Thousands of Russians have been taking part in unauthorised protests to demand the release of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

More than 1,000 people have been detained so far, local media say.

In Moscow police have closed metro stations and are restricting movement in the city centre. About 140 people have been detained there.

Mr Navalny was jailed on his return to Russia after recovering from an attempt to kill him with a nerve agent.

He is accused of not complying with a suspended sentence.

The opposition figure had only just arrived from Berlin, where he spent months recovering from the near-fatal attack.

Russian authorities say he was supposed to report to police regularly because of a suspended sentence for embezzlement.

Mr Navalny has denounced his detention as “blatantly illegal”, saying the authorities knew he was being treated in Berlin for the Novichok poisoning, which happened in Russia last August.

Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied reports he is the owner of a vast palace on the Black Sea, as alleged by Mr Navalny in a video that has gone viral in Russia and has been watched more than 100m times.

In Moscow the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford says protesters played cat-and-mouse with police, getting up close to officers before retreating to safety. Police snatch squads pulled some protesters through the lines of riot shields. Footage showed a stream of people being escorted on to buses by riot police.

Mr Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya is among those detained, Mr Navalny’s team says.

Police say the protests are illegal, while Russian authorities have warned that the demonstrations could spread the coronavirus.

A 40-year-old protester in Moscow told Reuters she had attended despite having a panic attack the night before over the possible repercussions she could face for taking part.

“I understand that I live in a totally lawless state. In a police state, with no independent courts. In a country ruled by corruption. I would like to live differently,” she said.

In St Petersburg, Mr Putin’s home city, a crowd gathered in a central square and chanted: “Down with the Tsar.”

Rallies in support of Mr Navalny have already taken place in eastern Russia. In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, at least 2,000 people marched through the city chanting “Freedom” and “Putin is a thief”.

The European Union recognised it “made a mistake” in triggering an emergency provision in the Brexit deal to control Covid vaccine exports, the Cabinet Office minister has said.

Michael Gove said he was “confident” of the UK’s vaccine supply and said its programme would continue as planned.

He said the UK was “on track” to deliver 15 million jabs by 15 February.

It comes after the EU reversed a decision which could have seen checks at the Irish border amid a vaccine row.

Mr Gove said he had spoken with European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič and both had agreed “we need a reset” and to put the people of Northern Ireland first.

He said Prime Minister Boris Johnson had spoken to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and it was made clear that “supply would not be interrupted so we can proceed with our plans”.

On Friday, the EU said it would trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol – which allows the EU and UK to choose to suspend any aspects they consider are causing “economic, societal or environmental difficulties” – before later reversing the decision following condemnation from London, Dublin and Belfast.

The Irish Republic’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said in a tweet the protocol was a “hard-won compromise” and was “not something to be tampered with lightly”.

The move came amid a deepening dispute over delays to the production and distribution of Covid vaccines across the EU.

One EU diplomat told BBC Europe editor Katya Adler they were not consulted on the move and would have said it was a “terrible idea”, while another described the EU’s vaccination programme as a “car crash in slow motion”.

After speaking with Mr Gove, Mr Šefčovič tweeted their shared priority was ensuring the protocol worked for the people of Northern Ireland, “protecting gains of the peace process and avoiding disruption to everyday lives”.

Mr Coveney said he had also spoken with the pair, as well as UK Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis. He said the protocol was there to “protect relationships, facilitate trade, avoid borders”.

Police in Japan have arrested a woman after the body of her dead mother was discovered in a freezer in her flat.

Yumi Yoshino, 48, said that she found her mother dead and hid the body 10 years ago because she “didn’t want to move out” of the Tokyo home they shared, local media reported, citing unnamed police sources.

There were no visible wounds on the frozen body, police said.

The authorities could not determine the time and cause of the woman’s death.

The body was reportedly discovered by a cleaner after Ms Yoshino had been forced to leave the apartment due to missing rent payments.

The body had been bent to the fit in the freezer, police said.

Ms Yoshino was arrested in a hotel in the city of Chiba, near Tokyo, on Friday.

Nearly seven years after Boko Haram militants snatched them from their dormitory beds in the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok, more of the missing schoolgirls are said to be returning home.

Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer who practices in the United States and has previously worked with some of the freed girls and their families, said a parent told him that his daughter and others have escaped their captors.

“Mr. Ali Maiyanga’s two daughters were part of the few Muslim schoolgirls taken with the majority Christian Chibok girls. Information currently available to us indicates that there are other escapees with the army whom parents are anxiously waiting to identify,” Ogebe said in a statement to ABC News late Thursday. “We spoke and confirmed from Mr. Ali Maiyanga moments ago that he in fact spoke with his daughter today, who informed him that she along with others were rescued. Her sister who escaped four years ago and is on school break was overjoyed at the news of her sibling’s escape.”MORE: 344 Nigerian schoolboys freed days after being abducted, official says

Lawal Zannah, secretary of the Chibok Parents Association whose daughter was among those abducted, also confirmed the news.

“We heard that some of our girls have escaped from the forest, but we are yet to get the detail about their number,” Zannah told reporters Thursday evening.

Another parent, Malam Madu Mutta, said the Chibok community is anxiously awaiting the girls’ arrival.

“We were told they are currently with the security operatives. We are yet to know the numbers, but we are happy that some of them escaped,” Mutta told reporters Friday. “So many other parents and relatives are coming from Chibok with hopes of meeting their daughters. Again, hope is risen that we can have some of them back again.”

Nigerian authorities have not yet released a statement confirming the matter. ABC News has reached out to the Nigerian Army as well as local government officials.MORE: Boko Haram releases new video claiming to show Chibok girls

In April 2014, members of the jihadist group Boko Haram ambushed an all-girls boarding school in Chibok in the middle of the night and kidnapped 276 students before vanishing into the forest. Some of the girls managed to escape on their own, while others were later rescued or freed following negotiations. But the fate of many has remained unknown.

Boko Haram, whose name in the local Hausa language roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden,” has waged a brutal insurgency in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The group seeks to establish an Islamic state there, though it has spread its terror across the region’s mountainous borders over the years into Niger, Chad and Cameroon, all of which surround the Lake Chad Basin, where millions have been affected by the violence, according to the United Nations.

Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015. Its leader, Abubakar Shekau, and several commanders split from the group in 2016 over ideological differences and formed their own faction.

The woman behind instant noodle giant Indomie’s iconic “mi goreng” flavour has passed away at the age of 59.

Tributes poured out for Nunuk Nuraini, who worked as a flavour development manager at the cult favourite Indonesian brand for nearly 30 years.

Many thanked her for her “legacy”, one calling her a “non-cape wearing hero”.

Indomie has become almost synonymous with instant noodles in Indonesia, where many have grown up eating the popular brand.

But it has in recent years also become a global hit, finding popularity not just across South East Asia but also Australia and Nigeria.

However, even though the brand now offers dozens of flavours, its “mi goreng” or fried noodle flavour, has consistently remained its most popular.

Pioneering Hollywood actress Cicely Tyson – who was known for portraying strong African-American characters – has died aged 96, her manager has said.

No cause of the death was given. The former fashion model had a career that spanned seven decades.

Tyson won two Emmys for her performance in the 1974 civil rights-era film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

She also became the first black woman to take on a main role in the TV drama East Side/West Side in the 1960s.

Presenting Tyson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, the then US President Barack Obama said that apart from her achievements as a actress, she had also shaped the course of history.

Cicely Tyson turned down stereotypical roles for black women, agreeing only to play characters that were strong, positive and realistic.

A controversial near-total ban on abortion in Poland has taken effect, the government announced, with enforcement from midnight on Wednesday.

A court ruling allowing the prohibition prompted huge protests when it was issued in October.

Abortion is now allowed only in cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.

The majority of Poles oppose a stricter ban and demonstrations took place in Polish cities on Wednesday evening.

Activists have called for large street protests on Thursday and Friday in the capital Warsaw.

The October ruling by the Constitutional Court found that a 1993 law allowing abortion in cases of severe and irreversible foetal abnormalities was unconstitutional.

In 2019, 98% of abortions were carried out on those grounds, meaning that the ruling effectively banned the vast majority of pregnancy terminations.

The ruling provoked outrage from supporters of the right to abortion.

But Poland’s conservative government, which has strong ties to the country’s powerful Catholic Church, supports the ruling.

The court justified its ruling on the grounds that “an unborn child is a human being” and therefore it deserves protection under Poland’s constitution which ensures the right to life.

Following the announcement that the ruling would now be enforced, groups defied coronavirus restrictions to protest in Warsaw.

Waving red flares and LGBT flags, some carried placards reading “Free Choice, Not Terror”.

“I want us to have our basic rights, the right to decide about our bodies, the right to decide what we want to do and if we want to bear children and in what circumstances to have children,” one protester, Gabriela Stepniak, told Reuters news agency.

The mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski tweeted his opposition to the move, calling on women to reject the decision on the streets.

Leaders of the nationwide Women’s Strike movement that opposed the ban wore green headscarves, in a nod to Argentina’s women’s movement that successfully campaigned to legalise abortion.

Groups who support the ban say it is about the human rights of the child.

“We are very happy that this judgement has been published. It is a great step towards the realisation of human rights of all human beings,” Karolina Pawlowska from the Ordo Iuris international law centre told the BBC.

“This also means there will no longer be discrimination against children who are sick or disabled,” she said, adding that the court’s ruling was in line with the Polish constitution and UN treaties on the rights of the child.

Poland already had some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, and around 1,000 legal terminations are performed each year.

An estimated 200,000 women have abortions illegally or travel abroad for the procedure.

Germany is likely to face a shortage of coronavirus vaccines until at least April, the country’s health minister has warned.

“We will still have at least 10 tough weeks with a shortage,” Jens Spahn wrote on Twitter.

The pace of Germany’s rollout has been criticised, and it has failed to meet its own daily target of vaccinations.

Mr Spahn’s comments come amid a row between the EU and the vaccine maker AstraZeneca over supply shortages.

The UK-based company has said production issues at its Europe-based plants mean it will be unable to deliver the promised number of doses to the 27-member bloc.

But the EU said the firm must honour its commitments and deliver the jabs by diverting stock from the UK.

Meanwhile, the European Commission said authorities in Belgium had been investigating AstraZeneca’s production site near Brussels in order to corroborate its explanation over the supply shortages.

On Thursday, Mr Spahn called for a vaccination summit involving pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers and politicians to explore how the rollout could be accelerated.

“Then we will see… where we can support the industry,” he said. “We are going through at least 10 tough weeks. We should spend that by working together.”PAEU and vaccines

• 448mEU population
• 8.4mPeople received vaccine so far (1.9%)
• 2.3bnDoses ordered overall
• 400mDoses ordered from AstraZeneca (Not yet EMA approved) – 17% of total

Earlier this week, Mr Spahn backed the EU’s proposal to create a register of vaccine exports in order to monitor where doses are being sent.

He also said the falling number of cases in Germany was encouraging and suggested schools could reopen once the current lockdown ends on 14 February.

The country is preparing to bar travellers from the UK, Brazil and South Africa over concerns over new variants. “We are co-ordinating towards the aim of refusing inbound travel from mutation areas,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said.