Diasporas

China called on the United States on Wednesday to invite the World Health Organization to investigate origins of the COVID-19 outbreak there, as sparring over the pandemic continued after the WHO wrapped up its field work in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Hours after the WHO team revealed preliminary findings …

Joe Biden the new American President promised to rebuild his country’s partnership with the African Union (AU) moments after he delivered his first foreign policy speech since taking office. His predecessor, Donald Trump, sparked a row in 2018 over his alleged use of the word “shithole” to describe African nations. …

Several people have been injured after a gas explosion in Memmingen in southern Germany, daily Bild reported on Friday, citing a police spokesman. The paper said a further explosion could not be ruled out. According to the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper the explosion occurred at the offices of the German Red …

A civil disobedience movement in Myanmar is gaining momentum with teachers and students protesting against Monday’s military coup. Demonstrators at a university in the biggest city, Yangon, chanted support for jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and wore red ribbons, her party’s colour. Although Ms Suu Kyi has not been …

An American has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for abusing underage girls in a Kenyan orphanage. Christian missionary Gregory Dow set up the orphanage with his wife in 2008. “Gregory Dow was the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said the FBI’s Michael Driscoll. Last year, Dow …

The trial in Algeria of a group accused of decapitating a French mountain guide, which was due to start on Thursday in Algiers, has been put back to 18 February. The trial in the murder case of Frenchman Hervé Gourdel, has been postponed to February 18. Fourteen people are facing …

The trial of a suspected warlord accused of atrocities during Liberia’s civil war begins in Finland on Wednesday, the first such case to be partly heard on Liberian soil. Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean living in Finland since 2008, is accused of murder, aggravated war crimes and aggravated crimes against …

With his final two performances, the late Chadwick Boseman earned two NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Image Awards nominations, while “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” could make its presence felt at next month’s ceremony. The awards honoring entertainers and writers of color will air on CBS on …

Singapore become the first Asian country to approve Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine as it begins rolling out its immunisation programme to the wider population. The city-state expects to receive the first shipment of the Moderna shots around March, adding to its stock of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine approved in December. According to authorities, …

The US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised against all travel to Tanzania. The health agency has updated Tanzania’s alert to level four, meaning transmission of coronavirus is “high or rising rapidly”. Forty-one African countries have been listed in level four, the highest category of alert. “Travellers …