Received

Home COVID-19 tests will be made available in Australia from November 1 following a recommendation from the health regulator.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration says the rapid antigen testing will be made available in a matter of weeks, subject to final tests and approvals.

There have been more than 70 expressions of interest for home testing kits to be approved in Australia, with 33 of those being approved for supervised use.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the new testing was a critical step forward.

"This is an important additional protection for Australians," Mr Hunt told reporters on Tuesday.

"One of the important things is that we can supplement what is known as PCR testing - the testing that we all know if we go to a Commonwealth or a state clinic - with the home testing."

In a statement, the administration said the introduction of self-testing was dependent on achieving higher levels of vaccinations across the country.

A spokesman said the states and territories would also need to have established systems in place for people to report positive self-test results, should they have COVID-19.

Those who tested positive from a self-test would then be directed to undergo a second test at a health clinic, the TGA said.

Recent vaccine statistics have shown more than 76 per cent of Australians aged over 16 have received their first dose, while 52.6 per cent have received both doses.

© AAP 2021

R Kelly has been convicted by a federal jury in his sex-trafficking trial, where prosecutors accused the R&B singer of exploiting his stardom over a quarter-century to lure women and underage girls into his orbit for sex.

Jurors in Brooklyn federal court deliberated for a little more than a day before voting to convict the 54-year-old Kelly on all nine counts he faced, after a five-and-a-half week trial.

Kelly kept his head down as the verdict was read on Monday, with his face shielded by a white mask.

A woman watching from an overflow courtroom cried as the verdict was read, as did others who had waited to learn Kelly's fate in a park next to the courthouse.

Deveraux Cannick, a lawyer for Kelly, told reporters that the defence was disappointed. "I'm sure we'll be appealing," he said.

Kelly faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars, and could face up to life in prison at his May 4, 2022, sentencing.

The singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is one of the most prominent people tried on sex charges during the #MeToo movement, which amplified accusations that had dogged him since the early 2000s.

Like Kelly, many of his accusers were black, differentiating the case from recent #MeToo convictions of comedian Bill Cosby and movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Cosby's conviction was overturned in June.

"We hope that today's verdict brings some measure of comfort and closure to the victims," Acting US Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis told reporters.

Kelly had been charged with one count of racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people across state lines for prostitution.

Prosecutors said Kelly took advantage of his fame to recruit victims, including some plucked from crowds at his concerts, with the aid of people in his entourage.

Witnesses said some victims had hoped Kelly could jump-start their careers, only to find he demanded their strict obedience and would punish them if they failed.

Testimony from government witnesses graphically portrayed an unseemly side to Kelly's 30-year music career, whose highlights include the 1996 Grammy-winning smash I Believe I Can Fly.

His alleged victims included the late singer Aaliyah, who Kelly briefly and illegally married in 1994 when she was 15. Aaliyah died in a 2001 plane crash.

Many accusations against Kelly were included in the 2019 documentary Surviving R Kelly.

Several witnesses testified that Kelly instilled fear if his victims did not fulfil his every need, sexual and otherwise.

Jurors heard how Kelly would compel victims to follow "Rob's rules", including that they call him "Daddy" and get permission to eat or go to the bathroom.

One witness hoping to interview him for a radio station said he locked her up for at least two days without food or water before assaulting her.

Witnesses also said Kelly pressed accusers to write "apology letters" to potentially absolve him of wrongdoing, and concealed before intercourse that he had contracted herpes.

Gloria Allred, a lawyer for the woman who said she was locked up, alluded after the verdict to Cannick's closing argument where he invoked the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in urging jurors to show courage and acquit Kelly.

"Despite the fact that he thought he could control all of his victims, he was wrong," Allred told reporters, referring to Kelly.

"Based on the evidence, the jury must have concluded that R Kelly is no Martin Luther King Jr."

Kelly's lawyers sought to portray Kelly's accusers as former fans who felt jilted when they fell from his favour, and that their sex with Kelly was consensual.

They also tried to show how some accusers stayed with Kelly long after the alleged abuses began, and questioned why they failed to go to the police or waited years to come forward.

Kelly still faces federal charges in Chicago on child pornography and obstruction, and state charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

© AP 2021

Qantas has announced it will temporarily cease flights to London from Perth, with plans to replace it with a service from Darwin.

The Darwin-London service will run until at least April 2022, if the carrier can come to a deal with the Northern Territory government, the airline said on Monday.

"At this stage, WA doesn't intend to open to international travel until sometime next year, so we'll unfortunately have to temporarily move our Perth-London service until at least April 2022," Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.

"Instead of operating from Melbourne to Perth and then on to London as it usually does, this flight will operate from Melbourne to London via either Darwin or Singapore, depending on conversations we're having with the NT in the coming weeks."

The national carrier has successfully used Darwin as a hub for its repatriation flights to various destinations across Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the past 12 months.

If able to come to a deal, Qantas plans to run daily Melbourne-Darwin-London flights.

If not, it will instead fly Melbourne-Singapore-London.

A decision is expected in the next two weeks.

The news follows the unveiling of reopening plans in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.

Key changes include:

* Bringing forward the reopening date between Victoria and NSW from December 1 to November 5, based on Victoria's roadmap plan.

* Significantly increasing regional flights within NSW from October 25.

* Delaying domestic flights between Perth and both Sydney and Melbourne by two months to February 2022.

"Based on our discussions with Western Australia we know their borders won't be open to New South Wales and Victoria until early next year, so we've sadly had to cancel the flying we had planned on those routes in the lead-up to Christmas," Mr Joyce said.

"We will maintain a minimum service for people with permits to travel, though, as we have throughout the pandemic."

The airline previously announced it expects to resume flights to some low-risk destinations with high vaccination rates from mid-December.

These include Singapore, Japan, the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.

© AAP 2021