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The city of Wuhan has announced the suspension of public transportation as well as outbound flights and trains amid its battle with a virus outbreak.
City buses, subways and ferries will be suspended, while airports and railway stations to outgoing passengers will also be closed starting from this morning.
Locals are also asked not to leave the city without specific reasons.
President Xi Jinping says that China is ready and willing to work with the international community to combat the novel coronavirus.
He made the pledge during conversations with French and German leaders over the phone.
Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel both spoke highly of China's response to the outbreak, saying their countries stand ready to provide assistance.
The World Health Organization says it will decide later today whether to declare a global emergency over the outbreak of the novel coronavirus spreading from China.
If so, this will be the sixth international emergency to be declared in the past decade.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says they need more information to make that decision.
"The decision about whether or not to declare a public health emergency of international concern is one I take extremely seriously and one am only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all the evidence."
The WHO chief also appraises China's strong measures against the outbreak, including the halt of flights and trains from out of Wuhan.
France has decided to delay its tax on the digital businesses of big tech firms like Google and Facebook.
The move comes in exchange for a promise from the United States to hold off retaliatory sanctions.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says France will delay collection of the digital tax until December.
"And we have that global framework based on the three pillars: one, we decide to postpone the payment of the national French taxation on digital activities, second, the US accept to suspend their sanctions against France, and third, we will be working on an OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) solution."
Le Maire reached the agreement with US Treasury chief Steven Mnuchin on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The US will hold off imposing retaliatory tariffs on French wine, cheese and other products.
Democratic House managers have started making their case in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
Lead Impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
He describes some actions of the president as "blatant cover-ups."
"In unprecedented fashion, the president ordered the entire executive branch of the United States of America to categorically refuse and completely obstruct the House's impeachment investigation. Such a wholesale obstruction of Congressional impeachment has never before occurred in our democracy."
Schiff has repeated calls for the trial to hear from witnesses and see documents from the Trump administration.
Republicans have for now blocked Democratic motions to immediately call witnesses and subpoena documents.
British lawmakers have finally approved the country's Brexit withdrawal bill.
The passage further paves the way for Britain to leave the European Union at the end of this month.
The House of Lords backed off its demands for a series of changes, with peers bowing to the overwhelming support in the lower chamber and accepting the bill with no dissent.
That came as lawmakers in the House of Commons used Prime Minister Boris Johnson's majority to reject the amendments demanded by the upper chamber.
The bill will next be presented to Queen Elizabeth II for Royal Assent.
Iran has ruled out handing over the black boxes of the crashed Ukrainian plane to other countries for decoding.
Minister of Transportation Mohammad Eslami says the flight data recorders should only be analyzed by an Iranian accident investigation team.
The Ukrainian passenger plane flying from Tehran to Kiev crashed near an airport in Tehran half a month ago, killing all 176 people on board.
Iran's armed forces have confirmed that the jet was shot down by a military missile they accidentally launched.
The United Nations Secretary-General has sent his Chinese Lunar New Year greetings.
"Chun Jie Kuai Le. Happy Lunar New Year. I'm pleased to send my warmest greetings on this special occasion."
In his video message, Antonio Guterres thanked China and the Chinese people for their support of the UN.
He also stressed that 2020 marks the beginning of a decade of action for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
