Eight people -- the majority believed to be women of Asian descent -- were killed in shootings at three different spas in the US state of Georgia Tuesday and a 21-year-old white man was in custody on suspicion of staging all three attacks, police said.

Samer became paralysed, Bakri had a leg amputated and Rukaia fled to France: a decade of civil war in Syria has devastated millions of lives.

Japan's failure to recognise same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a court ruled Wednesday, in a landmark first verdict on the issue that was welcomed with joy by campaigners.

In a gusty, open-air bus depot in Brownsville, Texas, Febe Carillo-Ramos speaks easily after a journey of hundreds of miles from her home in Guatemala: for the first time in 20 days on the road, she can now move without worry.

"I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly," he said.

"Yes I can say quite clearly don't come over ... Don't leave your town or city or community," he said in an interview with ABC News, addressing the migrants.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, the US president's Indo-Pacific coordinator, Kurt Campbell, said China's "economic coercion" of Australia had been raised in every meeting between US and Chinese officials and "will be underscored in interactions in Anchorage later this week".

"The United States and Japan remain opposed to any unilateral action that seeks to change the status quo or to undermine Japan's administration of these islands," the ministers said in a joint statement issued after their security talks in Tokyo in reference to the group of uninhabited islets.

Years of setbacks have weakened the once mighty Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, but the militants are seizing the opportunity to regenerate while the government and Huthi rebels are locked in a fight to the death in the north.

Memorial or no-go zone? The Minneapolis intersection where George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed last summer by a white police officer has become a bit of both.

Some 80 to 90 officials will be vaccinated before heading to the United States early next month, where Suga will become the first world leader to meet Biden since he became president.

World Fress Freedom winning journalist Jineth Bedoya on Monday accused the Colombian state of torture, rape and kidnapping during a virtual hearing at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The American murderer Ronald DeFeo -- whose 1974 killings of his parents and four siblings inside their home near New York inspired "The Amityville Horror" movie -- has died, prison officials said Monday.

The Guardian and The Sun said in their online editions that the country would look to raise the number of warheads from 180 to 260 by the middle of the decade.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Japan on Monday on their first overseas trip, aimed at rallying military alliances as a bulwark against China and cementing a united front against the nuclear-armed North.

The leaders are set to discuss efforts to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific amid China's growing economic and military influence in the region, as well as global issues including the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.

"After new reports of thromboses of the cerebral veins in connection with the vaccination in Germany and Europe, the PEI considers further investigations to be necessary," said the German health ministry, referring to a recommendation by the country's vaccine authority, the Paul Ehrlich Institute. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin -- in the first Cabinet-level overseas trip under President Joe Biden's administration -- seek to work with Japan to address China's "malign influences" and "provocations in Asia and around the world," according to the US State Department.

Last week, Gyeonggi province issued a sweeping administrative order mandating all international workers be tested after at least 275 foreigners tested positive, many in outbreaks at manufacturing plants.

City residents used goggles, masks and hairnets to protect themselves from the choking dust and sand, with landmarks including the Forbidden City partly obscured behind an apocalyptic-looking haze.

PNG's Western Province lies within a few kilometres (miles) of Australia's northern border, and Queensland laboratories are assisting to investigate the worsening outbreak.

The US move, conducted through "several channels," including Pyongyang's mission to the United Nations, is aimed at reducing "risks of escalation," the official said, possibly referring to North Korea's testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear devices.

The China Meteorological Administration announced a yellow alert on Monday morning, saying sandstorms had spread from Inner Mongolia into the provinces of Gansu, Shanxi and Hebei, which surrounds Beijing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the figures includes almost 117,388 civilians, among them more than 22,000 children.

The move came after Ireland's National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended suspending the AstraZeneca rollout "on the precautionary principal" after "a report from the Norwegian Medicines Agency of four new reports of serious blood clotting events in adults after vaccination".

Austin kicked off via Hawaii, seat of the American military command for the Indo-Pacific region, his first foreign visits as Pentagon chief.

"There's an atmosphere of celebration in Corvo," Dr. Antonio Salgado told the Lusa news agency.

The Anglo/Swedish firm's image has already taken a hit with several countries suspending the rollout of its vaccine over blood clot fears, even as the World Health Organization said there was no reason to stop using it.

At the Quad's first-ever summit meeting on Friday, Biden pitched the multilateral forum as "a vital arena" for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, raising hopes for increasing its role in the region to address issues ranging from the coronavirus pandemic and climate change to technology and maritime security.

Japan in response criticized Chinese coast guard vessels spotted around the Japanese-controlled, Chinese-claimed islands in the East China Sea before and after the new law took effect on Feb. 1, saying that the islands are Japan's inherent territory, the sources said.