Facebook has reversed its policy banning posts suggesting COVID-19 emerged from a laboratory amid renewed debate over the origins of the virus, raising fresh questions about social media's role in policing misinformation.The latest move by Facebook, announced late Wednesday on its website, highlights the challenge for the world's largest social network of rooting out false and potentially harmful content while remaining open for discourse."In light of ongoing investigations int

Taiwan’s president has accused China of interfering in its vaccine acquisition programme, as the island continues to battle hundreds of daily new cases of COVID-19 with low supplies of vaccines.Taiwan has received about 700,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine so far, for a population of 24 million. While the island had been largely COVID-free since the pandemic began, an outbreak in late April has so far infected more than 5,000 people, and killed at least 47.

China on Wednesday accused the United States (US) of "spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation" as the theory resurfaced that the coronavirus emerged from a Wuhan laboratory, while urging Washington to open its virology facilities to scrutiny.Led by the US, pressure is mounting for a new probe into the origins of COVID-19 after a World Health Organization (WHO) mission to China, beset by delays and dogged by political baggage, returned inconclusive findings.The Wuhan Institu

Long dismissed as a kooky conspiracy theory favoured by the far right, the idea that COVID emerged from a lab leak in Wuhan has been gaining increasing momentum in the United States (US).The government's position has shifted to agnosticism in recent weeks, with top pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky both saying they are open to all possibilities."We need to get to the bottom of this and we need a completely transp

21 people were killed after hail, freezing rain and high winds hit runners taking part in a cross-country mountain race in China, state media said Sunday.The extreme weather struck a high-altitude section of the 100-kilometre (62-mile) race held in the scenic Yellow River Stone Forest in north western Gansu province Saturday afternoon.Among the dead were elite Chinese long-distance runners, local media reported.Official news agency Xinhua confirmed that 21 of the 172 participants had died, ci

In the strengthening of bilateral relations between the Philippines and China, diplomatic activities and cultural exchanges between the two countries both, at the state-to-state and people-to-people levels are pivotal ingredients in enhancing mutual understanding, cooperation, friendships, and the resolution of differences and conflict of interests.

China’s recently released population census confirms the persistence of the country’s alarming excess of males relative to the global norm. This numerical imbalance from birth onward has several significant economic implications – and not only for China. Because women live longer than men on average, most countries’ populations have more females than males. In the United States (US), for example, there were 96 males per 100 females in 2020.

China's Mars rover drove from its landing platform and began exploring the surface of the planet on Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency said, making the country only the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet.The launch last July of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, which carried the Zhurong rover, marked a major milestone in China's space programme.Tianwen-1 touched down on a vast northern lava plain known as the Utopia Planitia a week ago and beamed back its first

She was already beyond child-bearing age, but Qelbinur Sedik says Chinese authorities still forcibly sterilised her, part of what she describes as a systematic campaign to suppress births of Uyghurs and other minorities in the tense Xinjiang region.In 2019, Sedik – then aged 50 – says she begged authorities to spare her from being fitted with the compulsory Intrauterine Device (IUD), as previous attempts resulted in severe pain and bleeding.So, community workers gave her no choice but to be s

The South China Sea (SCS) dispute is one of the many inter-state issues that challenge the resolve of the Philippines’ foreign policy of upholding peaceful coexistence and mutual respect with other claimant-states, especially China. This is in line with a peaceful and diplomatic resolution of the dispute based on the Philippines’ commitment to international law, regional stability, and peaceful co-existence with its neighbours, without compromising the integrity of its national terri