.S.

The stakes could not have been higher at the Democratic presidential debate, with the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday contests looming in the week ahead. Most candidates on the stage in Charleston, South Carolina, shared a common goal: stalling Senator Bernie Sanders’ march toward the nomination. As they battled to emerge as the alternative to Sanders, some of the rivals appeared to have a collective sense that time was running out.

Asia reported hundreds of new coronavirus cases, including the first U.S. soldier to be infected, as the United States warned of an inevitable pandemic, and outbreaks in Italy and Iran spread to more countries. World stocks tumbled for the fifth day while safe-haven gold rose back toward seven-year highs and U.S. bond yields held near record lows after governments and health authorities warned of a coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Supreme Court barred a lawsuit against a Border Patrol agent for fatally shooting a 15-year-old Mexican boy on Mexican soil from across the border in Texas, refusing to open the door for foreign nationals to pursue civil rights cases in American courts in such incidents. The court voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit against the agent who was standing on the U.S. side of the border when he shot Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca.

Harvey Weinstein accepted visitors while under police guard at a Manhattan hospital, his lawyer said, despite having been convicted a day earlier of sexual assault and rape. Weinstein had been expected to move to New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex following the verdict, but was admitted late Monday night to Bellevue Hospital a few miles away.

World

Egypt held a military funeral in Cairo on Wednesday to bury its former president Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for 30 years until he was ousted in a 2011 popular uprising against corruption. Mubarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal, joined by soldiers, walked next to their father’s coffin at a huge mosque built by the army in a Cairo suburb where the funeral took place. Mubarak died on Tuesday in intensive care weeks after undergoing surgery.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for calm after days of clashes between Hindus and minority Muslims over a controversial citizenship law in some of the worst sectarian violence in the capital in decades. Twenty people were killed and nearly 200 wounded in the violence, with many suffering gunshot wounds amid looting and arson attacks that coincided with a visit to India by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Verdicts have been given in the latest stage of a legal battle between Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and his former wife Princess Haya bint al-Hussein over their children, London’s Court of Appeal heard. The court was due to hear a challenge by Mohammed against publication of previous rulings in the case by England’s High Court. Princess Haya and the court-appointed guardian of the children supported publication of judgments, the court heard.

Turkey plans to push Syrian government forces away from its military observation posts in northwest Syria’s Idlib region by end-February, President Tayyip Erdogan said, despite advances by the Russian-backed government forces. Erdogan said he hoped the issue of using air space in Idlib will be resolved soon. Russia controls the region’s air space and has been bombing Turkey-backed rebels on a daily basis in support of an offensive by the Syrian government forces.