While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Aug 28
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) and Norway's Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide during a press conference in Oslo.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Wang Yi casts doubt on coronavirus originating in China
The Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said on Thursday it was unclear whether the coronavirus had first originated in China, casting doubt on the views of health experts and foreign governments.
Speaking during a visit to Norway, Wang said that, while China was the first country to report the existence of the virus to the World Health Organisation (WHO), "it does not mean that the virus originated in China".
"Actually, for the past months, we have seen reports... showing that the virus emerged in different parts of the world, and may have emerged earlier than in China," Wang told reporters, speaking through an interpreter.
Health authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan reported the first case of what turned out to be the new coronavirus in December, and the first known death linked to the virus in early January.
Pentagon slams Chinese missile launches in South China Sea
The US Defence Department said on Thursday that Chinese test launches of ballistic missiles in the South China Sea were threatening peace and security in the region.
Confirming reports that Beijing's forces launched as many as four ballistic missiles during military exercises around the Paracel islands, the Pentagon said the move called into question China's 2002 commitment to avoiding provocative activities.
China's "actions, including missile tests, further destabilise the situation in the South China Sea," the Pentagon said in a statement.
FDA warns against hand sanitisers that look like drinks
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday warned of alcohol-based sanitisers being packaged and sold in containers that appear like food or drinks.
At a time when health agencies are pushing for better hand hygiene to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, the top health regulator found many hand sanitisers look like beer cans, children's food pouches, water bottles, juice bottles and vodka bottles.
Some of them were being sold with cartoons for children and had added food flavours such as chocolate or raspberry.
NBA: Players decide to continue season after boycott over racial injustice
The National Basketball Association ( NBA) said on Thursday (Aug 27) it hopes to resume play in a day or two after a boycott by players protesting against racial injustice and police brutality, while President Donald Trump denounced the league as "like a political organisation.
The protest by the NBA players focused on the police shooting on Sunday of a black man named Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin - an incident reminiscent of the killing while in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May that sparked anti-racism demonstrations and civil unrest across the United States and elsewhere.
Blake's shooting has reverberated through US professional sports, with leagues postponing games and practices, even as Trump and White House officials criticised the NBA players, a majority of whom are black, for their protests.
F1 champion Hamilton says he will not boycott Belgian Grand Prix
Six-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday he would not boycott Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix after a wave of player protests in the United States against the police shooting of a Black Man forced the postponement of sporting events.
The NBA's Wisconsin-based Milwaukee Bucks started the boycotts when they refused to take the court for their playoff game on Wednesday while other teams followed suit in an unprecedented show of athlete solidarity.
The protests spilled over into Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the Women's NBA and tennis as Japan's twice Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka pulled out of a tournament after reaching the semi-finals.
