Families visit Santiago General Cemetery as Chile virus deaths rise

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces a snap lockdown in Australia's second-largest city, bringing the total number of Australians under stay-at-home orders to around 12 million. Melbourne and surrounding Victoria will join Sydney in a 'hard and fast' lockdown, Andrews says, as Australia battles an outbreak of the Delta variant.

Managers in Germany are not feeling overly optimistic about the coming months, a major business confidence barometer shows. Two major concerns are clouding their outlook.

Fernando Karadima was a key figure in a sexual abuse case that sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church. Aged 90, he died of bronchopneumonia and kidney failure in a nursing home.

One of America's largest events -- Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago -- is underway this weekend, to the delight of fans and to the despair of others. The four day music festival is expected to draw more than 100,000 people to downtown Chicago each day, at a moment when coronavirus cases are on the rise and vaccinations have plateaued. Lollapalooza has said their policy is for unvaccinated people to wear masks and show a recent negative Covid test.

Workers at the world's biggest copper mine, Chile's Escondida, have approved a strike after rejecting the final contract offer proposed by multinational owners BHP. The workers are asking for a one-time bonus to recognize their work during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as education benefits for their children. Escondida workers staged a 44-day strike in 2017, the longest in the history of Chilean mining. The strike caused $740 million in losses for the company.

Crowds of commuters emerge from a train station in Tokyo during morning rush hour. Last week Japan extended the virus state of emergency in Tokyo due to rising cases of the coronavirus in the capital.

Nearly 1,200 people received their Covid-19 vaccine jab in one day says an El Menzah vaccination centre official in Tunis, as the vaccination campaign speeds up in Tunisia, which has suffered the biggest number of Covid-19 deaths in North Africa. The country, which has been struggling to contain its outbreak of Delta variant, hopes to vaccinate half of its population by mid-October.

Indonesia's coronavirus death toll topped 100,000 on Wednesday as the country struggles to control the spread of the Delta variant. The impact of the pandemic can be seen at the Rorotan public cemetery, one of the biggest Covid burial sites in the nation.

At a children's hospital in Santiago, Chile there is a flurry of excitement over a delegation of special visitors: a four-legged quartet has arrived to offer some reprieve from sickness and pain with their wagging tails and soulful eyes.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces that the country is heading for a three-day lockdown after identifying a single case of locally transmitted Covid-19 suspected to be the Delta variant. New Zealand had not recorded any infections in the community for six months.

Chilean senate head and centre-left candidate, Yasna Provoste, meets with supporters in Santiago as the countdown to the presidential election in November begins. A handful of other rallies were also held in the capital.

If you use an Android phone, then you have to be wary of this virus. It is called 'Joker' and it is capable of emptying your bank account without notice. You have been warned!