Web Desk

Italy is making coronavirus tests for visitors from China mandatory following an explosion in cases in China, the health minister said Wednesday. “I have ordered mandatory COVID-19 antigenic swabs, and related virus sequencing, for all passengers coming from China and transiting through Italy,” minister Orazio Schillaci said. The measure was “essential to ensure the surveillance and identification of any variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population”, he said. Coronavirus infections have surged in China as it unwinds hardline controls that had torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests. The Italian northern region of Lombardy introduced screening

NASA is exploring whether SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft can potentially offer an alternative ride home for some crew members of the International Space Station after a Russian capsule sprang a coolant leak while docked to the orbital lab. NASA and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, are investigating the cause of a punctured coolant line on an external radiator of Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is supposed to return its crew of two cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut to Earth early next year. But the December 14 leak, which emptied the Soyuz of a vital fluid used to regulate crew cabin temperatures,

Reporters Without Borders has called on Algerian authorities to release journalist Ihsane El Kadi, director of the news outlets Radio M and Maghreb Emergent.   Radio M said El Kadi was taken into custody after six agents from Algeria’s Directorate General of Internal Security searched the offices of Radio M and Maghreb Emergent and seized computers and documents.   Radio M, an internet station, and Maghreb Emergent, its sister website, were seen as Algeria’s last outlets for independent news.   The news outlets said the arrest and search were part of a long-running intimidation and harassment campaign by authorities.  

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar hailed recent victories scored by the Somali government and local community forces against al-Shabab militants in central Somali regions.   Omar, who was born in Somalia, has been visiting the country since Thursday. In Mogadishu, she met with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre and members of the Cabinet and parliamentarians on Monday.   Speaking at a dinner in her honor hosted by Barre, Omar congratulated the Somali leaders for the “big success” against al-Shabab militants.   Omar called for collaboration in defeating the group she accused of “dishonoring” Islam.   “Our

DAKAR, SENEGAL — The accounts are haunting. Abductions, torture, rapes. Scores of civilians, including women and children, have been killed by the M23 rebels in eastern Congo, according to a U.N. report   In addition, the M23 rebels have forced children to be soldiers, according to the report by a panel of U.N. experts. The 21-page document — based on interviews with more than 230 sources and visits to the Rutshuru area of Congo’s North Kivu province, where the M23 have seized territory — is expected to be published this week.   Conflict has been simmering for decades in eastern

The United States will permit Major League Baseball players from Cuba to represent their home country in the World Baseball Classic next year. The decision announced Saturday in a news release by the Baseball Federation of Cuba (FCB) could be a big step in once again turning Cuba’s national team into heavy hitters on an international stage. Major League Baseball confirmed Monday that the U.S. granted the license to FCB. It clears the way for MLB stars such as José Abreu, Yordan Alvarez, Randy Arozarena, Yoán Moncada and Luis Robert to play for Cuba in the WBC in March if