A minister in South Africa has been ordered to go on "special leave" for two months for violating lockdown rules.
Images of communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams having lunch with a former official went viral on social media, as the country observed a 21-day nationwide lockdown.
Passing the order, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said one month will be unpaid.
"The president strongly believes that no one, including the minister, is above the law," Ramaphosa's spokeswoman, Khusela Diko, said.
"He says none of us should undermine our national effort to save lives in this very serious situation."
According to the lockdown rules, people are only allowed to step out of their home for buying essentials or for medical emergencies.
More than 17,000 people were arrested during the first few days of the lockdown, mostly for violating the rules.
GlaxoSmithKline sued Pfizer and BioNTech in Delaware federal court on Thursday, accusing them of infringing GSK patents related to messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in the companies' blockbuster COVID-19 vaccines.
Israel's military is poised to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and assault Hamas hold-outs in the southern Gaza Strip city, a senior Israeli defence official said, despite international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Relentless rains, hail and winds of near hurricane intensity battered southern China, forcing the evacuation of an entire town of more than 1,700 people in the province of Guangdong, media said on Thursday.
Marine wildlife experts were frantically trying to rescue some 140 pilot whales stranded on Thursday in the shallow waters of an estuary in the southwest of the state of Western Australia.
A grand jury has charged 18 people with allegedly participating in an Arizona fake elector scheme to re-elect then-US President Donald Trump in 2020, the state's attorney general said on Wednesday.
Broadcasting every weekday, Georgia Tolley goes beyond the headlines to speak to government ministers, decision makers, analysts and local experts to find out how the news will impact those of us living in the UAE.
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