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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 his first prime-time address Thursday night, President Joe Biden marked one year since widespread pandemic shutdowns began across the United States and asked Americans to help with the challenges ahead. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story. …