GuinEa DEclarEs Ebola crisis

Guinea is fighting a new outbreak of Ebola, health officials in the West African nation said Sunday, with at least three deaths in a region that was previously the starting point for the worst ever epidemic of the disease.

The three who died — two women and a man — were among seven people who fell ill with symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending the burial of a nurse in the country’s southeast on Feb. 1, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Officials confirmed an epidemic Sunday after a laboratory found the virus in the first three samples it tested from the patients.

Guinea had not seen an Ebola case since 2016. That outbreak spread through neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, eventually infecting more than 28,000 people in 10 countries and killing more than 11,000.

Myanmar rattled by army movements, apparent internet cutoff. YA NGON» Sightings of armored personnel carriers in Myanmar’s biggest city and an internet shutdown raised political tensions late Sunday, after vast numbers of people around the country flouted orders against demonstrations to protest the military’s seizure of power.

Public concern has already been heightened for the past few nights by what many charge is the military’s manipulation of criminals released from prison to carry out nighttime violence and stir up panic.

Ambassadors from the United States and Canada and 12 European nations called on Myanmar’s security forces to refrain from violence against those “protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.” They condemned the arrests of political leaders and activists as well as the military’s interference with communications.

Homeless man arrested in subway stabbings that left 2 dead.

NEW

YO R K » A homeless man with a history of psychiatric issues was arrested Sunday on charges that he stabbed four people who were sleeping in the subway, killing two of them, during a violent rampage that raised alarms over safety in the transit system.

The man, Rigoberto Lopez, 21, was arrested on murder and attempted murder charges, the police said. He had four prior arrests and a history of hospitalization for mental illness, the police said, and he recently lived in a hotel that the city uses to shelter homeless people.

Separatists grow majority in Catalonia.

BARCELON A » The pro-union Socialist Party claimed a narrow win in regional elections in Catalonia late Sunday, but the bloc of parties supporting secession by Spain’s northeastern corner widened their control of the regional parliament.

With 99% of the votes counted, the three main parties pledging to carve out an independent Catalan state increased their number of seats in the regional parliament to 74. In 2017, those same parties won 70 seats of the 135-seat chamber, just two above the majority.

Pfizer first COVID vaccine to be approved in Japan.

TOK YO » Japan issued its first approval for a vaccine against the coronavirus Sunday, saying it would use the PfizerBioNTech vaccine to begin inoculating frontline health care workers this week.

Japan has been slower than the United States and Europe to authorize any coronavirus vaccines, but it has also had the luxury of time. Public health measures have successfully kept infection rates low, and the country of 126 million people has recorded fewer than 7,000 deaths since the pandemic began.

Australia, New Zealand impose regional lockdowns.

AUCKL A ND» Faced with the creeping threat of more infectious coronavirus variants, Australia and New Zealand have responded to a small number of cases with near-immediate regional lockdowns.

On Sunday night,

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand announced that Auckland would begin a threeday lockdown at midnight because of three unexplained positive test results in a single family.

The Australian state of Victoria has also been placed in a short-term lockdown in response to a small outbreak.

U.K. gives at least 1 vaccine shot to 15 million. LONDON» The U.K. announced Sunday that it had reached its goal of giving at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot to the most vulnerable people in the country.

More than 15 million people, or 22% of the

U.K. population, have received their first shot.