Washington, June 19

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, a spokesperson said, a week before he is due to accompany President Joe Biden to a meeting of the Group of Seven advanced economies.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Sullivan had not been in close contact with Biden, and was asymptomatic. It was his first COVID infection, she said.

Sullivan met at the White House on Friday with Senegal's foreign minister, Aissata Tall Sall, the White House said on Saturday. He met in person with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Luxembourg for four and a half hours on Monday.

It was not immediately clear whether the positive test would affect Sullivan's travel plans.

The White House announced last week that Biden would travel to southern Germany for the Group of Seven summit and continue on to Spain for a NATO summit in late June. Reuters

Tallinn, June 18

A Ukrainian medic whose footage was smuggled out of the besieged city of Mariupol was freed by Russian forces on Friday, three months after she was taken captive on the streets of the city.

The medic, Yuliia Paievska, is known in Ukraine as Taira, a nickname she chose in the World of Warcraft video game. Using a body camera, she recorded 256 gigabytes of her team's efforts over two weeks to save the wounded, including both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

Taira and a colleague were taken prisoner by Russian forces on March 16, the same day a Russian airstrike hit a theater in the city center, killing around 600 people, according to media probe.

"It was such a great sense of relief. Those sound like such ordinary words, and I don't even know what to say," her husband, Vadim Puzanov, said. He added that the couple had spoken with each other over phone and Taira was en route to a Kyiv hospital. — AP

London, June 18

The UK government is to launch a 12-month pilot scheme that will involve some illegal migrants seeking asylum in the country being electronically tagged to keep track of their movements, it emerged on Saturday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the plans as he said it was essential that people who arrived through dangerous routes on small boats and hidden in lorries could not simply "vanish".

Documents linked to the UK Home Office proposals suggest that the government wants to obtain data on how frequently asylum seekers abscond. The Home Office electronic tagging trial began on Thursday in England and Wales to test whether it helps maintain regular contact with asylum claimants and progresses their claims more effectively.

It will also collect data on how many people abscond and disappear.

London, June 18

Indian-origin architect and design advocate Nairita Chakraborty has been appointed to the prestigious role of Commissioner of Historic England, the public body championing the country's historic environment and heritage.

Chakraborty, who grew up in Delhi and studied at the School of Planning and Architecture before moving to the UK, has over 16 years of experience in heritage, townscape and design. She is already a member of Historic England's Advisory Committee and will start her new role from July 1 for four years.

Mexico City, June 18

Two actors on the Netflix series The Chosen One were killed and six other cast or crew members were injured after the van they were riding in crashed near Mulege on the Baja California Sur peninsula.

Local media reported the crash occurred Thursday, and said the van flipped after running off the road in a desert area. The crew had apparently been working in the nearby Santa Rosalia area at the time.

The Baja California Department of Culture said Friday that Raymundo Garduntilde;o Cruz and Juan Francisco Gonzaacute;lez Aguilar died.

Netflix describes The Chosen One this way: "A 12-year-old boy learns he's the returned Jesus Christ, destined to save humankind. Based on the comic book series by Mark Millar and Peter Gross." According to casting calls, the series is being taped by an independent production company.

Washington, June 17

US regulators on Friday authorised the first Covid shots for infants and preschoolers, paving the way for vaccinations to begin next week.

The Food and Drug Administration's action follows its advisory panel's unanimous recommendation for the shots from Moderna and Pfizer. That means US kids under 5 — roughly 18 million youngsters — are eligible for the shots, about one and a half years after the vaccines first became available in the US for adults, who have been hit the hardest during the pandemic. The FDA also authorised Moderna's vaccine for school-going children and teens. Pfizer's shots had previously been the only ones available for those ages.

There's one step left: The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommends how to use vaccines and its vaccine advisers are set to discuss the shots for the youngest kids. — AP

London, June 17

British health officials reported another 50 cases of monkeypox across the country on Friday, for a total of 574 cases. That makes the UK's outbreak the biggest to date beyond Africa.

In a statement, Britain's Health Security Agency said most of the cases have been identified in gay or bisexual men, but warned that anyone who is in close, physical contact with someone who has monkeypox is at risk of catching the usually rare disease. — AP

Ramallah, West Bank, June 17

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians during a raid in the West Bank on Friday, Palestinian officials said.

The identity of the three men was unclear. The officials said they had been shot in a car in the city of Jenin.

An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into the report.

Beijing, June 17

Eight people were injured and six more were missing after an explosion ripped through a factory in northwest China's Gansu province, local authorities said on Friday.

The explosion took place at a chemical factory in the provincial capital of Lanzhou on Thursday night, they said.

The injured were hospitalised, and their condition was stated to be stable.

Risks of secondary disasters have been ruled out, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.