AUSTRALIA – As a swarm of up to 10,000 live music fans, bar owners, and hospitality workers took to the CBD’s streets to fight for their right to party on Friday, a coalition of doctors, police and paramedics urged Premier Mike Baird to keep “lifesaving” lockout laws in place. The massive crowd of protesters — which included Kings Cross nightclub owner John Ibrahim — at the Keep Sydney Open rally were campaigning against 1.30am lockout laws and 3am last drink laws in bars within the Sydney CBD, which they blame for stifling the music scene and crippling small businesses. But at St Vincent’s Hospital, Dr Tony Sara, a spokesman for the Last Drinks Coalition, said the laws not only should be kept in place, but extended to any precinct marred by alcohol-fuelled violence. (The Daily Telegraph)…[+]

AUSTRALIA – A baby at the centre of an asylum row in Australia has been released from hospital into community detention. But the government says baby Asha will be sent to an offshore camp in Nauru once she is well. Doctors refused to discharge the one-year-old, who was being treated for serious burns, unless she was provided a “suitable home environment”. The standoff sparked protests outside Brisbane’s Lady Cilento Hospital in support of the doctors. Asha will now stay with her family, including her mother, in community detention. An immigration officer will monitor the family and their movements will be restricted.(BBC).(The Guardian)…[+]

INDIA – More than 10 million people in India’s capital are without water despite the army regaining control of its key water source after protests, officials say.

Keshav Chandra, head of Delhi’s water board, told the BBC it would take “three to four days” before normal supplies resumed to affected areas. Jat community protesters demanding more government jobs seized the Munak canal, the city’s main water source. Sixteen people have been killed and hundreds hurt in three days of riots. Mr Chandra said that prior warnings meant that people had managed to save water, and tankers had been dispatched to affected areas of the city, but that this would not be enough to make up for the shortfall.(BBC)…[+]

COLOMBIA – Colombian authorities are investigating the disappearance and possible dismemberment of at least 100 people whose bodies were allegedly thrown into a sewer system underneath a notorious prison in Bogota. The investigation is focusing on La Modelo, one of Colombia’s largest and most overpopulated prisons. But officials say the practice of dismembering people and tossing their remains into sewers might have also happened at other prisons in cities such as Popayan, Bucaramanga and Barranquilla between 1999 and 2001 and possibly later. Caterina Heyck Puyana, a special prosecutor in charge of the case, said Wednesday that the Colombian attorney general’s office has been investigating what happened at La Modelo for months.

(CNN)…[+]

UGANDA – The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, extended his 30-year rule on Saturday amid deep controversy as his main opponent was placed under house arrest and international observers dismissed the election result as a sham. Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, won 60.8% of the vote in presidential elections, while the main opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, secured 35.4%, according to the country’s electoral commission. Demanding an independent audit of the results, Besigye said: “We have just witnessed what must be the most fraudulent electoral process in Uganda.” The opposition politician also revealed that he had been placed under house arrest. A Reuters reporter confirmed that Besigye’s house was encircled by police in riot gear and that the media was barred from approaching it. Museveni, 71, has presided over robust economic growth, but has faced mounting accusations at home and abroad of cracking down on dissent and failing to tackle rampant corruption in the east African nation of 37 million people.(theguardian)…[+]

BRAZIL – Brazilian scientists in Rio de Janeiro have obtained the genome sequence of the Zika virus and found the disease is indeed related to the incidence of microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with small heads and impaired cognition, that country’s official news agency said Saturday.

The scientists were able to identify “the full order of the virus’s genetic data, a significant step towards understanding how Zika behaves in the human body and how to develop a vaccine as well as new tests,” Agencia Brasil reported.

The researchers at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s molecular virology lab analyzed the virus taken from the amniotic fluid of pregnant women, and the scientists also isolated the virus in the brains of fetuses with microcephaly who died in Paraiba state in northeastern Brazil right after birth, the agency said. (CNN)…[+]

USA – Most of us have experienced a moment where we worry that our partners may stray – or be hit on by other women – but one girlfriend has come up with a very obvious way to let the world know that her man isn’t free. She makes him wear a T-shirt covered in photos of her. Because nothing says “I’m taken” than a top boasting your partner’s face.  And if the multiple photos aren’t obvious enough, the caption printed at the bottom of the T-shirt leaves potential suitors without a doubt.  “If you are reading this, you are too close,” it reads. “I have a girlfriend.”. (yahoonews)…[+]

AUSTRIA – Austria’s daily cap on the number of migrants and refugees allowed into the country has come into force. Just 80 asylum applications will be accepted each day at Austria’s southern border, after which it will shut. The European migration commissioner has described the measure as “plainly incompatible” with European Union law. EU leaders have announced they will hold a summit in early March with Turkey to attempt to seek fresh solutions to the crisis.(BBC)…[+]

SOUTH SUDAN – Clashes inside a United Nations compound in South Sudan killed at least 18 people, including two Doctors Without Borders staffers, the organization said Thursday.

The fighting erupted Wednesday evening and continued Thursday at a U.N. civilian protection site in the northeastern city of Malakal, officials said. Doctors Without Borders teams reported treating dozens of wounded. Youths from the Shilluk and Dinka ethnic groups fought using small arms, machetes and other weapons, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan said in a statement condemning the violence. U.N. police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, the mission said. Officials released photos showing smoke billowing in the sky above the compound.(CNN)…[+]

USA/CUBA – President Obama is to visit Cuba in the coming weeks as part of a broader trip to Latin America, reports say. He will be only the second sitting US president in history to travel to the island, after Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

US Republicans have criticized the visit, saying it should not take place while the Castro family is in power. Washington and Havana restored diplomatic ties last July and the US relaxed travel and trade restrictions after a 54-year freeze. Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both sons of Cuban migrants, said the visit was a mistake. Asked whether he would go, Mr Rubio said: “Not if it’s not a free Cuba.” Mr Cruz said Mr Obama would be acting “as an apologist”.(BBC)…[+]