Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. 'I lost control and started crying': Colombian doctor evicted as neighbors fear COVID-19

A doctor in the Colombian city of Cali said this week that he was forced from his apartment just eight days after he moved in because other residents of the building feared he would bring the new coronavirus into their homes. It is the latest example of hostility to medical workers in Latin America, who have faced discrimination and even attacks amidst concerns they could be spreading the virus. UK PM Johnson in good shape after coronavirus, says minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in good shape and recovering after falling gravely ill with COVID-19, health minister Matt Hancock said on Friday. "I'm sure he'll come back as soon as his doctors recommend it," he told Sky News. 'We refuse to die in jail': Argentine inmates set fire to prison in coronavirus protest

Inmates at an Argentine prison in Buenos Aires set fire to mattresses and protested on the roof of the jail, demanding some people be released due to fears of infection by the coronavirus, according to local media and a Reuters witness. A Reuters witness outside the jail on Friday saw at least a dozen people on the roof of the facility in the Villa Devoto neighborhood of the city. The group had protest banners and some were holding chains, sticks and other weapons. Peru indigenous warn of 'ethnocide by inaction' as coronavirus hits Amazon tribes

Indigenous tribes in Peru's Amazon say the government has left them to fend for themselves against the coronavirus, risking "ethnocide by inaction," according to a letter from natives to the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The formal complaint asks the U.N. and international courts to force the government to take "concrete action" to ensure their survival, citing the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Water shortage leaves poorer Mexicans high and dry in coronavirus fight

In the shade of a rust-colored hill, a dozen women gathered on a dusty road to fill buckets from a water tanker truck that pulled up to service their modest community built on a former Mexico City dump. Grappling with the largest public health crisis in modern times, Mexican health authorities battling to stem a jump in new coronavirus infections have made the phrases "wash your hands" and "stay at home" their mantras. Exclusive: China sent team including medical experts to advise on North Korea’s Kim, sources say

China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation. The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader. Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim's health. World leaders launch plan to speed COVID-19 drugs, vaccine; U.S. stays away

World leaders pledged on Friday to accelerate work on tests, drugs and vaccines against COVID-19 and to share them around the globe, but the United States did not take part in the launch of the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were among those who joined a video conference to launch what the WHO billed as a "landmark collaboration" to fight the pandemic. United States repatriates stranded citizens from Cuba

About 300 U.S. citizens stranded in Cuba since Havana suspended regular air travel earlier this month due to the coronavirus pandemic were repatriated on two charter flights on Friday. Among them were Cuban Americans who had feared a ban on Cuban citizens' leaving would stand in their way, but they received special dispensation from the Cuban immigration office. Rouhani urges Iran military to seek regional stability, remain vigilant: TV

President Hassan Rouhani on Friday called on Iran's armed forces to seek regional stability while maintaining vigilance and a strong presence, state TV reported, as a war of words escalated with arch-enemy the United States. The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that Tehran would destroy U.S. warships if its security is threatened in the Gulf, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran over "harassment" of U.S. vessels. Gunman started Canada's worst mass shooting after his girlfriend fled

The gunman in Canada's worst ever mass shooting began the weekend rampage that ultimately killed 22 people after his girlfriend escaped him when he assaulted her, a top police official said on Friday. Police did not give details about the nature of the assault or how she escaped and fled into the woods. Local media said she had been tied up. The woman's name was not provided. She is currently recovering from her injuries and cooperating with police.