Briefly

SOUTH KOREA

National election held amid outbreak

South Korean voters turned out in force on Wednesday despite the coronavirus threat, putting on compulsory face masks and gloves to cast their ballots in a parliamentary election. South Korea is among the first countries with a major virus outbreak to hold a national vote since the global pandemic began, and a raft of safety measures were in place around the poll. Voters in obligatory masks lined up at least one meter apart outside polling stations and had their temperatures checked before being allowed in.

AUSTRALIA

Quarantine breaker boxed up in prison

A man who sneaked out of coronavirus quarantine, reportedly to visit his girlfriend, was jailed for a month on Wednesday－the first person imprisoned under the country's lockdown laws. Jonathan David, 35, was arrested earlier after jamming open a fire escape and slipping out of mandatory quarantine at a Perth hotel, police said. He told Perth's Magistrates Court that he first flouted the law to get food but hours later broke quarantine again because he missed his girlfriend.

Agencies - Xinhua