Australia

"Anything to do with children of any type, particularly of this nature, is absolutely traumatic."

New South Wales has recorded a total of 678 new infections since the latest outbreak began mid-June.

The WHO said that more than four million people have died from Covid-19, but cautioned that the figure was likely an underestimate.

A top health official this week likened Australians' efforts to get the jab to the "Hunger Games" -- a fictional battle-to-the-death contest.

Britain too is seeing a spike in new cases and has warned that infections could more than treble to 100,000 a day.

Faced with the surge in a pandemic that has already killed more than 3.9 million people worldwide, officials are racing to vaccinate their populations.

Cases of Covid-19 were also detected in the major cities of Perth and Brisbane on Sunday, prompting local authorities to tighten restrictions.

Australia's own government had already downgraded the reef's long-term outlook to "very poor" after back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.

Large numbers of rodents were reported as early as October, their population fuelled by a bumper crop after the worst drought in living memory.

Australia has launched WTO action over Chinese tariffs on barley imports, but the case could take years to resolve.

In all, officials said, they raked in some 27 million messages on phones which were used "exclusively" by criminals.

Australia has recorded about 30,000 cases and fewer than 1,000 deaths from Covid-19 -- the vast majority in Victoria during last year's devastating second wave.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking with Payne, renewed US criticism of the original WHO investigation.

Australian and New Zealand app Menulog last month moved toward treating its Australian delivery riders as employees

Around 9,000 Australians are believed to be in India, where hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases are being detected every day and the death toll is soaring.

Over the last week or more, he has been working the phones and his contacts to help friends, relatives and online acquaintances across India.

Air New Zealand executive Craig Suckling said the atmosphere at Sydney airport before departure was electric.

In recent weeks, Morrison's coalition government has been rocked by a litany of new sexual abuse and harassment complaints.

One aide was immediately fired and the government has promised further action.

Residents of official disaster zones are eligible for emergency government support payments of Aus$1,000 (US$770) per adult and Aus$400 per child.

Australia's parliament has been repeatedly criticised for a "toxic" workplace culture that has allegedly spawned persistent bullying, harassment and sexual assault.

Under the EU scheme, a company wanting to export doses out of the bloc needs to apply to the member state government to do so.

In announcing the end of its news blackout, Facebook said it "looks forward to continuing to work with the industry to find the best ways to support news."

After two decades of light-touch regulation, tech giants such as Google and Facebook are coming under increased government scrutiny.

Djokovic also extended his own record to an astonishing nine Australian Open trophies.

The vaccination campaign is beginning with imported doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and a later phase will use locally manufactured AstraZeneca shots.

The Japanese star has won her fourth Grand Slam title after defeating the American in straight sets.

Williams has not lost an Australian Open semi-final in 18 years.

Digital platforms have pushed back hard against the world-first Australian legislation, fearing it could create a global precedent that could require dramatic changes and hit their business model.

Disease experts warned that vaccines won't end the pandemic unless all countries receive doses in a fast and fair manner.