Australia will not send officials to February's Winter Olympics in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, joining a US diplomatic boycott of the Games.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus can partially evade the protection from two doses of Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and partner BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine, the research head of a laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said on Tuesday.

EU health ministers met on Tuesday as national governments step up measures to try to curb the Omicron Covid-19 variant spreading across Europe as winter closes in.

Some offshore bondholders of China Evergrande Group did not receive coupon payments by the end of a 30-day grace period, five people with knowledge of the matter said, pushing the cash-strapped property developer closer to formal default.

US President Joe Biden will use a high-stakes video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin later on Tuesday to tell him that Russia will be hit with the toughest economic sanctions yet if it invades Ukraine, US officials said.

The death toll from the eruption of Indonesia's Mount Semeru volcano rose to 34 on Tuesday, the national disaster agency said, as aid was rushed to the affected region.

US government officials will boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing because of China's human rights "atrocities", the White House said on Monday, just weeks after talks aimed at easing tense relations between the two superpowers.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar yesterday found deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of charges of incitement and breaching coronavirus restrictions, drawing international condemnation of what critics described as a “sham trial”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday lauded India as “a great power” in New Delhi as the traditional allies bolstered their military and energy ties, despite Washington’s increasing courtship of the world’s largest democracy.

People in Italy unvaccinated against Covid-19 can no longer go to the theatre, cinemas, live music venues or major sporting events under new rules that came into force Monday.

Myanmar's junta jailed ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday for four years for incitement against the military and breaching Covid rules, a government spokesman told AFP, the first of a series of possible sentences that could see the Nobel laureate imprisoned for decades.

South Korea announced that it will tighten measures to stop the spread of Covid-19, starting from Monday for 4 weeks long.