SYDNEY/MELBOURNE, (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Melbourne on Wednesday, Geoscience Australia said, one of the country’s biggest quakes on record, causing damage to buildings in the country’s second-largest city and sending tremors throughout neighboring states. The quake’s epicentre was near the rural town of Mansfield in the state of Victoria, about 200 km (124 miles) northeast of Melbourne, and was at a depth of 10 km (six miles). An aftershock was rated 4.0. Images and video footage circulating on social media showed rubble blocking one of Melbourne’s main streets, while people in northern parts of the city said on social media they had lost power.

***
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga has tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was the first world leader to speak. The Brazilian government said on Tuesday that Queiroga, who had received a COVID-19 vaccine, was the second member of Bolsonaro’s entourage to test positive for the virus since arriving in New York for the 76th session of the annual UN gathering. Queiroga was with Bolsonaro, who last year survived a bout of the virus, at several events, including a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday.

***
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela has said a Colombian military drone violated its airspace in what it called a “blatant threat” to its national security that took place during a visit by a U.S. military commander to the neighboring nation. General Vladimir Padrino said in a statement that a Colombian Air Force drone flew over the Venezuelan border state of Zulia on Monday afternoon. “This was neither involuntary nor coincidental, as it coincides with the presence in Colombia of Admiral Craig Faller, chief of the United States Southern Command ... to supposedly discuss ‘cooperation on security matters,’” Padrino said in the statement posted on the defense ministry’s Twitter account. Colombia’s Air Force and the U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

***
NEW YORK (Dispatches) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has strengthened its air quality guidelines, or AQGs, as it warned that air pollution was one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, causing seven million premature deaths a year. The United Nations health agency said on Wednesday that urgent action was needed to reduce exposure to air pollution, ranking its burden of disease “on a par with other major global health risks such as unhealthy diet and tobacco smoking”. The WHO said the burden of disease attributable to air pollution was “WHO has adjusted almost all the air quality guideline levels downwards, warning that exceeding the new … levels is associated with significant risks to health,” it said. “Adhering to them could save millions of lives.”

***
VIENNA (Reuters) - A judge questioned Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for hours this month as part of an investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors into whether Kurz gave false testimony to a parliamentary commission, Kurz said on Wednesday. Kurz could be charged with perjury as a result of the investigation, which began in May. He denies any wrongdoing. read more The investigation is also a serious political challenge for Kurz. No sitting chancellor has been charged with a crime and it is unclear whether his conservative party’s junior coalition partner, the left-wing Greens, would maintain their alliance if he were charged or found guilty.