China says it's "extremely unlikely" that COVID-19​ came from a lab, after the CIA said it believed​, though with low confidence, that it did, rather than from natural transmission.

The problem for the lab-leak position is that the U.S. has never had access to the Wuhan lab and has thus been unable to reach a definitive answer for more than five years. Now that the CIA has at last come to a conclusion, not all scientists are sold on what it has reported, seeing the results as thinly scientifically sourced.

China urged the US to “stop politicising and instrumentalising the issue of origin-tracing”. Read more at straitstimes.com.

It was unclear the extent to which the agency has collected new intelligence on COVID-19's origins and whether that new evidence was used to formulate the latest assessment.

The news comes after the CIA announced over the weekend that COVID-19 most likely originated from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2020.

India and China agreed in principle on Monday to resume direct flights between the two nations, nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent political tensions halted them.

India and China agreed in principle on Monday to resume direct flights between the two nations, nearly five years after the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent political tensions caused a suspension.

Ties between China and India appear to be on the mend after both sides agreed in-principle to resume direct flights, which have been suspended for five-years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a deadly border dispute in 2020.

India and China agreed in principle on Monday (Jan 27) to resume direct flights between the two nations, nearly five years after the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent political tensions halted them.

India and China has agreed in principle to resume direct flights between the two nations, nearly five years after the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent political tensions halted them.

Mainland China and India have not been connected by direct passenger flights for almost five years. But relations between Beijing and New Delhi have started to thaw after several high-level meetings.