The wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has appeared in public for the first time in over a year, according to state media.

Ri Sol-ju joined her husband at a concert on Tuesday to mark the birthday of Kim’s late father and former leader, Kim Jong-il.

Ms Ri has often accompanied Mr Kim to major events in the past, but had not been seen since January last year.

Her absence stoked speculation over her health or a potential pregnancy.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service had reportedly told congressmen yesterday that Ms Ri was avoiding appearing in public due to concerns over Covid-19 and may have been spending time with her children.

North Korea has not officially reported any Covid-19 cases – though experts say this is unlikely.

According to the Rodong Sinmun, the couple entered the Mansudae Art Theatre together on Tuesday to “thunderous cheers”.

Photos showed the couple laughing – as well as a conspicuous lack of masks or social distancing measures.

Who is Ri Sol-ju?

Ms Ri comes from an upper class family, with her father being a professor and her mother an obstetrician, according to analyst Cheong Seong-chang.

Media reports say Ms Ri, who is reportedly aged 31, was previously a singer in the Unhasu Orchestra – an elite troupe whose members are handpicked by the state.

Mr Cheong adds that she is believed to have married Mr Kim in 2009, with the marriage arranged in a hurry by the late Kim Jong-il after he suffered a stroke in 2008.

According to South Korean intelligence, the couple have three children together.

A court in The Hague has told the Dutch government that an overnight curfew to reduce the spread of coronavirus should be lifted immediately because it breaches the right to free movement.

The court said the 21:00 to 04:30 curfew was imposed by an emergency law when there was no “acute emergency”.

The decision is a victory for campaign group Viruswaarheid (Virus Truth).

Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged people to follow the curfew, even if ministers failed to stop it being lifted.

The government has asked the court to suspend its decision ahead of an appeal. Unless the court agrees, ministers will be unable to prevent the curfew from being lifted on Tuesday night.

“We haven’t for a second considered scrapping the curfew as it is simply necessary,” said Mr Rutte, who described the ruling as a setback. The cabinet is urgently working on a new law to enforce the curfew, but that could take time.

Curfews have been widely used in Europe to restrict movement. France has had a nightly curfew from 18:00 but has stopped short of imposing a third lockdown. Greece has also imposed curfews, as have Spain and Italy.

Why the curfew is contentious

The Dutch measure, which came into force on 23 January, was intended to reduce movement, particularly among young people, but triggered days of rioting in a number of towns and cities. The Netherlands had not seen a curfew since Nazi occupation in World War Two.

Although the Netherlands initially avoided strict measures, a lockdown was brought in last December and, after the cabinet decided on a curfew in January, MPs backed it days later amid fears that the UK, or Kent, variant would increase infections. The government resigned before last month’s curfew decision and now has a caretaker role ahead of elections next month.

In their ruling on Tuesday, the Dutch judges said the curfew had been imposed under an emergency law, even though the court said there was no emergency as in the case of a “dyke being breached”.

Fears of increased infection because of the UK variant were not valid as no curfew was imposed last year when pressure on Dutch hospitals was far greater, the judges said.

The curfew was therefore a violation of the right to freedom of movement and privacy, and limited the right to freedom of assembly.

Dutch ministers will now have to decide whether to appeal, but a court spokesman said that this would not suspend the ruling.

Commentators spoke of ministers having faced a “Catch-22” situation. When the cabinet decided on the curfew they sought the backing of MPs, but by waiting for parliamentary support, in the judges eyes they had disproved the need for emergency legislation.

Benue state government has shut down a private boarding school in Makurdi, the state capital, as a result of an unidentified illness.

The affected school, Vaatia College, ranks among the highly rated secondary schools in the state.

Some parents explained that on Sunday, they received messages from the school authorities to evacuate their children/wards over the development.

It was learnt that at least five students were affected with the ailment, which symptoms include headache as well as fever.

Our correspondent, who visited the school on Monday afternoon, saw some parents leaving the premises with their children.

A parent, who preferred not to be named, said he came to pick up his daughter after the message from the school authorities.

But the school management said they were having a meeting and would only speak to journalists on Tuesday.

When contacted, the State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Joseph Ngbea, confirmed the development, saying the school was advised to close indefinitely to enable his ministry conduct a thorough investigation on the disease.

Dr Ngbea said: “Yes, the school is Vaatia College. I’m just leaving the teaching hospital to see the patients. Three patients are there but one is an out-patient and doing well.

“Some of them are having headache. Since there is no paralysis, polio is completely ruled out.

“We are trying to look at what they are being treated, for now, there is no diagnosis at the teaching hospital. Now, we are heading to Madonna Hospital where there are two others on admission. The illness is autoimmune, it can have effect.

“We shut down the school. You know that COVID-19 is a new virus. We want to look into if it is contagious, that is why we asked them to close down the school. We can look at the biology of the disease and then be able to advise the school appropriately,” he said.

He said the ministry was interacting with the physicians managing the affected students in order to give appropriate advice to the school authorities after the closure.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has apologised to a former political adviser who has alleged she was raped by a senior colleague in a minister’s office in parliament.

Brittany Higgins said she had feared losing her job after the 2019 incident, and had little support from her bosses.

Ms Higgins, 26, spoke out in a TV interview on Monday that has prompted shock and outrage over her treatment.

Mr Morrison apologised for the government’s handling of her complaint.

The allegations are now under a renewed police investigation.

Mr Morrison said he was “shattered” by her claims, and had called for a review into parliament’s environment and culture.

“I hope Brittany’s call is a wake-up call for all of us,” he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

But Mr Morrison also drew criticism for saying he understood the allegations better after considering them as a father of two girls.

What does Ms Higgins allege?

Ms Higgins, then 24, was a few weeks into a new job with Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds when she went out for drinks with a group including her alleged attacker, an older male colleague.

She said she was offered her a lift home by the man at the end of the night, but instead he took her to Parliament House.

Ms Higgins said she was drunk and fell asleep in the minister’s office, before waking to find the man sexually assaulting her.

“I woke up mid-rape essentially,” she told Network Ten. “I started crying… I told him to stop.”

She said the man left immediately afterwards.

After informing her employer, Ms Higgins felt Ms Reynolds’ office tried to “manage” the situation, downplaying her trauma.

“It felt like I became… it immediately became a political problem,” she said.

Ms Higgins said Ms Reynolds told her she would be supported if she pursued a police complaint, but she felt pressured not to, believing it would end her career.

She said the meeting with the minister was also held in the room where the alleged attack took place.

“There was a loop happening in my mind of this trauma that I’d just sort of come to terms with and I thought it was unfathomable that they would put me in such a place again,” she said.

Ms Higgins said her alleged attacker had been considered a “rising star” of the party.

She worked for another minister in Mr Morrison’s Liberal Party before quitting politics.

What was the PM’s response?

Mr Morrison apologised specifically for the meeting in Ms Reynolds’ office, where Ms Higgins alleges the rape took place.

He said such an event “should not have happened”, saying it would spark a review of the complaints procedure in parliament.

The prime minister also announced a review into the professional culture of parliament, saying problems crossed over party lines.

“I want to make sure that any young woman working in this place is as safe as possible,” he said.

Mr Morrison said that he had discussed Ms Higgins’ allegations with his wife, who had helped him “clarify” his views.

“She said to me: ‘You have to think about this as a father first. What would you want to happen if it were our girls?'”

His comments have drawn much criticism online from women who suggested that Mr Morrison should not need to do that.

“It should not take a man having a daughter for him to treat women who’ve been assaulted with empathy and respect,” wrote author Jamila Rizvi on Twitter.

What does this show about Australian politics?

Australian politics has long faced accusations of being a hostile environment for women.

Ms Higgins’ case has refocused public scrutiny on the experience of women in Canberra, in particular within the ruling conservative party. It has previously been accused of covering up sexual misconduct.

Before the 2019 general election, Mr Morrison denied his party had a “women problem”, after the departure of several female lawmakers.

One of those ex-MPs, Julia Banks, tweeted on Monday: “Once again Parliament House proves itself to be the most unsafe, toxic workplace culture for women in the country.

Ms Higgins said she was motivated to speak out about her experience after an ABC investigation last year aired allegations of inappropriate behaviour by government ministers.

At the time, Mr Morrison was also criticised for interrupting a female minister who was responding to a question about what it’s like to be a woman in parliament.

A South African judge says he wants ex-President Jacob Zuma to be given a jail sentence for failing to appear before him to answer corruption allegations.

Mr Zuma, 79, ignored a summons to appear before a commission of inquiry being chaired by Justice Ray Zondo.

The judge said Mr Zuma’s defiance could lead to lawlessness, and he would ask South Africa’s highest court to convict the ex-president of contempt.

Mr Zuma said he believed that Justice Zondo was biased against him.

He previously asked the judge to step down as chair of the inquiry.

Justice Zondo rejected the request, and said he was doing his job impartially.

At least 40 witnesses have implicated Mr Zuma in corruption.

Among the allegations against him is that during his term in office, he allowed the wealthy Gupta family to plunder state resources and to influence policy and cabinet appointments.

Both Mr Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing.

The Constitutional Court ruled last month that Mr Zuma was compelled to appear before the commission.

Following his non-appearance on Monday, Justice Zondo said everyone was equal before the law and if Mr Zuma was allowed to defy the courts it would have far-reaching implications for democracy.

Mr Zuma has not commented since the judge’s ruling, but has previously said he is not afraid to go to jail.

But some of his supporters, dressed in military fatigue, have marched outside his rural home, vowing to protect him.

Mr Zuma was forced to step down as president in 2018 after being dogged by allegations of corruption throughout his nine years in office.

His successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, took office on a pledge to tackle the issue.