The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world, killing more than two million people.

Brittany Higgins alleged she was sexually assaulted by a male colleague in now-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds' office in 2019, after a night out drinking with conservative Liberal Party colleagues.

The two vessels intruded into the waters near the group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea at around 4:15 a.m. following a similar move Monday by a separate pair of Chinese ships that are still there, according to the Japan Coast Guard.

In an unusually blunt message to her counterpart Scott Morrison, Ardern said Canberra was "wrong" to expect New Zealand to accept the woman, who she said had strong ties to Australia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for an investigation into a rocket attack on an airbase in Iraq's Kurdistan region and promised to "hold accountable those responsible."

Under a new US glare, Saudi Arabia is rushing to release some political prisoners and make up with regional rivals, attempting to clean up its act as it braces for a policy reset in Washington.

Juvenile suicides rose by 140 compared with a year earlier and were over twice as high in August alone at 64 cases, according to data presented at a panel meeting of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to discuss preventive measures.

Health workers at Matanda health centre, where the first Ebola patient was treated, were the first to be vaccinated, the WHO said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin visibly shocked Le Pen herself, surprised even his own party colleagues and dismayed the left with a remark accusing Le Pen of "softness" on Islam during a debate on Thursday night.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for the southern state, and the National Weather Service (NWS) said more than 150 million Americans were under winter weather advisories.

Washington expressed concerns after President Joe Biden, who took office on Jan. 20, ceased the process of withdrawing the United States from the WHO, which former President Donald Trump had criticized as being China-centric.

Ebola was first identified in central Africa in 1976. The tropical virus was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- then known as Zaire. 

The decision comes after a subdued Lunar New Year holiday last week. Daily coronavirus infections rebounded to above 400 ahead of the break, but have dropped since then with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reporting 344 new infections as of midnight Sunday.

The summit, to be hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday, will be the first gathering of G-7 leaders since April last year, a session also held via teleconference due to the pandemic.

New Zealand said on Sunday it was locking down its largest city after new cases emerged in the country, which has been credited with virtually eliminating the virus within its borders.

Residents of Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Sunday staged Valentine Day's flashmobs in residential courtyards and public squares, lighting their phone flashlights in support of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Israel's largest healthcare provider said Sunday a study of more than half a million fully vaccinated Israelis indicated the Pfizer/BioNTech jab gave 94 percent protection against Covid-19.

Britain's vaccination program has so far reached more than 14.5 million people and is seen as one of few successes in the government's handling of a pandemic in which the country has suffered a higher death toll and worse economic damage than its peers. The UK's total population is about 67 million.

No deaths have been attributed to the temblor that struck at 11:07 p.m. Saturday, registering upper 6 on Japan's seismic intensity scale of 7 in parts of Fukushima and Miyagi, the prefectures devastated by a magnitude-9.0 quake and tsunami in March 2011 that left more than 15,000 people dead and triggered a nuclear crisis.

The patients fell ill with diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a burial in Goueke sub-prefecture. The five still alive have been isolated in treatment centres, the agency ANSS said on Sunday.

The former president, who has largely stayed out of sight at his Florida home since leaving the White House on Jan. 20, commands fervent loyalty among his supporters, forcing most Republican politicians to pledge their fealty and fear his wrath.

Homeschooling "exploded" when the virus caused school closures across the country in March 2020, according to the National Home School Association, based in Colorado. 

Ardern said the level 3 restrictions, which require everyone to stay home except for essential shopping and essential work, repeating the super cautious approach the country has taken over the past year in stamping out the pandemic.

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake off Japan's Fukushima injured dozens of people, authorities said Sunday, nearly 10 years after the eastern region was hit by a huge quake that sparked a tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

There has been speculation that the Democratic president could be signalling displeasure over the close ties Netanyahu forged with former President Donald Trump, who called Netanyahu two days after his inauguration in 2017.

Germany on Sunday implemented more measures to keep coronavirus variants at bay, banning travel from Czech border regions and Austria's Tyrol after a troubling surge in contagious mutations.

"This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant," Biden said in a statement after Trump's trial on charges he incited the mob that overran Congress on January 6. 

New Zealand's minister for COVID-19 response, Chris Hipkins, said the three cases were a couple and their daughter in Auckland, and that genomic testing was being conducted to see if the family's infection was linked to any highly infectious variants.

The 7.3 magnitude quake struck shortly before midnight Saturday and cracked walls, shattered windows and set off a landslide in Fukushima, the area closest to the epicentre.

Trump's acquittal raises questions about what's next for the 74-year-old former president, the Republican Party and President Joe Biden.