U.S. President Donald Trump faced a fresh backlash on Tuesday for removing his mask when he returned to the White House and urging Americans not to fear the COVID-19 disease that has killed more than 209,000 people in the country and put him in hospital. Trump arrived at the White...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered a nationwide drive to boost the ailing economy ahead of a key party congress in January, state media reported Tuesday. The decision was made during a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party and comes as the coronavirus pandemic and recent floods have...

Almost two decades after the United States launched what would become its longest-ever war with air strikes on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, the hardline group are in a stronger position than ever. The invasion on October 7, 2001 quickly toppled the militants, who had harbored...

Lebanese President Michel Aoun will not sign decrees dismissing three officials charged in a probe into the August 4 Beirut port blast without a formal cabinet vote, his office said Monday. The director of land and maritime transport, Abdel Hafiz Kaissi, the port's director-general Hassan...

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at Israel late Monday, the army said, without reporting any casualties. Sirens sounded in areas of southern Israel neighbouring Gaza to warn of the incoming fire, for which there was no claim of responsibility. The last cross-border...

Iran’s Health Ministry said on Monday nearly the whole country was on a coronavirus red alert as cases and deaths rose to record levels, with a member of the state task force’s warning field hospitals might be needed if people flout the rules. Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told...

A top Palestinian business executive said on Monday that new Gulf Arab ties with Israel, condemned by Palestinian leaders, could also be an opportunity to apply fresh pressure to halt Jewish settlement in occupied land. Bashar Masri, a Palestinian-American who runs two of the Palestinians’...

 A drastic rise in COVID-19 infections has pushed Lebanon’s hospitals to the edge, and experts warn they will soon be unable to cope as the country buckles under a succession of devastating crises. Lebanon’s healthcare system was already struggling before several hospitals were badly...

The number of total coronavirus cases around the world surpassed 35 million on Monday, less than a week after deaths from COVID-19 passed one million, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US leads the world with over 7.4 million cases and almost 210,000 deaths, while India had...

Wall Street futures climbed in pre-market trading Monday, with investors seemingly unperturbed by US President Donald Trump's hospitalization after announcing he'd tested positive for coronavirus last week. About an hour before trading was to begin, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial...

The fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh resumed Monday morning, with both sides accusing each other of launching attacks. Armenian military officials on Monday reported missile strikes hitting Stepanakert, the capital of...

 A woman's body was discovered Monday in the Mediterranean Sea, bringing to at least nine the number of people killed in severe mountain flooding at the border between France and Italy. Up to 20 others were feared missing in the devastation. In Italy, rescuers recovered her body in the...

Roughly 1 in 10 people may have been infected with the novel coronavirus, leaving the vast majority of the world’s population vulnerable to the related COVID-19 disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, told the agency’s...

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday said he will self quarantine for 14 days after a minister who attended a high-level government meeting to discuss coronavirus developments on Saturday tested positive for COVID-19. The Southeast Asian country has seen a steady climb in...

The Kremlin said on Monday that it was not aware of any current government plans to impose a strict lockdown in Russia to curb the sharp rise in coronavirus cases. Russia’s daily tally of new coronavirus cases rose to its highest since May 12 on Monday as authorities reported 10,888 new...

Police in Belarus detained 317 people during protests in Minsk and across the country on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. Tens of thousands of people marched through the centre of Minsk to demand that the authorities free political prisoners, prompting police to turn a water...

A rocket landed in the vicinity of Baghdad International Airport on Monday, according to an Iraqi police officer. The Katyusha rocket was fired by unidentified militants, but without causing any casualties, Capt. Ahmed Khalaf said. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack....

A Turkish drilling ship returned to port Monday from contested waters near Cyprus, according to a naval tracking website, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepared to receive the head of NATO. The Turkish navy had said last month that the Yavuz would stay in eastern Mediterranean waters...

In Yemen’s gas-rich region of Marib, fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed government recited Koranic verses before launching a hail of mortar and machine gun fire towards rocky mountains, in a desperate bid to push back Houthi forces. The commanding officer peered through his binoculars at...

The United Kingdom passed 500,000 confirmed coronavirus infections on Sunday, official figures showed, in the latest grim milestone for the European country worst-hit by the pandemic. Health authorities blamed a technical glitch for a sudden spike in cases announced in evening figures that...