The Omicron variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on 24 November. The WHO has listed it as a ‘variant of concern’ and said it could take several weeks to know if there are significant changes in transmissibility, severity, or implications for Covid vaccines, tests, and treatments. Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Israel, Hong Kong, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada are countries where the new COVID-19 variant has also been detected.

The arrests of top executives, editors and journalists, as well as the freezing of assets, led the pro-democracy tabloid to cease its operations last month.

The US sanctions target officials from China's Hong Kong liaison office, which seeks to promote Chinese influence in the partly autonomous city.

The past year was the "worst" for Hong Kong's press freedoms, the city's main journalists' union says. "There are already many knives hanging over journalists' heads," says Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, as the union releases its annual report.

Fung Wai-kong is the seventh executive at the shuttered pro-democracy newspaper to be arrested under the auspices of a national security law in recent weeks. He was reportedly trying to board a plane to the UK.

The arrests on terrorism charges come a week after a man stabbed a police officer before killing himself. The nine people are the latest targets of Hong Kong's national security law.

Hong Kong's leader on Tuesday brushed off a warning by major tech companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter that they may quit the financial hub if authorities push ahead with a new privacy law. "Our goal is to target these illegal doxxing actions and the privacy commissioner is empowered to take action and carry out investigations, that’s it," says Chief Executive Carrie Lam at the weekly press conference.

The national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year has created a "human rights emergency" in the special administrative region, the rights group says.

Hong Kong’s iconic Peak tram, which whisks tourists up Victoria Peak, is closing for six months to undergo renovations. Currently in their fifth generation, the burgundy carriages will undergo a $90 million renovation for an updated look.

As Hong Kong increased police presence in the city after a knife attack injured an officer. The officer suffered a punctured lung and has undergone surgery.

A huge blaze engulfs more than a dozen yachts in a Hong Kong typhoon shelter. The Fire department said it took six hours to put the fire out, adding that about twenty people were evacuated and a boy was sent to hospital. Some of the yachts in the Aberdeen marina are occupied full time by locals and expats. Ten boats sank according to local media.

Tong Ying-kit, the first person to be arrested under the national security law, has pleaded not guilty of inciting secessionism. Meanwhile, there has been another arrest at pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.