China confirms first imported Zika case

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders slams what he calls institutional racism in the country in a speech after declaring victory in the New Hampshire primary election. Republican hopeful Donald Trump also emerged as the winner in the Republican camp. Both of them came second in last week’s vote in Iowa.
   
• Amnesty International slams Israel for keeping hunger-striking Palestinian journalist Mohammed Qiq imprisoned with no charge or trial. This comes amid continued protests by Palestinians calling for his immediate release. Qiq has been on a hunger strike since November 25. Doctors say he's facing imminent death.
   
• The Syrian army reaches the vicinity of the militant-held Tal Rif'at town in Aleppo province, near the Turkish border. The army's getting prepared to start an all-out offensive and liberate the town. Tal Rif'at is among the last areas near the Turkish border that the militants still hold.
   
• Turkey summons the US ambassador after Washington said it does not consider Syria’s Kurdish forces as terrorists. The US supports the Kurdish Democratic Union Party or the PYD which fights against Daesh in Syria. Earlier, the Turkish president called on Washington to choose between Turkey and the PYD.
   
• Protests have intensified in the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah against the Kurdistan region's government over unpaid salaries. Last week, officials in the Kurdistan region announced that all government employees except security personnel would only receive partial salaries. The Kurdish region has been hit hard by the global slump in oil prices.
   
• Saudi warplanes bomb a densely-populated residential area in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, killing six members of a single family. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Ansarullah fighters and allied army units have killed several Saudi soldiers in fresh retaliatory attacks. The soldiers were killed in Yemen’s Hajjah province and the Jizan region inside Saudi Arabia.
   
• China says it has detected its first imported case of Zika. A Chinese man who has contracted the viral disease had travelled to Venezuela. Zika has been blamed for a significant increase in the number of Latin American children born with abnormally small heads and brains.
   
• France’s National Assembly has approved a bill stripping convicted terrorists of their French nationality. The law allows police to conduct searches without judicial warrants, ban public gatherings and put people under house arrest. Since the 2015 Paris terror attacks, authorities have been calling for imposing emergency measures to deal with terror threats.

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