While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 17

Coronavirus: 40 Americans on cruise ship in Japan infected, will not be evacuated

A senior US health official said Sunday that more than 40 Americans on a quarantined cruise ship in Japan have been infected with the deadly coronavirus and would not be a part of an evacuation effort.

“Forty of them have gotten infected,” Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes for Health said on CBS’ Face the Nation show.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Saturday that 400 Americans on the Diamond Princess cruise ship would be evacuated and flown back to the United States where they would face a 14-day quarantine period.

But Fauci said that those confirmed with infections would not be allowed to fly. “They are not going to go anywhere,” he said. “They’re going to be in hospitals in Japan.”

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Former US Justice officials call for Attorney-General Barr’s resignation

Over a thousand former Justice Department officials have signed a statement calling on US President Donald Trump’s attorney general to resign over his interference in the sentencing of the president’s friend and ally Roger Stone.

The statement, circulating online Sunday, accused Trump and Attorney General William Barr of “openly and repeatedly” flouting the bedrock principle of evenhanded, non-partisan application of the law.

“A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the president,” the statement said.

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Iran’s beleaguered President Rouhani rules out resigning

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday ruled out resigning and vowed to see out his term, even as he admitted he had offered to step aside twice since being elected.

Speaking ahead of a general election next Friday, Rouhani also appealed to voters to turn out despite the fact that many moderate and reformist candidates were disqualified from the race.

Rumours have swirled in Iran recently that the 71-year-old, whose second and last term ends next year, had been planning to quit, but his office denied the reports.

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Football: After Uefa ban, Mourinho jokes about Guardiola’s 2018 title

Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho has jokingly asked whether Manchester City’s two year ban from Uefa for breaching Financial Fair Play rules, means they will be stripped of their 2018 Premier League title.

Mourinho guided Manchester United to second place in that season, finishing 19 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side.

City manager Guardiola is an old rival of Mourinho’s from their time in Spanish football.

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Cross-border love story ‘Crash Landing on You’ crashes South Korea TV ratings

South Korea’s biggest current television hit is a surreally unlikely tale of a billionaire heiress who accidentally paraglides into the North and falls in love with a chivalrous army officer serving Kim Jong Un.

“Crash Landing on You” is unashamedly fantastical in its plotlines, but has drawn praise for its portrayal of everyday life in the North, even down to accents and words.

The division of the peninsula is a regular theme in K-drama and K-movies, but it is unusual for so much of a show to be set in the North – in both Pyongyang and the countryside – and defectors have complimented its accuracy.

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