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FILE PHOTO: An employee handles vials containing CoronaVac, Sinovac Biotech's vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Butantan biomedical center in Sao Paulo, Brazil January 12, 2021. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli - 

Brazil's federal health regulator Anvisa on Saturday (Sep 4) suspended the use of more than 12 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech that were produced in an unauthorised plant, it said in a statement.

Anvisa said it was alerted on Friday by Sao Paulo's Butantan institute, a biomedical centre that has partnered with Sinovac to locally fill and finish the vaccines, that 25 batches, or 12.1 million doses, sent to Brazil had been made in the plant.

"The manufacturing unit ... was not inspected and was not approved by Anvisa in the authorisation of emergency use of the mentioned vaccine," the regulator said. The ban was "a precautionary measure to avoid exposing the population to possible imminent risk", it added.

Butantan also told Anvisa that another 17 batches, totalling 9 million doses, had been produced in the same plant, and were on their way to Brazil, the regulator said.

During the 90-day ban, Anvisa will seek to inspect the plant, and find out more about the security of the manufacturing process, it said.

During Brazil's vaccine rollout earlier this year, the vast majority of administered vaccines were from Sinovac. More shots from other manufacturers have since come online.

Brazil on Saturday reported 21,804 new coronavirus cases, and 692 COVID-19 deaths//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Tunisia's presidential candidate Nabil Karoui waits for the start of a televised debate with his opponent Kais Saied (not pictured) ahead of Sunday's second-round runoff electionin Tunis, Tunisia October 11, 2019. REUTERS / Zoubeir Souissi - 

An Algerian court on Saturday (Sep 4) ordered former Tunisian presidential candidate Nabil Karoui to be placed in custody on a charge of illegally crossing a border, a judicial source said.

The court in the eastern city of Constantine also ordered the detention of four Algerians on people-smuggling charges, the source said. They are accused of helping Karoui enter the country and provide a house for him before his arrest on Sunday.

Karoui, the owner of the Nessma television channel and head of the Heart of Tunisia political party, the second largest in parliament, was placed in custody along with his brother Ghazi Karoui.

A court in Tunisia had released Nabil Karoui on Jun 15 after he spent more than six months in custody on money-laundering and tax evasion charges.

Tunisia has been embroiled in a constitutional crisis since President Kais Saied this summer announced emergency measures, which he indefinitely extended last week//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole speaks during an election campaign visit to North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada September 3, 2021. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier - 

The head of Canada's opposition Conservative Party, who has a chance of beating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an election, on Saturday (Sep 4) pushed back against charges he plans to weaken gun controls, an issue that could prove costly.

Conservative leader Erin O'Toole has been pressed repeatedly this week over his campaign promise to overturn a 2020 ban on weapons such as the AR-15, used by a gunman to kill 26 adults and children in the US 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.

O'Toole declined to answer the questions directly, noting he plans to keep a separate 1977 ban on assault rifles.

"Erin O'Toole is willing to say anything to Canadians to get elected. He lied to Canadians about his plans to scrap the Liberal ban on assault weapons," the Liberals said in a statement on Saturday.

Gun control is a sensitive issue in Canada, especially in the wake of a number of high-profile killings. In April 2020 a man killed 22 people in a rampage in the province of Nova Scotia, shooting 13 of them.

Liberal governments have over the years tightened gun control laws, which are stricter than those in the United States. Some Conservatives complain the measures are too restrictive and needlessly penalise farmers and hunters.

"It's very upsetting to see Mr Trudeau trying to import American-style politics, particularly on an issue of public safety," O'Toole told reporters in Vancouver, saying a big problem was weapons being smuggled in from the United States.

O'Toole is also promising a review of how weapons are classified as dangerous in Canada.

The 2020 ban affected 11 categories of assault rifles and other weapons, including the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, used in a 1989 Montreal mass shooting in which 14 women were killed.

Trudeau called the Sep 20 snap election, two years earlier than scheduled, on the grounds he needed public approval for his plans to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. But amid unhappiness with the call and voter fatigue, he is slipping.

An Ekos poll on Saturday put the Conservatives on 35 per cent public support with the Liberals on 28.8 per cent and the left-leaning New Democrats on 19.6 per cent, enough to give O'Toole a minority administration and end six years of rule by Trudeau//CNA

Migrants and asylum seekers from Central America and the Caribbean walk in a caravan heading to the U.S., in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico September 4, 2021. REUTERS/Jacob Garcia - 

A migrant caravan of around 400 people, including many children, set off from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula for the United States on Saturday (Sep 4), just a couple of days after security and migration officials dispersed another large group.

Mostly comprising Central Americans and Haitians, the caravan left at around 7:30am local time from a park in Tapachula where they had been staying, ignoring an earlier attempt by security forces to make them give up, a Reuters witness reported.

Many in the group, which included Venezuelans and other South Americans, said they were fleeing poverty and violence at home as they began trekking towards the town of Huixtla.

This week Mexican officials gradually broke up another caravan as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he wanted undocumented migrants to stay in southern Mexico, while also urging the U.S. government to help them find work.

Sharon, a 31-year-old Honduran wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask, said after spending a year living in Tapachula struggling to support her three children by selling gum, she felt she had to make a bid to reach the United States.

"I've handed in paperwork, but nothing ever gets fixed," she said tearfully. "Just appointments and more appointments. I am scared, but if I don't get out of here, I'm not going to get work," she said, declining to give her last name.

Some of the migrants travelling in the caravan earlier this week complained they had been subject to brutal treatment by Mexican officials, and the government's National Migration Institute condemned incidents of violence captured on video//CNA