Australia

Sunday will be the hottest in the north-west with temperatures predicted to soar to around 44 degrees Celsius in Mildura, six hours north-west of Melbourne, as the heat begins to build.

A mass of hot air is being strengthened by a cyclone brewing off the West Australian coast.

"Monday will be the warmest day for much of Victoria including the Melbourne area," said Diana Eadie, from the Bureau of Meteorology.

"We're expecting the temperature to be around 41 or 42 degrees.

Christchurch will host two tests on 2 and 3 March with two more in Tauranga on 5 and 7 March.

The Diamonds will arrive in Christchurch on 15 February and spend two weeks in managed isolation ahead of the series.

Last year's Constellation Cup series was postponed due to the global pandemic.

It will be Australia's first series in New Zealand under new coach Stacey Marinkovich.

The last time the two sides met was in October 2019 - when the Constellation Cup series was drawn 2-tests all, meaning the Diamonds retained the trophy.

Kohli had returned home to attend the birth of his daughter after the opening test loss, leaving behind a deflated side who were skittled out for 36 in Adelaide - their lowest innings score in 88 years of test cricket.

Under stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane, India levelled the series in Melbourne and drew in Sydney before triumphing in Brisbane to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

"WHAT A WIN!!! Yessssss. To everyone who doubted us after Adelaide, stand up and take notice," Kohli tweeted after India's three-wicket victory at the Gabba.

The comments dampen hopes raised by airlines that travel to and from the country could resume as early as July.

Department of Health Secretary Brendan Murphy made the prediction after being asked about the coronavirus' escalation in other nations.

Dr Murphy spearheaded Australia's early action to close its borders last March.

"I think that we'll go most of this year with still substantial border restrictions," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.

After media reports said Australian news websites were not showing up in searches, Google confirmed it was blocking the sites for a small number of users.

The search engine said it was conducting experiments to determine the value of its service to Australian news outlets.

Google, Facebook and other tech companies are fighting the Australian government over plans to make them pay for news content.

Google said the tests affect about 1% of Australian users, and will be finished by February.

The Defence Advisor Commander, Jason McBain said the Australian Defence Force is providing the vehicles as part of ongoing support to His Majesty’s Armed Forces.

According to the Australian High Commission, the support is made available under the Australian Defence Cooperation Programme - Tonga.

Australia has five Defence Force personnel posted to and living in Tonga who partner with His Majesty’s Armed Forces in training, maintenance as well as operational and security planning.

Officers were called to the home about 12.20pm yesterday, where they discovered the bodies of Katie Perinovic, 42, her three-year-old son Matthew and two daughters Claire and Anna, aged seven and five.

The husband and father, Tomislav Perinovic, 48, called emergency services to report the deaths.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Bob Hill said the man was "assisting police with their enquiries", but stressed the investigation was ongoing and it was "very important we do not speculate".

The Atlantic giant pumpkin grown by Dale Oliver weighed in at 867 kilograms.

Festival organiser John Leadbetter said it was a great achievement for Oliver and the festival.

While it did produce a record-breaking pumpkin this year, entries to the festival were down due to unfavourable growing conditions.

"It's just been too hot for it. We had hot, dry weather, and then we went to hot, humid weather, and they don't like that. They like to be dry and cool," Leadbetter said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it had been a "great effort" by Queenslanders over the past three days.

"This is the best news we could have hoped for, absolutely the best news," Ms Palaszczuk.

ABC News reports no cases were reported since 6:00pm 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.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said regulators were now expected to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by the end of January.

He announced the plans on Thursday as the cities of Sydney and Melbourne battled to control new clusters.

By March, four million Australians could be vaccinated, he said.

"We are now in a position where believe we will be able to commence vaccinations in mid-to-late February," Mr Morrison said.

Following regulatory approval, the first of the country's order of 10 million Pfizer vaccine doses should be issued in a matter of weeks.