By RNZ New Zealanders wanting to know how protected they are against Covid-19 infection could soon be able to have their immunity levels measured at their local pharmacy.Biotech company Orbis Diagnostics this morning announced…

A second person has been arrested after two elderly women were robbed after their car was forced to stop.A police spokesperson said a 45-year-old Napier woman has been charged with aggravated robbery and is due to appear in Hastings…

Getting New Zealand history taught in schools will be one of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s proudest accomplishments, she told school children today.From 2023 it will be compulsory to teach Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories in the…

Russian authorities could replace hundreds of McDonald's stores with a domestic brand, whose logo is very similar to the American fast-food giant, according to reports.

Last week a trademark registration for the 'Uncle Vanya' brand was filed with Russian authorities, the Ukrainian news agency Nexta reported.

A group of Russian businessmen are reported to be behind the fast food company, which is set to replace the McDonald's outlets that were closed when Russia invaded Ukraine.

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They say products will be "100 per cent Russian" and the aim is to preserve jobs and reduce prices.

Last week McDonald's announced it was temporarily closing all of its 850 restaurants in Russia in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The burger giant said it would continue paying its 62,000 employees in Russia "who have poured their heart and soul into our McDonald's brand."

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When the fast food giant opened its first Russian store in 1990, it signalled the end of Russia's relatively isolationalist Communist economic structure.

A mesmerising new fish species has been identified in the waters off the coast of the Maldives.

The rose-veiled fairy wrasse, Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa, has been described in a paper published in the journal ZooKeys last week.

For two decades the animal had been misidentified as a closely related species; the red velvet fairy wrasse, Cirrhilabrus rubrisquamis.

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The vibrant, rainbow-coloured fish was first collected in 1990 but it wasn't identified as a distinct species until now.

Both species are found in mesophotic coral reefs, which grow deeper than tropical reefs at depths between 30-149 metres.

The reefs are sometimes called "twilight reefs" as they're in the "twilight zone" of the ocean.

Wrasse can reach lengths of up to seven centimetres.

DNA analysis were conducted on the two wrasse species and determined they are genetically distinct animals.

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"What we previously thought was one widespread species of fish is actually two different species, each with a potentially much more restricted distribution," lead author Yi-Kai Tea, a doctoral student at the University of Sydney, said in a statement.

"This exemplifies why describing new species, and taxonomy in general, is important for conservation and biodiversity management."

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The study found rose-veiled fairy wrasse have a smaller range than the red-velvet fairy wrasse, which is found throughout the Indian Ocean.

While females of the species look alike, the scales of male rose-veiled fairy wrasse feature more orange and yellow.

When is a potato not a potato?

When it's a tuber of a gourd, according to Guinness World Records.

A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world's largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash after Guinness wrote to say that scientific testing had found it wasn't, in fact, a potato after all.

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Colin Craig-Brown, who first hit the tuber with a hoe last August when gardening with his wife Donna, said it sure looked and tasted like a potato. Mind you, he added, he's never tasted a gourd tuber.

“What can you say?” said Craig-Brown. “We can’t say we don’t believe you, because we gave them the DNA stuff.”

After months of submitting photos and paperwork, the couple got the bad news from Guinness in an email last week.

“Dear Colin,” the email begins, going on to say “sadly the specimen is not a potato and is in fact the tuber of a type of gourd. For this reason we do unfortunately have to disqualify the application.”

The couple had named their find Doug, which they took to spelling Dug, after the way it was unearthed. The tuber became something of a local celebrity, after the couple began posting photos of it on Facebook with a hat on and even built a cart to tow it around.

An official weigh-in at a local farming store put Dug at 7.8 kilograms, equal to a couple of sacks of regular potatoes, or one small dog. The existing Guinness record will stand, a 2011 monster from Britain that weighed in at just under 5 kg.

Craig-Brown remains a big believer in Dug, who still sits in their freezer.

“I say ‘gidday’ to him every time I pull out some sausages. He's a cool character,” Craig-Brown said. “Whenever the grandchildren come round, they say, ‘Can we see Dug?'"

“Dug is the destroyer from Down Under,” Craig-Brown added. “He is the world’s biggest not-a-potato.”

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Craig-Brown said he's not done yet with chasing the potato record. Dug was self-sown but Craig-Brown said that with all his subsequent research into giant potatoes, he's ready to try and deliberately grow a record-breaking monster next season.

And this time, it will definitely be a potato.

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President Joe Biden today called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal as the atrocities in Ukraine mount.

"He's a war criminal," Mr Biden said of Mr Putin as he left an event. Footage of his exchange with journalists showed the US President clarifying a question he at first seemed to misunderstand.

Initially Mr Biden told a reporter "no," when he was asked if it was time to label Mr Putin a war criminal because of evidence coming out of Ukraine.

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But then Mr Biden clarified the question and changed tack, saying: "Oh, I think he is a war criminal."

The Kremlin responded quickly to the shift in rhetoric, saying that Mr Biden's comments were "unacceptable and unforgivable".

Mr Biden's declaration is the sharpest condemnation yet of Mr Putin and Russian actions by a US official since the invasion of Ukraine.

While other world leaders have used the words, the White House had been hesitant to declare Mr Putin's actions those of a war criminal, saying it was a legal term that required research.

Other world leaders have not been as circumspect, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said last week war crimes were being committed.

After Mr Biden delivered his assessment, the White House said the administration's investigation into war crimes would continue.

"The President's remarks speak for themselves," press secretary Jen Psaki said.

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She said Mr Biden was "speaking from the heart."

While the term "war crimes" is often used colloquially, as Mr Biden appeared to be doing today, they do have a legal definition that could be used in potential prosecution.

That includes in the Geneva Convention, which specifies intentional targeting of civilians as a war crime.

Yet in order to prosecute a war crime, solid evidence is required.

And for Russian officials to be held accountable, they would need to travel outside of the country.

Still, an official designation of war crimes – backed up with evidence – would still present the West with a symbolic tool in framing Putin's actions in Ukraine.

READ MORE: The Stinger missile worked against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s, but will it in Ukraine?

With agencies

The Sahara Desert has invaded Spain's usually snowy mountains, transforming the blindingly white snow to dirty orangey brown in a matter of hours.

Videos shared since the huge dust storm began spreading from Africa across Spain, Portugal and the rest of Europe show a bizarre, alien landscape, described by some as being like "Mars" or "the beach in the mountains".

From Sierra Nevada in the south-west to Valdesqui near Madrid and east to the Pyrenees mountains, skis cut deep tracks in the dust blanket, exposing the still-white snow hidden beneath.

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In Switzerland, orange-tinted snows covered the Alpine slopes of the Pizol resort near tiny Liechtenstein, while reddish skies loomed over places like the Payerne Air Base near Lake Neuchatel.

Snowboarders and skiers cut white lines through the snow in the Pyrenees Mountains.

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For experienced Sierra Nevada ski guide Carlos J García Becerra, it's a strange sight. He told 9News.com.au something like this happens every year, but this year the dusty carpet is much more severe than usual.

"The sky is all orange and brown, the snow as if it had a sepia colour filter," he said.

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"The truth is that it is a strange sensation for those who experience it for the first time and for those of us who have lived it for several years."

"The feeling is like you're skiing down a sand dune in the desert."

It spells bad news for the rest of the ski season, particularly given decent snow has only just begun falling this week after a dry winter, bordering on drought.

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"The effect is total destruction since this sand is much hotter than the snow and when it falls on the surface of the snow it causes it to melt much faster than normal," Mr Becerra said.

"Although at first glance it seems beautiful and spectacular to ski or walk on it, in the end it is a ruin because the snow will not last long."

Skiers have still been hitting the slopes despite the dust and, in the case of Sierra Nevada, closed lifts due to high winds.

It's still snowing at the famous peak and the dust is slowly heading on its way, so Mr Becerra is still hopeful the rest of the season can be saved.

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The dust storm made it hard to breathe in large parts of Spain for a second day on Wednesday and gave cleaning crews extra work as far away as Paris, London and Belgrade to remove the film of dirt falling on cars and buildings.

The European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said it was tracking the large mass of dust that had "degraded air quality across large parts of Spain, Portugal and France".

While Spain is bearing the brunt of the storm, dust was flung far beyond, dumping ochre-coloured blobs on cars in a rainy Paris and sifting a fine powder down on a huge swath of the continent.

Experts, including Spain's national weather service, described the event as "extraordinary" for the amount of dust in the air but noted that it had not broken any records.

"This is an intense event, but this type of event typically occurs once or twice a year, normally in February or March, when a low-pressure system over Algeria and Tunisia gathers up dust and carries it north to Europe," Carlos Pérez García, a researcher studying atmospheric dust at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, told The Associated Press.

"Dust can reach the UK, or even Iceland, as it did last year."

The area of Spain rated by its national air quality index as "extremely unfavourable" — its worst rating — expanded from the start of the European event on Tuesday to include most of the nation's southern and central regions, including Madrid and other major cities such as Seville.

Authorities recommended for people to wear face masks, still in wide use because of the pandemic, and avoid outdoor exercise, especially if suffering respiratory diseases.

Tributes have flowed for a Perth brother and sister who died in a suspected murder-suicide as their father prepares to return home to a "new and devastating reality".

Providence Christian College principal Bill Innes said the community was in mourning over the deaths of 10-year-old Abiyah and her eight-year-old brother Aiden Selvan.

The children and their mother were found dead in a burnout Honda Jazz in the John Graham Reserve in Coogee in the city's south earlier this week.

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Detectives are treating the incident as a suspected double murder-suicide.

The school community in the suburb of Southern River has left touching tributes for the siblings.

"You're never prepared for something like this," Mr Innes said.

Abiyah, who was in Year 6, has been remembered as a "talented, kind and thoughtful" person.

"She was just one of those kids who was loved by everyone," Mr Innes said.

Her brother Aiden has been remembered as "a kid who gave 110 per cent in everything".

"Whatever it was, he was just full of energy," Mr Innes said.

"Just a lovely family, great family … always present on campus, particularly mum."

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"There's been a sense of devastation throughout the college."

The principal offered his condolences to the children's father, who is returning home from the United States tonight.

"Dad is normally busy working, he's a very busy man … but as we speak he's on a flight back to this new and devastating reality," Mr Innes said.

He left on Sunday to visit his mother who is sick with COVID-19 but he only got as far as Doha before his life changed.

Both parents worked at Fiona Stanley Hospital.

The father was a lead anesthetist technician and the mother was a nurse.

Colleagues have described them as "the most beautiful family … who were so proud of their children."

Support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.