"Nothing has changed as it relates to her travel, or the travel of the delegation," Press Secretary Jen Psaki told a press conference when asked if there would be any specific precautions taken to ensure Biden's safety after a reserve member of the US women's gymnastics team tested positive for the virus during an Olympic training camp in Japan.

The father of six earns just two dollars a day as a dispatch rider, meaning that the goat, mutton, camel and beef traditionally served at Idul Adha are out of reach.

"We are not in a war or in a battle with Facebook, we are in a battle with the virus," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

Greene posted that the coronavirus is not dangerous for non-obese people under 65, and that organizations should not force "non-FDA" approved vaccines or masks. These tweets have been labeled as "misleading" by the platform.

The state of South Australia, of which Adelaide is the capital, said it would join Sydney and Melbourne in locking down after five local cases were detected.

The haj ministry has officially allowed women of all ages to make the pilgrimage without a male relative, known as a "mehrem", on the condition that they go in a group.

Just 60,000 people, all citizens or residents of Saudi Arabia, have been selected to take part in this year's haj, with foreign pilgrims again barred.

* Tokyo 2020 Olympics sponsor Toyota will not run Games-related TV commercials because of lacklustre public support for the Olympics, with two-thirds of Japanese doubting a safe Games can be held during the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported.

"These restrictions simply cannot end at midnight tomorrow night," Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said, without saying how long the Melbourne lockdown would last.

A Newspoll conducted for The Australian newspaper showed Morrison's public support dropped two points to 51 percent over the last three weeks, the lowest level since he faced criticism early last year over his response to devastating bushfires.

Some vehicles were swept away and swathes of land were buried under thick mud as the Berchtesgaden Land district of Bavaria became the latest region to be hit by record rainfall and floods.

The face-to-face meeting will follow the first-ever Quad summit that was conducted virtually in March. The gathering would underscore the unity among the four Indo-Pacific democracies amid China's growing assertiveness.

Johnson and Sunak were identified as contacts of someone with COVID-19, a day after health minister Sajid Javid said he had tested positive.

"We will not be distracted by accusations which aren't supported by the facts," Facebook said of Biden's barb.

In Rhineland-Palatinate state alone, one of the worst-hit regions in western Germany, police reported 110 dead, up from 98 previously.

Western Germany has suffered the most brutal impact of the deluge that also pummelled Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, leaving streets and homes submerged in muddy water and isolating entire communities.

Some 143 people died in the flooding in Germany's worst natural disaster in more than half a century. That included about 98 in the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne, according to police.

Authorities in New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, also banned hundreds of thousands of people in the city's western suburbs - the worst affected area - from leaving their immediate neighbourhoods for work, as they recorded 111 new cases in the prior 24 hours, up from 97 the day before.

Moise was shot dead when assassins armed with assault rifles stormed his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince on July 7.

In a statement issued at the extraordinary summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the leaders said, "We will only overcome this health emergency by accelerating equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured and affordable COVID-19 vaccines."

"The United States has failed in its efforts to destroy Cuba, despite spending billions of dollars to do so," the Communist leader tweeted, five days after historic anti-government protests saw one death, dozens of injuries and more than 100 arrests.

The unprecedented online talks involving heads of state from the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group was called at short notice by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that initial investigations of Wednesday's incident have "confirmed traces of explosives" and that terrorism has not been ruled out.

Saudi Arabia has for a second consecutive year confined the annual haj to a limited number of residents, excluding the millions of foreigners who usually flock to Mecca for the rite that every able-bodied Muslim is obliged to perform at least once.

More than 12 million Australians are now under stay-at-home orders after Melbourne residents began their first day of a snap lockdown, joining Sydneysiders already deep into weeks-long restrictions.

The Jakarta Post spoke with Colombian Ambassador to Indonesia Juan Camilo Valencia Gonzalez about Indonesia-Colombia bilateral cooperation, multilateral coordination and post-pandemic potentials.

"We will stand up for democratic principles and universal rights when we see China or any other country working to undermine free and open societies," Biden told a joint press conference with Merkel following their talks at the White House.

Britain's biggest supermarket groups will encourage staff and customers to keep wearing face coverings from Monday despite new rules making it a matter of personal choice.

The 72-year-old Suga, long-time right-hand man of former premier Shinzo Abe, has seen his support sink to just over 30 percent - traditionally considered a danger line for Japanese leaders - from around 70 percent when he took office last September.

Former president Donald Trump's deputy, believed to be mulling his own 2024 White House bid, also urged current occupant Joe Biden to confront China more forcefully on multiple fronts including the origin of the coronavirus and the Asian giant's "neocolonialism."