New Zealand’s first local case in more than two months is a patient who contracted the highly transmissible South African variant while in quarantine.

The Morrison government will face significant pressure to join US military action in the Taiwan Strait if Beijing carries out its threats.

Approval of the new US President’s COVID relief package, Donald Trump’s second impeachment and a pesky filibuster rule all point to a possible gridlock.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 80 per cent of Syrians live under the poverty line.

After watching him jettison his anti-corruption pledges and botch Brazil’s coronavirus response, some say they were wrong to back the Trump of the Tropics.

The move comes just days after Dr Anthony Fauci said he was following developments related to the new coronavirus variant “very carefully”.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

The rioting youths took to the streets to protest against the new nationwide curfew designed to help curb the spread of coronavirus in the Netherlands.

The infected woman has the South African strain of COVID-19 and testing has been ramped up across Auckland and New Zealand’s north in an attempt to prevent any outbreak.

While Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention, it has been dealing with a hospital outbreak since January 12.

In recent weeks, Trump has instructed his aides to prepare election challenges to Republicans who crossed him in the final weeks in office.

Former Trump coronavirus response co-ordinator Deborah Birx says the progress against the virus in the US was impeded by inconsistent and inept public messaging out of the White House.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is on a constitutional collision course with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who opposes another secession vote.

Violent and destructive activity among far-left groups has been increasing across America, as extremists employ tactics that many on the left fear will alienate people from their cause.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell last week blamed Trump for the violent attack, saying he “provoked” the mob, but other senior Republicans have called the impeachment “stupid”.

The Health Minister said the government is conducting a vaccine trial on the South African variant to study its response to the inoculation.

The US State Department said it was concerned by China’s “pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbours, including Taiwan”.

World leaders will be urged to refocus on climate change during the first major economic summit held since the pandemic began.

They have been called ’the Unbreakables”. Rahane’s team may have had reached their zenith at the Gabba, but their rise has been propelled for years by rising Indian confidence.

Footage showed the first miner to be rescued, a black blindfold across his eyes, being lifted out of a mine shaft in the morning.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors.

Authorities are working under the assumption that the case is the more transmissible variant of the virus.

While curfews make intuitive sense, it’s very hard to discern their precise effects on viral transmission. Scientists wonder if they might even increase the spread of the coronavirus.

China is battling its most severe outbreak of the coronavirus in 11 months – more than 2000 cases over the past five weeks.

A young American writer, who has spent the past year in Sydney, is about to return to the US - and he takes some heart from the ambitions of its new President.

The Deomocratic congresswoman has said she experienced “a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die” during the Capitol riots.

It is typical for landmarks to be named after past presidents, but the controversy generated by Donald Trump has raised doubts whether such traditions will be followed in his case.

The Health Minister tested positive to COVID just days after advocating the preventative powers of a syrup said to have been created by the Hindu goddess Kaali to save humanity from the coronavirus.

The vaccination of the top general who had attended daily coronavirus briefings has sparked anger in Spain.

Britain, which has Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, adopted the policy in order to give as many people as possible a first dose of vaccine quickly but it is not clear if the strategy is a good one.

Police detained over 1,000 people across Russia on Saturday and used force to break up rallies around the country as tens of thousands of protesters demanded the release of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, whose wife was among those detained.

Legendary talk show host Larry King has died. He was 87.

Left intellectuals have reacted with horror and bafflement to the 45th president's decision to commemorate an anti-Trump political theorist.

British ministers are to discuss on Monday further tightening travel restrictions, the BBC reported on Saturday, adding that people arriving in the country could be required to quarantine in hotels.

Everyone lives by faith to a large extent – we can’t empirically test every fact or claim we encounter.

The announcement is a stark acknowledgement of the national security threat posed by American extremists motivated by radical ideology.

Consumer distrust is being fuelled partly by statements from the government, which has taken steps to curb the risk of virus spreading via food imports.

The deal is a boost to the global program known as COVAX, as wealthy nations have snapped up most of the millions of coming shots.

After setting off the machine, Andy Harris was asked to step aside for further screening, then an officer discovered he was carrying the weapon.

“See you around campus,” the 67-year-old Austin said on Friday as he greeted reporters on the steps of the Pentagon.

It currently seems unlikely that Democrats will be able to convince the requisite 17 Republicans to vote to convict the former president of inciting the Capitol riot.

The development, which comes amid a surge of infections in the UAE, poses a direct challenge to the country’s mass testing regime.

Japan had been pinning its hopes on a coronavirus vaccine to help make the Olympics safer but more recently said vaccinations were not a prerequisite for athletes to participate.

China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress standing committee, passed the Coast Guard Law, according to state media reports.

Cult followers are regularly unmoved when a promised apocalypse fails to materialise, and simply seek a handy explanation that suits their cause. But what of Donald Trump's millions of cult followers now that Joe Biden is President?

Military prosecutors filed charges against an Indonesian known as Hambali and two other men in June 2017. They’ve been in US custody for 17 years.

As promised, China's government has highlighted Australia's record on war crimes, racial discrimination and indigenous treatment, amid the diplomatic row.

Authorities described the attack that killed at least 32 people in a crowded clothing market as a possible sign of the reactivation of the terror group.

Outpatient services have been suspended at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Centre and Renji Hospital, also prompting the lockdown of surrounding residential communities.

But the United States, Britain, France and other nuclear powers have not signed the treaty and boycotted talks that led to it.