EUROPE

* Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE have reached an agreement with the European Commission to supply up to 300 million doses of their experimental vaccine.

* Italy has surpassed one million infections, leap-frogging Mexico to become one of the top 10 worst-affected countries globally, meanwhile the UK passed 50,000 deaths.

* Spain will from November 23 demand a negative test taken within 72 hours for air travellers arriving from countries with a high risk of contracting COVID-19.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's cabinet has voted to impose a national lockdown at weekends.

* Greece will apply a tighter curfew at night, while Sweden will ban alcohol sales in bars, restaurants and night clubs after 10 pm.

AMERICAS

* US infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci says it would be challenging to distribute vaccines that use messenger RNA based technology in developing countries due to cold storage requirements.

* Cases are still surging in the Americas, averaging 150,000 a day in the past week.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Infections in Nepal have exceeded 200,000, as health workers say the Himalayan nation faces a "catastrophic" situation.

* A travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore will begin on November 22.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* South Africa will open up travel to all countries in an effort to boost tourism and hospitality despite having the highest number of confirmed cases on the continent.

* Turkey has banned smoking in crowded public places to slow a recent surge.

* Israel is in talks with Pfizer over its potential vaccine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Moderna says it has enough data to begin its first planned interim analysis from the late-stage trial of its experimental vaccine.

* Brazil health regulator Anvisa has allowed resumption of late-stage trials for China's Sinovac vaccine.

* China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) says data from large-scale, late-stage trials for its vaccine are "better than expected".

* Russia says its Sputnik V vaccine is 92 per cent effective according to interim trial results.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Tech has pushed the Nasdaq to close sharply higher and oil prices extended their rally, as hopes of potential vaccine were tempered by spiking infections and looming fresh lockdowns.

* Pandemic payment breaks on European loans totalling billions of euros threaten to undermine efforts by the region's banks to put the crisis behind them.

Australian Associated Press