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A top official at the World Health Organization said that a genetic analysis of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Guinea suggests it may have been sparked by a survivor of the devastating West Africa epidemic that ended five years ago.At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan described the results of the genetic sequencing of the virus in Guinea as "quite remarkable."Scientists in Africa and Germany posted their results on a virology website on Friday, concluding that the current Ebola virus sickening people in Guinea is extremely similar to the virus that sparked the widespread West Africa outbreak that began in 2014."More studies are going to be needed," Ryan said. But he added that based on the available genetic sequencing data, the current outbreak was unlikely…

A new report says 2020 was a record year for discovering new asteroids, particularly those with near-Earth orbits in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down a number of observatories.The report, published Thursday in the science journal Nature, says astronomers registered 2,958 previously unknown near-Earth asteroids over the course of the year, the most since 1998, the year the U.S. space agency, NASA, began tracking such objects.More than half of the asteroids and other objects recorded came from the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, which uses its three telescopes to hunt for potentially threatening space rocks. Astronomers there discovered 1,548 near-Earth objects, even with the center closed briefly last spring because of the pandemic, and a longer closure in June, due to a wildfire in the area.Among the Catalina 2020…

The Philippines has gotten a measure of control over its once-runaway COVID-19 outbreak through strict lockdowns and a year of school closures, coupled with widespread use of face protectors, experts and citizens on the ground say.The Southeast Asian country known for its migratory population — Filipinos work throughout the developed world — has reported fewer than 2,000 new cases per day most of the time since October, down from as much as 6,275 cases previously. Daily counts fell below 1,000 at the start of January.Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, only Indonesia struggled last year with the same level of  daily COVID-19 caseload surges. Most countries around Northeast Asia, including the coronavirus’s apparent source, China, recovered early last year, despite isolated flare-ups.Border closures that remain in effect and enforced stay-home orders in…

U.S. President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of Japan, India, and Australia are meeting virtually Friday for a summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, where they will discuss strategies to counter China’s rising influence in the Indo-Pacific region, including an offer to match Beijing’s ambitious vaccine diplomacy.The Quad is launching a financing mechanism to ramp up production of up to a billion doses of vaccines by 2022 to address a shortage in the Indo-Pacific region, mainly in Southeast Asian countries, a Biden administration official said in a briefing call to reporters Thursday.The group has put together “complex financing vehicles” to dramatically increase vaccine production capacity the official said. A second administration official said the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is working with companies in India and the governments of…

The UNFPA reported that almost 12 million women in 115 low- and medium-income countries were unable to gain access to contraception services for an average of 3.6 months during the past year due to the pandemic, resulting in 1.4 million unintended pregnancies.“Pregnancies don’t stop for pandemics, or any crisis. We must ensure that women and girls have uninterrupted access to lifesaving contraceptives and maternal health medicines,” Dr. Natalia Kanem, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, the international organization’s sexual and reproductive health agency, said Thursday in a statement.However, “The international community pulled together to mitigate the worst-case scenario,” despite the roadblocks to contraceptives, Kanem said.“As the world’s largest procurer of contraceptives for developing countries, UNFPA worked with its partners from governments, civil society and the…

The largest asteroid to pass by Earth this year will approach within about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) of our planet on March 21, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Thursday.The U.S. space agency said it would allow astronomers to get a rare close look at an asteroid.The asteroid, 2001 FO32, is estimated to be about 3,000 feet (915 meters) in diameter and was discovered 20 years ago, NASA said."We know the orbital path of 2001 FO32 around the sun very accurately,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies. “There is no chance the asteroid will get any closer to Earth than 1.25 million miles.”That is roughly 5.25 times the distance from Earth to the moon, but still close enough for 2001…

While NASA’s Mars rover roams the Red Planet searching for signs of ancient life, scientists on Earth follow clues in a Turkish lake that may hold some answers.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.Camera: NASA/AP/AFP/REUTERS/SPACEXProduced by: Arash Arabasadi    ...

While NASA’s Mars rover roams the Red Planet searching for signs of ancient life, scientists on Earth follow clues in a Turkish lake that may hold some answers.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.Camera: NASA/AP/AFP/REUTERS/SPACEXProduced by: Arash Arabasadi   ...

U.S. President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into law Thursday, opening the door for the release of federal aid for financially ailing American households and businesses.Biden, a Democrat, signed the package one day after the House of Representatives approved the bill 220-211 without Republican support and one day earlier than the White House initially had planned.“This historic legislation is about building a backbone in this country and giving people in this country, working people, middle-class folks, people who built the country, a fighting chance,” Biden said as he prepared to sign the bill.Republican lawmakers objected to the package, saying it was too large and did not sufficiently target those who were most in need of economic assistance. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday called the…

The U.S space agency NASA has released audio of Martian winds and the sound of a laser aimed at a rock, all captured by the Perseverance rover as it makes the first use of its sophisticated scientific instruments.The rover's SuperCam, which the Los Alamos National Labratory in New Mexico and France's National Center for Space Studies developed, made the recordings. NASA released them Wednesday.The instrument is mounted on the rover’s mast and features a 5.6-kilogram sensor head that can perform five types of analyses to study Mars’ geology and help scientists choose which rocks the rover should sample in its search for signs of ancient microbial life.The probe fired laser pulses at a target rock about three meters away, which can be heard on the recordings as clicking sounds. Scientists…

Denmark health officials announced Thursday they are suspending the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for 14 days as it investigates reports of patients developing blood clots after being inoculated. On his Twitter account, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said authorities were looking into "signs of a possible serious side effect in the form of fatal blood clots," though he made clear the stoppage was a "precautionary measure," saying it was not possible yet to conclude whether the clots were linked to the vaccine. The Danish Medicines Agency also confirmed the investigation on Thursday in a statement, saying it would work with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other European pharmaceutical authorities following the reports. Austria suspended use of a batch of the vaccine earlier this week after a recipient…

Four former living U.S. presidents are appearing in a new ad campaign to encourage people to get COVID-19 vaccines.In the video produced by the Ad Council, former President Bill Clinton says, “We’ve lost enough people and we’ve suffered enough damage.”There is a photo of Clinton and his wife, Hillary, receiving their vaccines.Former President George W. Bush says, “In order to get rid of this pandemic, it’s important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated.”Like the Clintons, the video shows Bush and his wife, Laura, getting their shots, as well as former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, and former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.The former leaders talk about what they are looking forward to after being protected by the vaccine. Obama says he wants to “visit with…

The COVID-19 pandemic has made life harder for everyone, but especially people with disabilities, who feel more marginalized than ever before. People in a disabled community in Nigeria’s capital are coping as best they can, but are still in need of assistance.   Physically challenged Nigerian Salamatu Abubakar has four children and is pregnant with another.   Without her sight and any source of income, Abubakar says she has trouble getting by, and sometimes has to beg to survive.     She also notes the coronavirus pandemic has made the challenge even harder.     She says since the pandemic began, "we've struggled to feed our children, we don't have any money. We had to stop our children from going to school."   About 27 million Nigerians live with disabilities…

Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that current vaccination levels indicate the United States could reach pre-pandemic levels of “normal life” by late August or early September.     Fauci made the comment during a virtual news briefing on herd immunity by the White House COVID-19 Response Team.     Fauci said their best estimates regarding when herd immunity would be reached and enough people are considered immune from the virus range between 70% to 85% of the U.S. population.     He said at current vaccination rates, that level should be reached at the end of the North American summer. But he also said that if the nation is vaccinating 2 million to 3 million people a day, society is increasingly more protected.    …

The British Natural History Museum said it has recovered fragments of the first meteorite collected in the United Kingdom in 30 years and one of the rarest ever discovered.  On the night of February 28, a fireball was seen streaking across the sky over southwestern Britain, dazzling onlookers and exciting scientists. No fragments from a meteorite — what a meteor is called once it lands on Earth — had been recovered in the nation since 1991.  Museum researchers asked people to look in an area north of the town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire County. They received calls from the town of Winchcombe. Scientists went door to door asking people if they had seen anything. Several had, including a family that said a piece landed in their driveway.Researchers were even more…

The U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry said Wednesday the world’s developed countries - which emit most of the world's greenhouse gases - “have every capacity" to address the climate crisis. Speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Kerry stressed that no one country or government can address the issue alone. Referencing the 2015 Paris Agreement, Kerry said it was about everyone accepting the same emission reduction goals.   But he said, too few nations have abided by their commitments. He said, “The point of Paris ((agreement)) is everybody has said that we will get on this road, and the problem today is we're not on that road sufficiently.” Former U.S. president Donald Trump had withdrawn from the Paris agreement, and…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday refuted claims by European Union Council President Charles Michel that Britain had imposed a ban on COVID-19 vaccine exports. In an online blog posted Tuesday to the EU website, Michel wrote that Britain and the United States have imposed "an outright ban" on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced in their territory. FILE - European Council President Charles Michel attends a news conference in Brussels, August 19, 2020.Speaking during the prime minister's question time in the House of Commons, Johnson said Britain had not blocked the export of "a single COVID-19 vaccine" or any vaccine components.  "This pandemic has put us all on the same side in the battle for global health. We oppose vaccine nationalism in all its forms," he said. Last year,…

The first federal recommendations for people vaccinated against COVID-19 allow cautious steps toward normal life.Too cautious, critics say.The In this Jan. 27, 2021, image from video, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during a White House briefing.Though vaccinated people are protected from severe illness, there is still a “small risk” that they could carry the virus without showing symptoms and spread it to other people, FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2021, file photo, Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans travel by boat along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Fla.More than half of Americans are planning or have booked a trip, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry group.Public health experts have criticized Texas and Mississippi for completely reopening their economies and canceling their…

Behind the counter of Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, near Philadelphia, owner Mayank Amin has been working late into the night since his independent drugstore received state approval to administer COVID-19 vaccines in late January.   There are thousands of emails to sort through and phone calls to field, supplies to organize, appointments to schedule.   Amin, known as Dr. Mak, set up a vaccination clinic on Super Bowl Sunday at the local firehouse that drew more than 1,000 people who kept their appointments for shots despite the snow that day.   "It was just like a party out there," Amin, 36, recalled during an interview with Reuters in late February. "It was something you could have never imagined in your life, to see four strangers carrying somebody on a wheelchair…

With COVID-19 still limiting travel, a Cameroonian startup has created a system that allows African medical patients to have an online consultation with doctors abroad.  Moki Edwin Kindzeka has this report from Anne Nzouankeu in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Camera: Anne Nzouankeu   ...

The World Health Organization reports one in three women globally, around 736 million, suffer physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner. The study, the largest ever conducted on the prevalence of violence against women, is based on data from 2000 to 2018.Violence often begins at an early age. The study finds one in four young women aged 15 to 24 are violently abused by an intimate partner. WHO officials said this is of particular concern as it is during this formative age that healthy relationships are made.Short- and long-term impactsThe report said intimate partner violence is by far the most prevalent form of violence against women worldwide. It said abusive treatment can have both short- and long-term impacts on women’s physical and mental…

The United Nations’ weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said Tuesday the record cold felt in the U.S. during February was the result of the same weather phenomena that sent above-average warmth to parts of the arctic.  At a virtual news conference from Geneva WMO, spokeswoman Clare Nullis told reporters that February saw much colder than average temperatures in North America and Russia, but warmer temperatures in parts of the Arctic and other regions.     Nullis cited a report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) this week showing the contiguous United States had its coldest February since 1989. She said the U.S. set 62 all-time daily cold minimum temperature records in a span of five days between February 11 and February 16.     But…

The first federal recommendations for people vaccinated against COVID-19 allow cautious steps toward normal life.Too cautious, critics say.The In this Jan. 27, 2021, image from video, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during a White House briefing.Though vaccinated people are protected from severe illness, there is still a “small risk” that they could carry the virus without showing symptoms and spread it to other people, FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2021, file photo, Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans travel by boat along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Fla.More than half of Americans are planning or have booked a trip, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry group.Public health experts have criticized Texas and Mississippi for completely reopening their economies and canceling their…

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry was in Brussels Tuesday to discuss transatlantic cooperation with European Union (EU) officials and U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to rejoin the global climate change effort.   Speaking to reporters alongside EU climate chief Frans Timmermans, Kerry reiterated that climate is "one of the most important issues" that Biden's "administration intends to deal with."   Kerry said the climate summit scheduled for November of this year in Glasgow, Scotland “is the last, best opportunity that we have and the best hope that the world will come together and build on [the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference agreement reached in] Paris.”   Kerry said the Paris agreement did not go far enough, noting that if all the parties were doing everything in the…

Last March, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, it had already proved to be lethal and highly contagious. It was a new virus with many unknowns. Since then, scientists have learned a lot about how it affects vital organs and its long-term effects. VOA's Carol Pearson reports. ...