New Zealand reported two locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, just hours before authorities are due to announce whether a lockdown in Auckland will be extended.
Auckland's nearly 2 million residents were plunged into a snap three-day lockdown on Monday, after a family of three - two adults and a child - were diagnosed with COVID-19, with at least two determined to be the more transmissable UK variant.
The two latest cases are siblings studying at the same school as the child, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told members of a health select committee.
The Auckland lockdown is due to end at midnight on Wednesday and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to announce her decision at 1630 local time (0330 GMT). She is also expected to reveal whether the remainder of the country steps down a level on the country's COVID-response scale.
The Auckland lockdown was the first in the country for about six months, after a hard nationwide shutdown early in the pandemic appeared to have largely eliminated local transmission.
The fresh outbreak prompted neighbouring Australia to suspend an arrangement that allowed New Zealanders to enter Australia without serving a 14-day hotel quarantine period.
Russian attacks damaged energy facilities in Ukraine's Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday, with a drone hitting a power line cutting power to 4,000 people.
Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuation of population.
A fourth US Army soldier, who together with three others went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sank in a peat bog, has been found dead, US and Lithuanian officials said on Tuesday.
The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP).
United Nations officials who surveyed earthquake damage in Myanmar urged the global community to ramp up aid before the looming monsoon season worsens already catastrophic conditions, with the death toll at 2,719 and expected to surpass 3,000.