Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Pope meets Argentina president amid debt crisis, says work for peace

Pope Francis met Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Friday and asked him to be a messenger of peace in their common homeland which is fighting rampant inflation, credit default fears and rising poverty. Fernandez, who was sworn in last month, met Francis privately for about 45 minutes in the papal library, which Francis uses for official functions. U.N. aid agency fears U.S. Middle East plan will spark violence

The U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees voiced concern on Friday that the U.S. administration's Middle East peace plan will spark further violence and said it had contingency measures in place to boost protection and assistance in the occupied territories. Christian Saunders, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), asked about the U.S. plan which would not allow a right of return to Israel, said that this right was "enshrined in international law and various (U.N.) General Assembly resolutions" Hungary to build more prisons to tackle overcrowding, halt inmates' lawsuits

Hungary will begin an ambitious prison-building program in an attempt to stem a tide of costly lawsuits by inmates complaining of overcrowding and inhumane conditions, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. Orban accused "business-savvy lawyers" of exploiting the conditions to launch 12,000 lawsuits against the Hungarian state for breaking EU prison standards, leading to penalties of 10 billion forints ($33 million) in total. Pompeo pledges support for Ukraine as impeachment trial rumbles

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo emphasized Washington's support for Ukraine on a visit to Kiev on Friday, as both countries sought to smooth over relations buffeted by the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Ukraine was thrust into a domestic political battle in Washington last year as Trump faced allegations he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the son of his Democratic rival Joe Biden. Erdogan says Turkey may launch Syria offensive if Idlib attacks continue

Turkey may launch a military operation into Syria's northwestern Idlib province if the situation is not resolved immediately, President Tayyip Erdogan said Friday as attacks by Russia-backed Syrian government forces risked a new wave of refugees. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, backed by Russian air power, have since last week rapidly advanced on Idlib. They have taken dozens of towns, including the key city of Maarat al-Numan, upending the last major rebel-held stronghold in Syria's nearly nine-year war. Brexit day: Britain quits EU, steps into transition twilight zone

The United Kingdom leaves the European Union on Friday for an uncertain Brexit future, the most significant change to its place in the world since the loss of empire and a blow to 70 years of efforts to forge European unity from the ruins of war. The country will slip away an hour before midnight from the club it joined in 1973, moving into the no man's land of a transition period that preserves membership in all but name until the end of this year. U.S. and others tighten curbs on travel to China, virus toll hits 213

The United States and other countries tightened travel curbs on Friday and businesses said they were facing supply problems because of the coronavirus in China, a day after the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency. With the death toll rising to 213, all of them in China, the United States warned Americans not to travel to the Asian country, where the outbreak first appeared in Wuhan, capital of the central Hubei province. Australia on standby for fire threat as heat, winds return

Australian authorities warned on Friday of severe fire danger in densely populated areas this weekend, declaring a state of emergency in the capital, Canberra, as soaring temperatures and strong whipped up huge, unpredictable blazes. With temperatures above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), emergency officials urged people to prepare for fires in parts of the southeast including hundreds of miles of coast south of Sydney that has already been badly hit in months of blazes. French couple living off-grid wants to leave a trace

In a forested area in central France, a young couple lives off-grid in a wood-and-straw cabin. Their aim is not to hide from the law, but to change it. Jonathan Attias, 33, and Caroline Perez, 34, are the driving force behind the "Desobeissance fertile" (Fertile Disobedience) movement that links up back-to-nature enthusiasts with landowners willing to let them build dwellings on their land. Hong Kong leader rejects calls to close border despite virus fears

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam rejected calls from a medical union on Friday to close the border with mainland China to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, and urged health staff not to go through with a threatened strike. The recently formed Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said earlier on Friday 6,500 of its members would go on strike if the frontier stayed open, a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a global emergency.