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Part of Alliance’s Lorneville meat-processing plant was isolated and evacuated this afternoon after an ammonia leak.Emergency services were called to the incident at 12.06pm.A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said two…

Shanghai Disneyland closed on Monday as China's most populous city tried to contain its biggest coronavirus flareup in two years, while the southern business centre of Shenzhen allowed shops and offices to reopen after a week-long closure.

Meanwhile, the cities of Changchun and Jilin in the northeast began another round of citywide virus testing following a surge in infections. Jilin tightened anti-disease curbs, ordering its two million residents to stay home.

China’s case numbers in its latest infection wave are low compared with other major countries, but authorities are enforcing a “zero tolerance” strategy that has suspended access to some major cities.

READ MORE: Chinese airliner crashes with 132 aboard

The government reported 2027 new cases on the Chinese mainland on Sunday, up from the previous day’s 1737.

That included 1542 infections in the Jilin province, where Changchun and Jilin are located.

Shanghai, which has a population of 24 million, has avoided a citywide shutdown but authorities appealed to the public to stay home.

Bus services into the city have been suspended and visitors are required to show a negative virus test.

Disney Co. said Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown and Wishing Star Park were closed until further notice.

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On Monday, Shanghai reported more than 750 new cases. The city earlier suspended access to two residential areas and carried out mass testing at dozens of others.

Shanghai residents posted photos on the internet showing empty streets and subways during what usually is a crowded Monday morning rush hour.

The government of Shenzhen, a finance and technology centre that abuts Hong Kong, announced businesses and government offices were allowed to reopen on Monday while authorities took steps to try to prevent a resurgence of virus cases.

Bus and subway services, which had been suspended, were restarted.

Last week, the city of 17.5 million shut down all businesses except those that supply food and other necessities and told the public to stay home following a spike in cases.

Shenzhen is home to some of China's biggest companies including telecom equipment maker Huawei, electric car brand BYD Auto and Tencent, operator of the popular WeChat message service.

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The shutdowns prompted concern trade might be disrupted if ports near Shanghai and Shenzhen, that are among the world's busiest, are affected.

The Shanghai port moved paperwork functions online but said cargo was moving normally. The smaller port of Lianyungang barred foreign sailors from coming ashore.

The government said last week it was trying to fine-tune anti-disease controls to reduce their economic cost and impact on society.

READ MORE: Russian attack on Kyiv shopping centre leaves at least eight dead

Tangshan, a steel industry centre east of Beijing, imposed controls on Sunday that allow only emergency vehicles to move around the city after seven cases were found, state media reported.

Authorities in Beijing were investigating a duck restaurant where four employees contracted the virus.

State media said owners of the Yu Le Xuan restaurant were accused of failing to register the identities of 477 diners as required over five days, making it harder to trace potential contacts.

Travel agents are crying foul over the loss of multi-million-dollar commissions, soon to be slashed by Qantas and other major commercial airlines.

Qantas was the first airline to announce it was cutting agent commissions from five percent to one percent, Australia's peak body for travel agents said, with a string of leading airlines including Emirates, Air New Zealand, Hawaiian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and American Airlines soon following suit.

Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) boss Dean Long told 9news.com.au the move would pile huge pressure on smaller travel agents already buffeted by the worst downturn in travel since commercial passenger jet travel began.

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The change would ultimately lead to a "lower level of competition" in the marketplace, Mr Long claimed, with the move pushing passengers towards buying their tickets online direct from the airlines.

"It is unfair," he said.

"This is purely a cost shift by the majority of the airlines."

Mr Long said Australian travellers are now more reliant than ever on agents to guide them through complex and fast-moving coronavirus restrictions.

Because of the cloud of uncertainty which hangs over international air travel, agents are now investing more and more time in ticket bookings, he said.

Once tickets are booked, agents are going back into the booking system multiple times to "touch" a ticket multiple times to make itinerary changes or checks, he said, so cutting commissions in the current environment was a bitter pill to swallow.

Mr Long said the decision was "very disappointing" and that lost commissions would cost Australian travel agents "in the millions".

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In a recent survey of its membership, AFTA found 58 percent of travel agents only expected a return to profit in the 2023-24 financial year.

Around 3.5 percent said they would "definitely" go out of business in 2022, while a further 10 percent had grave doubts they would be alive by the end of the year.

A recent survey by Finder found there had been a surge in the number of Australians booking flights through a travel agent because the level of administration required to travel during the pandemic is so high and overwhelming.

The fear of a trip being cancelled and uncertainty around travel requirements were big reasons Australians were now more likely to book through an agent, the survey found.

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In announcing the change last year, Qantas executive Igor Kwiatkowski blamed it on brutal conditions facing the aviation sector.

"Like all airlines, Qantas is working to recover from the biggest crisis our industry has ever faced," he said.

"Maintaining the status quo around our commission structure is no longer viable."

The change to commissions would help Qantas try and reduce various operation costs by $1 billion each year," he said.

"Given the billions of dollars of extra debt and lost revenue due to COVID, these cost reductions are central to our recovery plan."

Mr Long of AFTA said it was "incorrect" for airlines to try and paint a picture that commissions had to be reduced now.

"Let's be honest, airline commissions haven't cost the airline industry a cent for the last two years, because you only get paid a commission on what you sell.

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"So the idea that these decisions have to be made at the worst economic trading conditions the travel industry has faced in 100 years is just not correct."

From April 1, Cathay Pacific will be the first airline to hack back commissions, with others initiating their own cutbacks over the course of the year.

Qantas will reduce its commissions from July 1.

The price of renting in Australia's regional centres has grown by almost 20 per cent in just two years, prompting experts to warn of a national housing emergency.

A new report from the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and UNSW Sydney shows that regional rents are now 18 per cent higher than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, while wages in the same period have only grown by 6 per cent.

The Australian findings mirror those found in other markets such as the UK and the US, where rent inflation in 2021 reached levels not seen since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.

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ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said low-income regional residents are copping the brunt of the increases, which cannot be covered by CPI-linked benefits increases that are indexed to capital city rents.

"With private rentals already in short supply before the recent devastating floods, soaring rents, and a severe shortage of social housing options, we're in the middle of a renting crisis in many parts of regional Australia," Dr Goldie said.

"In flood-affected areas, it's clear the rental market cannot house the families on low and middle incomes who have been made homeless temporarily – the real concern is that this then becomes permanent."

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Dr Goldie said a greater supply of social housing in regional centres, particularly those hit worst by natural disasters such as floods, is desperately needed to bring asking rents down.

"We need immediate Federal Government action to help house people made homeless in flood-affected communities," Dr Goldie.

"But COVID and the floods are only aggravating a national rental problem that has been building for years. After a decade of Commonwealth neglect on social housing we badly need a major national building program that starts to remedy this, with a sizeable part of the investment going to the regional centres facing the greatest stress."

The report, COVID 19: Housing market impacts and housing policy responses – an international review compared the experiences of Australia and seven other case study countries – Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the US.

It found that while many countries took far-reaching measures to maintain incomes and safeguard housing during the pandemic, almost all saw asking rents explode once government intervention ended.

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Lead author Professor Hal Pawson said social and economic policies during the pandemic offered a temporary view of how Australia could be.

"Just as in most other countries in our study, Australia's emergency income protection and also housing policy measures triggered by the pandemic went well beyond what anyone would have previously imagined," Professor Pawson said.

"Just for a brief moment we had a tantalising glimpse of cities with street homelessness greatly reduced and a rental housing market where evictions were drastically cut.

"But since the experience has prompted virtually no permanent reforms of social security or rental housing regulation, governments appear to have resisted learning lessons from the episode."

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Emma Greenhalgh, CEO of low-income housing organisation National Shelter, said we are now in a housing emergency that has been brewing for years.

"This report demonstrates the missed opportunities of the past two years to capitalise on the initial positive responses by governments to address housing and homelessness issues during COVID, and create a housing legacy from the pandemic by investing in social and affordable housing," Ms Greenhalgh said.

"We are in a national housing emergency that has been a long time in the making, compounded by COVID and climate disasters. There is a lack of urgency by the Federal Government to this crisis.

"The development of a national housing strategy to respond to this crisis is critical."

A Cambridge publican was returning to the Far North to try to catch a marlin after being on a similar trip to the remote Three Kings fishing spot three years ago.Richard Bright, 63, and his mate Mike Lovett, 72, packed their car…

An ancient relic once thought to be the remains of an inner harbour on a Sicilian island may have actually been a way to navigate the stars.

Archaeologists have spent close to 60 years investigating artifacts on the island-city of Motya – off Sicily's west coast. They originally thought the "kothon" a large rectangular basin 52×37 metres in size, was an artificial harbour.

But a recent investigation has led scientists to believe this was in fact an ancient freshwater pool which was once surrounded by three large temples and a large statue of Ba'al, a fertility god.

READ MORE: Chinese airliner crashes with 132 aboard in country's south

READ MORE: China Eastern flight 5735 displayed 'unusual' flight patterns before crash

It is estimated to be 2500 years old and a paper published on the discovery also revealed a surface for observing and mapping the movement of stars.

This was emphasised by the alignment of structures and features positioned around the sacred enclosure.

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There is a section in what scientists call the "sanctuary" that marks the position of Capella (Alpha Aurigae), the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, when it rises to the north during the autumn equinox, expedition head Lorenzo Nigro wrote.

Another section in the enclosure's south marks Sirius (Alpha Canis Major), the brightest star in the night sky, when it rises to the south during the autumn equinox, the paper also found.

A new strain of COVID-19 has been confirmed in assorted locations around the world.

While it has not yet been detected in Australia, the Deltacron variant has been found in countries including France, the US, the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The new variant combines aspects of both its Delta and Omicron predecessors.

But is there much reason to worry?

READ MORE: Chinese airliner crashes with 132 aboard in country's south

What is Deltacron?

Deltacron is a "recombinant" virus, mixing aspects of two separate variants.

Omicron is currently the globally dominant COVID-19 variant, while Delta, which swept the world last year, was renowned as the most severe variant to date.

It has been speculated that Deltacron may be the result of the out-of-vogue Delta virus trying to mimic Omicron's success in transmission.

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The recombinant was first detected by the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, according to international science not-for-profit GISAID.

It has been speculated that there could be further Deltacron sub-variants, with the Institut Pasteur finding differences in cases in the UK and US compared to mainland Europe.

How dangerous is it?

A combination of Delta's severity and Omicron's transmissibility might sound like a nightmare scenario.

But scientists are playing down concerns.

Dr Etienne Simon-Loriere, a virologist from the Institut Pasteur, told the New York Times that the "spike" of Deltacron – the part of its structure used to infect other organisms – was composed of Omicron.

READ MORE: Russian attack on Kyiv shopping centre leaves at least eight dead

It is this "spike" which is targeted by vaccines and antibodies, meaning that defences people have already acquired against Omicron should be effective at fending off Deltacron.

The virus so far appears to be very rare, and unable to replicate itself successfully.

Writing in The Conversation, biochemistry professor Luke O'Neill from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, said Omicron remained the variant of greatest concern to the world.

"As the coronavirus is continuing to spread widely and infect large numbers of people, it's likely that more variants will emerge – including through recombination," he said.

Russia may have inadvertently revealed the real death toll from its invasion of Ukraine, a figure more than 20 times its previous count.

Newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda said 9861 Russian soldiers have died in the invasion of Ukraine.

If accurate, it means four times as many Russians have died in Ukraine in three weeks as US military personnel in Afghanistan in 20 years.

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Another 16,153 were injured in the fighting.

The Kremlin-linked newspaper has since deleted the figure without explanation.

The official death toll from the Russian Ministry of Defence is 498 troops, though it has been 20 days since that figure was updated.

That figure would make the invasion of Ukraine far bloodier than the ill-fated Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In that years-long conflict, about 15,000 Soviets died.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said on March 13 that 1300 of its soldiers have been killed. The Russians claimed it was more than double that figure.

While it is difficult to determine accurate reports on the front line in Ukraine, it does appear Russia has made little progress in the past week.

READ MORE: Russian attack on Kyiv shopping centre leaves at least eight dead

Tenacious resistance and supply line issues have caused the Russian advance to stall.

And there have been reports of widespread desertions among the largely-conscript Russian forces.

Out of fuel and out of food, many Russian soldiers have left their tanks and trucks behind and walked away.

Ukraine claims five Russian generals have died in the conflict thus far.

READ MORE: Chinese airliner crashes with 132 aboard in country's south

While there is plenty of bad news for the Russian military, it does not mean good news for the Ukrainian people.

Cities like Kyiv and Mariupol remain under relentless bombing and shelling, with many buildings destroyed and thousands of civilians killed.

The damage wrought by bombing has created a nightmare defensive zone for the Russians to walk into.

Top US general David Petraeus said last week it takes a five-to-one ratio for an invading army to take a city.

If the Russian army makes it into Kyiv, the number of soldiers killed will likely skyrocket.

READ MORE: Invasion reveals a host of weaknesses in Russia's military: Petraeus

People around the world have celebrated the festival of Holi by playing with colours, singing, and dancing