New Zealand and Australia were able to send military surveillance flights to Tonga on Monday to assess the damage a huge undersea volcanic eruption left in the Pacific island nation.

A towering ash cloud since Saturday's eruption had prevented earlier flights. New Zealand hopes to send essential supplies, including much-needed drinking water, on a military transport plane Tuesday.

Seven activists have gone on trial in Switzerland on Monday over charges including alleged trespassing and resisting arrest, over their roles in a campsite protest against the expansion of a limestone quarry in rolling Swiss countryside.

The defendants, who are being tried separately in rapid-succession hearings this week, are the first among some 40 people who are facing court action over the show of civil disobedience at Mormont hill, the site of a quarry owned by Swiss-French construction materials company Lafarge Holcim located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Lausanne.

Wildlife rehabilitators are decontaminating dozens of alligators, brushing their pointy teeth and scrubbing their scaly hides in the weeks after a pipeline rupture dumped 300,000 gallons (1.1 million liters) of diesel fuel into a New Orleans area wetland.

Diesel poured into the area outside the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette on Dec. 27 after a severely corroded pipeline broke, according to federal records.

Russia's top diplomat on Monday angrily rejected the U.S. allegations that it was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine as Russian troops have remained concentrated near the border.

The White House said Friday that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to carry out acts of sabotage there and blame them on Ukraine in a "false-flag operation" to create a pretext for possible invasion.

Birju Maharaj, a legend of classical Indian dance and among the country's most well-known performing artists, died Monday. He was 83.

Maharaj was suffering from a kidney ailment and was undergoing dialysis and likely died of a cardiac arrest, his granddaughter Ragini Maharaj told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Defending champion Algeria lost 1-0 to Equatorial Guinea on Sunday in one of the biggest-ever upsets at the African Cup of Nations, with a defender who was playing in the fifth tier in Spain last year scoring the goal that beat Riyad Mahrez and his superstar teammates.

Esteban Obiang arrived at the back post to connect with a corner in the 70th minute for Equatorial Guinea's winner, ending a four-year unbeaten run for the African champion and leaving its title defense in Cameroon in pieces.

After years of disappointment, Hertha Berlin fans are bracing themselves for yet more ahead of a daunting week against city rival Union Berlin and Bavarian powerhouse Bayern Munich.

Hertha hosts in-form Union in the third round of the German Cup on Wednesday, then league leader Bayern in the Bundesliga on Sunday.

Real Madrid won't be going a second consecutive season without a title.

After failing to lift a trophy under Zinedine Zidane last season, Carlo Ancelotti's Madrid secured the Spanish Super Cup with a 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday in Saudi Arabia.

Credit Suisse says its chairman has resigned following an internal investigation that reportedly turned up that he had violated quarantine rules intended to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resignation of Antonio Horta-Osorio, a British-Portuguese national who took the job barely eight months ago, was announced shortly after midnight Monday. It is the latest upheaval at the top-drawer Swiss bank that has faced an array of recent troubles, including bad bets on hedge funds and an internal spying scandal.

Amazon's British website has backed away from plans to stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the United Kingdom, saying Monday that the move has been put on hold while talks between the two sides continue.

The online retailer said the change would not be implemented as planned on Wednesday. Amazon had announced the move in November, blaming "the high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions."