COVID-19

All schools and colleges will close to most pupils and switch to remote learning from Tuesday.

Boris Johnson urged people to follow the rules immediately amid surging cases and patient numbers.

He said those in the top four priority groups would receive a first vaccine dose by the middle of next month.

All care home residents and their carers, everyone aged 70 and over, all frontline health and social care workers, and the clinically extremely vulnerable will be offered one dose of a vaccine by mid-February.

Sources close to his family told ABC News and his former employer CNN that he has been at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre for over a week.

In a career spanning over 60 years, King has multiple accolades, including two Peabody Awards and an Emmy.

He has faced several health problems in recent years, including heart attacks.

Representatives for King, 87, have not publicly commented on his hospitalisation, and details of his current condition are unclear.

Threats from nation states and criminals to the health system are a growing concern.

The huge logistical challenge of rolling out vaccines faces the risk of disruption to complex supply chains.

And criminal ransomware poses a threat at a time when the pandemic has increased our reliance on technology.

The distribution of the various coronavirus vaccines may bring relief, but it also brings with it a major challenge: many of those involved have not had to think hard about security in the past.

Indoor and outdoor gatherings will be banned, a curfew introduced from 21:00 to 06:00, and alcohol sales prohibited.

Mr Ramaphosa said the country was at an extremely dangerous point in the pandemic and action had to be taken.

Recently authorities confirmed a new, faster-spreading variant of the virus had been detected in South Africa.

Some hospitals and medical centres have reported a huge rise in admissions, putting a heavy strain on resources.

Zhang Zhan was found guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a frequent charge against activists.

The 37-year-old former lawyer was detained in May, and has been on hunger strike for several months. Her lawyers say she is in poor health.

Zhang is one of several citizen journalists who have run into trouble for reporting on Wuhan.

There is no free media in China and authorities are known to clamp down on activists or whistleblowers seen as undermining the government's response to the outbreak.

The infections, linked to people who had come from the UK, were reported in Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The details given a week ago of the new variant in England triggered travel curbs from dozens of countries.

Several EU countries have started to vaccinate people against the virus.

Health workers in north-east Germany said they were not prepared to wait another day for Sunday's co-ordinated rollout across the bloc of the newly approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They began by immunizing elderly residents of a nursing home in Halberstadt.

Most Sydneysiders will continue to be able to have 10 adult visitors to their home over the holiday period.

But in a slight relaxation of rules, young children can be included on top of that number between 24-26 December.

Sydney saw just eight new cases on Wednesday, fuelling optimism about efforts to contain the outbreak.

The New South Wales (NSW) state government said a total of 98 cases had been found in the state capital since last week.

More than 124,000 residents had been tested in the past three days alone - a local record.

The A-League season will now begin with a game between Western United and Adelaide United in Geelong on Dec. 28.

The Wanderers will face Macarthur on Dec. 30 in Sydney.

An outbreak of the novel coronavirus, centred on Sydney's northern beaches, has grown to 97 cases and parts of the city remain under lockdown.

New South Wales on Wednesday, though, relaxed coronavirus restrictions for Christmas.

The surprise statement from Prof Shi Zhengli comes as a World Health Organization team prepares to travel to Wuhan next month to begin its investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

The remote district of Tongguan, in China's south-western province of Yunnan, is hard to reach at the best of times. But when a BBC team tried to visit recently, it was impossible.

Plain-clothes police officers and other officials in unmarked cars followed us for miles along the narrow, bumpy roads, stopping when we did, backtracking with us when we were forced to turn around.

The curfew time has been shortened for National Prayer Week 2021 from 12am (midnight) to 3am.

The curfew from 12am (midnight) to 5am except for the changes to Christmas Day and New Year’s Day is now effective until 8pm 18 January 2021.

The restrictions are enforced by the Tonga Police, His Majesty's Armed Forces and relevant authorised officers.

The curfew was enforced as part of the country's response to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Photo file RNZ Pacific