MOGADISHU -- Kenya and Somalia have agreed to restore diplomatic relations following talks between leaders of the two neighbouring countries in Djibouti, a Somali government official said.

"Somalia accepted to restore diplomatic ties with Kenya, but put on conditions that a fact-finding committee should be assigned to investigate the situation at the border," Mohamed Abdirizak Mohamud, the foreign minister of Somalia, told journalists in Mogadishu on Monday evening.

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PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia suspended sending laborers to neighboring Thailand on Monday after the latter has reported a surge in COVID-19 infections in its Samut Sakhon province, some 300 km away from the border.

In a statement issued to private recruitment agencies and relevant officials, Cambodia's Labor Minister Ith Samheng said, "Sending MoU-based and seasonal laborers to Thailand must be temporarily suspended from now on until further notice."

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BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's Health Ministry on Tuesday urged the public to avoid mass New Year celebrations and crowded places due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There are alarming reports about the spread of a new mutating coronavirus in the UK and a number of EU countries, which is 70 percent more infectious than the original version," said Ainura Akmatova, head of the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan.

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WASHINGTON -- China's new development paradigm in which "domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other" is a correct posture, said renowned economist and bestselling author Jeffrey Sachs.

"The government program is correct to speak of a balanced approach in which 'domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other.' This is a correct posture," Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Xinhua via email on Monday.

"China needs to continue its opening to the world, including important programs like the Belt and Road Initiative, while also promoting domestic-based growth to improve people's livelihoods and living conditions," said Sachs, who is also a senior United Nations advisor.

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WASHINGTON -- Ezra Vogel, professor emeritus at Harvard University and a renowned China scholar, passed away at the age of 90 on Sunday.

"My father loved China and the Chinese people. His hope was always that China would forge better relations with both Japan and the United States. We in the next generations in all three countries have a lot of work to do to realize that vision," Steven Vogel, a professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, told Xinhua via email on Monday. Enditem

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