BBC News Europe

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

• France is worried about a new infection hotspot – the northern port city of Dunkirk. The infection rate there is more than 900 per 100,000 inhabitants, so a local lockdown is now being considered. On Monday the focus was on Nice, a southern resort city, where the rate is above 700. A weekend lockdown has been imposed there and in nearby areas. These surges have been blamed on the highly contagious English variant. France is trying to avoid a third national lockdown
• In Italy the new government led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi has extended until 27 March a ban on travel between Italy’s regions, to curb the virus spread. The new decree also extends a restriction on private visits: no more than two adults and children under 14 can visit another person’s home
• EU Europe ministers are discussing how to ease the current border restrictions, which violate the spirit of free movement in the EU. The European Commission has complained to Germany about its border controls, saying they go too far. But Germany is frustrated its infection rates are declining too slowly, or not at all. Belgium, Hungary and three Nordic countries received such complaints previously from the commission
• The Czech government has ordered the wearing of FFP2 respirator masks from Thursday in shops and on public transport. The government will distribute millions of the masks via food banks to people who cannot afford them. They block more particles than ordinary masks.

Italy's foreign ministry says the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo has been killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy in the east of the country.

An Italian military policeman also died in the incident near the town of Kanyamahoro.

Officials at the Virunga National Park say the attack was an attempted kidnapping.

Many armed groups operate in an around the park which borders Rwanda and Uganda.

Park rangers are regularly attacked and killed by militias.