The change in policy comes as the Defense Ministry seeks to shift from reactively mobilizing aircraft to proactive surveillance, freeing up resources to concentrate on more high-level training using its latest F-35 stealth fighters, the sources said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said health officials had advised the government "the Covid-19 situation overseas continues to pose an unacceptable public health risk to Australia, including the emergence of more highly transmissible variants".

The revelation Rio had blown up the 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia sparked a public backlash and investor revolt that led the CEO and two top executives to resign in September.

It is the first reported case of death after a coronavirus vaccination in Japan. The woman, in her 60s and with no pre-existing condition, is believed to have died of subarachnoid hemorrhage, the ministry said, weeks after Japan launched the first phase of its vaccination program.

France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he might consider taking his appeal against a corruption conviction to the European Court of Human Rights.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to start easing virus curbs from next week, a draft document showed Tuesday, as Europe's top economy bets on mass rapid testing and vaccines to ward off another Covid surge.

Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday that it has asked a German court to investigate "crimes against humanity" by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the grisly killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Three female media workers were shot and killed in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Tuesday, their TV network said, in what appeared to be the latest targeted killing to rock the war-torn country.

Photojournalists in Greece accused Facebook of censorship on Tuesday after pictures of a rally in support of an imprisoned hitman on hunger strike were removed from their accounts with suspension warnings.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the historic reformer who presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union, marked his 90th birthday in quarantine Tuesday and like everyone else is "tired" of virus restrictions, his spokesman said.

The Department of Home Affairs signalled that the Sonnenkrieg Division would join the current list of 27 proscribed organisations, which have so far been exclusively jihadist or separatist groups linked to the Middle East and central Asia.

Health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told reporters that the first delivery in the early hours meant inoculations could begin.

Energy-related emissions were two percent higher in December 2020 than in the same month a year earlier, driven by economic recovery and a lack of clean energy policies, the IEA said in a report.

US President Joe Biden's administration is preparing to impose sanctions on Russia for the poisoning and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, CNN reported Monday.

Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday became the first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine under the global Covax scheme, as US health workers prepared to distribute nearly four million doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson jab.

The president's New Ideas party plus its allies had some 70 percent of the vote with more than 90 percent of votes counted, likely enough to win at least two thirds of seats in Congress and greatly increase Bukele's power in the Central American nation.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin also told reporters, "China's determination and will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty is unwavering," adding the nation will continue to patrol near the islets, called Diaoyu in the country and Senkaku in Japan.

The United States on Monday urged Saudi Arabia to disband an elite unit controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Washington sanctioned over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Turkish fiancee of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a UN rapporteur both called on Washington on Monday to punish Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption on Monday and handed a three-year prison sentence, in a ruling that deals a major blow to any lingering political ambitions.

"I think it's a very important trip," the 93-year-old pope emeritus, who lives in a monastery in the Vatican City, told the Corriere della Sera daily.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government has made the request through the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, although it has not been informed of any change in China's policy on how it conducts the polymerase chain reaction tests for the novel coronavirus.

The latest escalation between the sides came as the international community was trying to salvage the troubled 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Cuomo has been harshly criticized, including by fellow Democrats, after former aide Charlotte Bennett told The New York Times that he sexually harassed her last year.

At least 18 protesters were killed and over 30 wounded on Sunday as live ammunition was reportedly fired into crowds in a half dozen cities across the country including Yangon, according to the UN Human Rights Office.

"If (South Korea and Japan) put our heads together while putting ourselves in each other's shoes, I am sure that we could easily solve problems of the past wisely," Moon said, emphasizing the importance of cooperating for future-oriented ties.

"We will continue coordinating closely with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world to hold those responsible for violence to account," Sullivan said in a statement.

The continued delay to a visit that was supposed to take place last year also comes amid simmering tension between Japan and China over disputed islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong, the paper said.

Democrats' nationwide push to register new voters, including Black voters and young people, and Trump's refusal to urge his Republican supporters to vote by absentee ballot are believed to have been factors in his 7 million vote loss to Joe Biden.

"Our focus is certainly not on what President Trump is saying" at the Conservative Political Action Conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.