Protests

Videos on social media show police firing tear gas to disperse looters, and buildings on fire.

RNZ Pacific's correspondent in the capital Honiara, Georgina Kekea, was in the Kukum area where the police station and shops were set alight, and said at least one building had been burned down.

Police she spoke to said the large crowds had been at the other end of town, and officers had not expected the crowd to attack their police station.

Lawmakers last month passed legislation making vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for anyone dealing with the public and individuals deemed to be vulnerable.

They have been given two months to be inoculated or risk a fine of $US1,700 and a suspension of their work contracts.

Legal challenges are being mounted in both French Polynesia and in France's highest court to quash the law adopted in Tahiti.

The new law will come into force on 23 October.

A number of people are reported to have been shot at a protest in Lekki, a suburb of the city.

A 24-hour curfew planned for Lagos, a key commercial hub and Africa's most populous city with an estimated 20 million residents, was delayed to allow commuters to return home.

Other regions are now imposing curfews.

Following reports of widespread violence across Nigeria, the city of Jos and Ekiti state said curfews would come into force later on Tuesday.

In a media statement, authorised by Aloma Johansson, Deputy Pro-Chancellor of the USP Council, the Executive Committee also resolved that the VC be suspended from duties on pay, and without withdrawal of privileges.

As earlier reported, Professor Derrick Armstrong has been appointed as Acting Vice-Chancellor and President, to manage the affairs of the University.

The statement does not reveal who will undertake the investigation into allegations against Professor Pal.

Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder, but lawyer Benjamin Crump told CBS news it was a case of first-degree murder.

"We think that he had intent... almost nine minutes he kept his knee in a man's neck that was begging and pleading for breath," he said.

Looting is reported in Philadelphia.

Video from two Philadelphia TV stations on Sunday shows youths smashing several police cars and looting at least one store.

President Sebastián Piñera said the decision had caused him "pain" but his government needed "to prioritise re-establishing public order".

The COP25 climate summit was scheduled for 2 to 13 December, while the Apec trade forum was next month.

The UN said it was now looking at alternative venues.

World leaders were to gather at this year's Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss the implementation of the Paris Accord - a landmark international climate agreement, first signed at COP21 in December 2015.

Two demonstrators in Dorud in western Iran have sustained gunshot wounds, a video posted on social media and verified by BBC Persian shows.

Videos filmed elsewhere in the country show protesters setting fire to a police vehicles and there are reports of attacks on government buildings.

It is the biggest display of dissent since huge pro-reform rallies in 2009.

Demonstrators have ignored a warning by Iran's interior minister to avoid "illegal gatherings".

Large numbers reportedly turned out in Rasht, in the north, and Kermanshah, in the west, with smaller protests in Isfahan, Hamadan and elsewhere.

The protests began against rising prices but have spiralled into a general outcry against clerical rule and government policies.

A small number of people have been arrested in Tehran, the capital.

They were among a group of 50 people who gathered in a city square, Tehran's deputy governor-general for security affairs told the Iranian Labour News Agency.

Flights in and out of the airport were cancelled with frustrated passengers from the other Highlands Provinces left stranded.

Air Niugini Public Relations confirmed the suspension of its afternoon flight, and said an official statement will be released once approved by the CEO.

A passenger who travelled from neighbouring Southern Highlands Province, Brian Waffi said it was frustrating because he did not plan to spend a night in Mt Hagen.

He said all the candidates and their supporters are sitting on the tarmac and protesting.

In the blacklash women have been tweeting about how they would be accused of being responsible for their murders if the spotlight was turned on the way they lived their lives rather than the prosecutor putting the focus on the actions of the killer.

Lesby Berlin Osorio, 22, was strangled on Wednesday night with a telephone cord on the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) campus in Mexico City.