World News Roundup: Turkey will hit Syrian; No coalition without Merkel and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Turkey will hit Syrian government forces anywhere if troops hurt: Erdogan

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey's military would strike Russian-backed Syrian forces by air or ground anywhere in Syria if another Turkish soldier was hurt as the Assad government tried to regain control of Idlib province. Erdogan said Turkey is determined to push Syrian government forces beyond Turkish observation posts in Idlib by the end this month, and he urged allied Syrian rebels not to give government forces an excuse to attack.

No coalition without Merkel, say German Social Democrats

Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) signaled on Wednesday they could quit their coalition with Angela Merkel's conservatives if she is forced out as chancellor, piling pressure on their partners to avoid a snap election as they pick a new leader. After Merkel's protegee Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer gave up her ambitions for the top job on Monday, the Christian Democrats (CDU) are embarking on choosing a new leader and chancellor candidate for the next federal election due by Oct. 2021.

European diplomats check India's loosening of Kashmir clampdown

More than two dozen diplomats are visiting Indian-administered Kashmir, New Delhi said on Wednesday, as the country tries to reassure foreign allies following several months of unrest in the contested territory. The group includes European diplomats, some of whom declined a previous invitation from New Delhi to visit the region. A proposed vote in the European Union parliament next month could chastise India for its actions in Kashmir.

Philippine military backs defense divorce from the U.S.

The Philippine military on Wednesday stood by the president's decision to scrap a security agreement with the United States, saying the country could now develop its own defense capabilities and alliances and would do fine without it. The military chief backed President Rodrigo Duterte's termination of the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and said doing so would allow the Philippines to expand its modernization program and its engagement with Australia and Japan - both U.S. allies.

Irish PM ready for the opposition, leaves coalition option open

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday it was likely he would be the next leader of the opposition after government formation talks but that his Fine Gael party would be willing to help form a government if Sinn Fein fails to. Left-wing Irish nationalists Sinn Fein surprisingly secured the most votes at the weekend's election, but its low number of candidates meant it finished marginally behind the center-right Fianna Fail and just ahead of Fine Gael by a number of seats.

Pope dismisses proposal to ordain married men as priests in Amazon

Pope Francis, in one of the most significant decisions of his papacy, on Wednesday dismissed a proposal to allow some married men to be ordained in the Amazon region to ease an acute scarcity of priests. The recommendation, put forward by Latin American bishops last year, had alarmed conservatives in the deeply polarised 1.3 billion-member Roman Catholic Church, who feared it could lead to a change in the centuries-old commitment to celibacy among priests.

Facebook says it dismantles Russian intelligence operation targeting Ukraine

Facebook on Wednesday said it had suspended a network of accounts used by Russian military intelligence to seed false narratives online targeting Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe. "Although the people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to Russian military intelligence services," Facebook said in a statement.

Put me on trial, defiant Salvini says in Italian migrant boat case

Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's right-wing League party, defiantly asked on Wednesday to be put on trial for detaining migrants at sea last year, even though the case could potentially sink his political career. Senators were due to vote during the day on whether to lift Salvini's immunity after magistrates said they wanted to charge him for refusing to let a group of migrants dock last July as he waited for other European Union states to agree to take them in.

China's new coronavirus cases drop, but the world still on alert

China reported on Wednesday its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in nearly two weeks, lending weight to a forecast by its foremost medical adviser for the outbreak to end by April - but a global expert warned it was only beginning elsewhere. The 2,015 new confirmed cases took China's total to 44,653. That was the lowest daily rise since Jan. 30 and came a day after epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan forecast the epidemic would peak in China this month before subsiding.

Widowed, imprisoned, detained: remnants of Islamic State in limbo in Syria

In northeastern Syria, prisons and detention camps hold thousands of men, women, and children whose lives are in limbo nearly a year after the final defeat of Islamic State to which they once belonged. The area around Qamishli city is mainly controlled by Kurdish fighters who helped defeat the Islamist militant group. They have since been pushed into a small pocket of northeastern Syria by Turkish-led forces who consider them a security threat.