World News Roundup: Assange surprised by timing of new U.S. indictment; Former French PM Fillon embezzled public funds, court rules and more

Trump denies being told about Russian bounties to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was never briefed about Russian efforts to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan, blasting a New York Times report that he had been told about the rewards but had not acted to respond to Moscow.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Trump denies being told about Russian bounties to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan

President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was never briefed about Russian efforts to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan, blasting a New York Times report that he had been told about the rewards but had not acted to respond to Moscow. The White House on Saturday also denied that Trump was briefed on U.S. intelligence regarding the affair but it did not address the merits of the intelligence. The Director of National Intelligence also said Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were not briefed and called the Times report inaccurate.

Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump over killing of top general - Fars news

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for U.S. President Donald Trump and 35 others over the killing of top general Qassem Soleimani and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday, according to the Fars news agency. The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, with a drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3. Washington accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.

Israeli campaigners want Jewish ruins included in West Bank annexations

The Israeli government faces calls from campaigners to declare sovereignty over ancient Jewish ruins on land in the occupied West Bank that Israel does not plan to annex under U.S. President Donald Trump's peace blueprint. The annexation plan, which the government is due to start discussing as of Wednesday, envisages Israel annexing Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley - some 30% of the West Bank. Under Trump's plan, a Palestinian state would be created in the rest of the West Bank, occupied by Israel since a 1967 war.

Assange surprised by timing of new U.S. indictment

Julian Assange's lawyer said on Monday he was surprised U.S. authorities issued a new and wider indictment last week against the WikiLeaks founder whom they are seeking to extradite from Britain. Assange is wanted by U.S. authorities to stand trial for 18 offences including conspiring to hack government computers and espionage. Last year, the United States began extradition proceedings after he was dragged from London's Ecuadorean embassy where he had been holed up for almost seven years.

Former French PM Fillon embezzled public funds, court rules

A French court on Monday found former Prime Minister Francois Fillon guilty of embezzlement of public funds in a fake jobs scandal that wrecked his 2017 run for president and opened the Elysee Palace door for Emmanuel Macron. Fillon's bid for the presidency unraveled after allegations surfaced that he had paid his British-born wife Penelope hundreds of thousands of euros for doing little, if any, work as his parliamentary assistant.

Global coronavirus deaths top half a million

The death toll from COVID-19 surpassed half a million people on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, a grim milestone for the global pandemic that seems to be resurgent in some countries even as other regions are still grappling with the first wave. The respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus has been particularly dangerous for the elderly, although other adults and children are also among the 501,000 fatalities and 10.1 million reported cases.

Blast kills at least 23 at cattle market in southern Afghanistan

At least 23 civilians were killed in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province and dozens were wounded when rockets hit a cattle market on Monday, the Afghan government and Taliban officials said. The warring sides blamed each other for the attack on the open-air weekly cattle market in Sangin district, where hundreds of villagers from neighboring districts had gathered to trade sheep and goats.

Gunmen attack Pakistani stock exchange, four killed, police says

Gunmen attacked the Pakistani stock exchange building in the city of Karachi on Monday and four assailants were killed, police said. The gunmen attacked the building with grenades and guns, media reported. The building is in a high-security zone and also houses the head offices of many private banks.

Daily coronavirus cases in India near 20,000 as Mumbai extends lockdown

India reported close to 20,000 fresh novel coronavirus cases for the second day running on Monday, as the financial hub of Mumbai extended its lockdown by a month. There were 19,459 new cases reported in the previous 24 hours, according to data from India's federal Health Ministry released on Monday. That is down slightly from Sunday's record of 19,906, but still sign cases in the country are yet to subside.

Special Report: Into the fog How Britain lost track of the coronavirus

On Friday, Feb. 21, Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, was in a cheerful mood. It was near the end of the school half-term holiday. He wrote on an official blog that there had been no new positive cases of the new coronavirus that week in the United Kingdom. It was a "testament," he said, "to the robust infection control measures" and the "diagnostic and testing work" at laboratories nationwide.