Australia news LIVE updates: Anti-war protesters detained in Russia; 2000 NSW homes and businesses declared unliveable; Shane Warne tributes continue to flow

• Russia said it would hold fire on Monday morning, Kyiv time, to allow for the evacuation of civilians from a number of Ukrainian cities, after similar plans failed over the weekend. All humanitarian corridors

• The global COVID-19 death toll eclipsed six million on Monday, as the pandemic enters its third year.
• A second Japanese encephalitis virus case has been confirmed in NSW in a child from the state’s far south-west, who remains in hospital with “serious illness”. The mosquito-borne virus was first detected in samples collected from commercial pig farms in NSW in late February and its spread is being assessed.

Remote Pacific islands, long protected from the virus by their isolation, are just now grappling with their first outbreaks and deaths, fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Hong Kong, which is seeing deaths soar, is testing its entire population of 7.5 million three times this month as it clings to mainland China’s “zero-COVID” strategy.

As death rates remain high in Poland, Hungary, Romania and other Eastern European countries, the region has seen more than 1.5 million refugees arrive from war-torn Ukraine, a country with poor vaccination coverage and high rates of cases and deaths.

The United States is nearing 1 million reported deaths on its own, the largest official death toll in the world.

Despite the enormity of the figure of 6 million deaths — more than the populations of Berlin and Brussels combined — experts say the number is likely a vast underestimation.

With poor record keeping and testing in many parts of the world, many deaths have not been attributed to COVID-19, and there are also the excess deaths related to the pandemic but not from actual COVID-19 infections, like people who died from preventable causes but could not receive treatment because hospitals were full.

Overall, some 450 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded.

AP

Richmond, in the north-west, could get up to 120 millimetres tomorrow.

The Nepean River at Menangle Bridge surpassed 15 metres on Monday night, well above the major level of 12.2m. The Nepean is expected to surpass moderate level at Camden Weir and Wallacia Weir tonight.

Major flooding is occurring along the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond, and major flooding is expected at Penrith and Windsor and downstream.

Further rises to levels similar or higher than the March 2021 event are possible from tomorrow.

Major flooding is also occurring along the Colo River at Putty Road.

The autopsy report showed Warne died of a “congenital disease”, deputy director of Samui Hospital Songyot Chayaninporamet said.

“There is no COVID-19 infection and no sign of assault or murder,” he said.

The Australian Ambassador to Thailand Allan McKinnon thanked Thai police for their professional handling of the case.

He said Shane Warne was much loved and his early death was a terrible shock for those who loved him.

Warne’s business manager Andrew Neophitou also thanked the police and hospitals.

“On behalf of Shane Warne’s family, I’d like to thank the Thai police for the compassion and honour they’ve shown him,” he said.

Well-wishers left tributes of flowers, flags, an Australian sports shirt, a can of beans and a packet of cigarettes outside the villa on the northeast coast of Koh Samui where Warne was found unconscious.

with Reuters

Daughter Brooke Warne said her father was taken away too soon and “life is so cruel”.

“I will forever cherish our final memories together laughing and joking around with each other,” she said.

“We were happy. We were so similar in so many ways and I always used to joke that I got your genes and about how much that annoyed me!!

“Well now I couldn’t be happier and prouder that I have your genes.”

Brother Jason Warne said the “world has lost someone extremely special to them”, while he had lost “my nemesis in all sports as a child, the person who smeared Vegemite under my nose while he pinned me down giving me the typewriter, my big brother, my mate”.

Ex-wife Simone Callahan, who was married to the cricketer for a decade, wrote: “Who bring a light so great to the world that even after they have gone the light remains.”