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By Jessica Stewart, ABC The Brisbane lockdown will be lifted at 6pm this evening (local time) with no new cases reported after residents were told to stay home for three days. A healthcare worker tests a person at a drive-through Covid-19 testing clinic on the first day of a snap lockdown at Murarrie in Brisbane on January 9. Photo: AFP Tens of thousand of coronavirus tests have been conducted since 6pm on Friday, when Queensland authorities imposed a snap lockdown to slow the potential spread of a UK coronavirus variant. The highly-contagious strain was detected in a cleaner who spent five days in the community in early January after contracting the virus at Brisbane quarantine hotel. On Monday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it had been a "great effort" by Queenslanders over the past three days. Masks will remain mandatory for another 10 days until 1am on January 22 at shopping centres, supermarkets, gyms, public transport, places of worship and workplaces where people can't socially distance. Masks are not needed in cars or while exercising at a safe distance from others. Compliance 'nothing short of fantastic' Queensland Police Commissioner, Katarina Carroll has praised Greater Brisbane during the three-day lockdown, declaring the "community was just amazing". "When 6pm on Friday came, everyone knew what they had to do, and I've got to say the compliance and cooperation was second to none," Commissioner Carroll said. "We've had about 20 infringement notices issued and that's obviously people being out for non-essential reasons, people not obviously obeying instructions ... there was a party in one of our suburbs where five people were issued with infringement notices." Queensland Police handed out more than 1,300 masks during the lockdown, after choosing to take an educational approach to the mandatory ruling. "We decided rather than fining people we would hand out masks because it was something new for us in Brisbane and we really wanted to communicate with people and show a bit of compassion," Commissioner Carroll said. "It was an education piece, 'this is what you should be doing and this is the reasons why, and we have a mask for you'. "There was just a few that wouldn't take us up on our offer." - ABC

Bahrain will open its airspace to Qatar as of 11 January, the civil aviation affairs authority said on Sunday local time, following a US-backed deal by Arab states last week to end a dispute with Doha. Hamad International Airport in Qatar capital, Doha. Photo: AFP / Karim Jaafar The move comes after Riyadh announced a breakthrough at a summit on Tuesday to end the bitter political row in which Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel boycott on Qatar in mid-2017. Saudi Arabia and UAE have already announced reopening air, land and sea entry points to Qatar. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister had said at the summit that the four states agreed to restore all ties with Qatar which were severed over accusations that Doha supports terrorism. Qatar denies this and says the embargo aimed to curb its sovereignty. However, a senior UAE official said last week that while trade and travel links could be resumed within a week, restoring diplomatic ties would take more time as parties rebuild trust. In a sign of continued tension, Bahrain's foreign ministry earlier on Sunday said Qatar's coast guard arrested Bahraini bodybuilding champion Sami Al Haddad while on a fishing cruise and called on Doha "to stop attacking Bahraini fishermen at sea and unfairly arresting them". The director of Bahrain's coast guard operations said in a separate statement that Haddad and another Bahraini were arrested on Friday over allegations of entering Qatari territorial waters in the third such incident since November. There was no immediate comment from Qatari authorities. In December, Qatar's interior ministry said its coastguard stopped a Bahraini cruiser catching fish in Qatari territorial waters and arrested three people. The previous month, Bahrain's interior ministry accused Qatari coastguard vessels of violating regional and international agreements after they stopped two Bahraini boats inside Qatari waters. - Reuters