Saudi Arabia will gradually lift a coronavirus-related travel ban for the Umrah pilgrimage starting early next month, its official news agency said early Wednesday.  The decision to allow the resumption of Umrah, or the minor pilgrimage undertaken by Muslims, came after a nearly...

India’s total death toll crossed 90,000 mark early Wednesday as the country recorded 83,347 new COVID-19 cases and 1,085 more deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry data.  The national toll of confirmed infections stood at 5.6 million, including 90,020 deaths --...

From scrubbing hate-filled school textbooks to a taboo-defying religious sermon, Saudi Arabia is pushing for another kind of normalisation after declining to establish formal relations with Israel -- co-existence with Jews. Saudi Arabia has said it will not follow its allies Bahrain and the...

With weeks to go before US elections, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is racing to make a breakthrough with Sudan that he hopes could also benefit Israel. Sudan's new civilian-led government is urgently seeking to be removed from the US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, and is seen...

Japan is considering easing strict coronavirus border restrictions from October to allow more foreign nationals to enter, local media reported Wednesday. Tourists would still be banned and only longer-term visas approved, the reports said, as the nation looks to rebuild its economy and...

At least 380 whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia, officials said Wednesday, with rescuers managing to free just a few dozen survivors. Nearly the entire pod of 460 long-finned pilot whales stuck in Macquarie Harbour, on the rugged and sparsely populated west coast of...

There is an embargo on oil business with Syria, but it still takes place. The FinCEN Files, international research on money laundering, corroborates this. And Turkey's largest oil company appears to play an uncanny role. In the Kerch Strait off the Crimean coast, a dangerous undertaking...

 Iran's president told the UN General Assembly Tuesday that the United States could impose "neither negotiations nor war" on the Islamic Republic amid heightened tension between the longtime foes over Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with major powers. "Iran is not a bargaining chip in US...

 France Tuesday registered more than 10,000 new confirmed coronavirus infections over 24-hours, for the sixth time in 12 days. The health ministry reported 10,008 new cases Tuesday, compared to 5,298 Monday - which usually sees a dip due to weekend data delays - and 10,569 Sunday. But...

Turkey and Greece have agreed to resume talks over their contested maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean after a four year hiatus following weeks of tensions that culminated in a collision between their warships. The talks, which broke off in 2016 after 60 rounds that made little...

The level of violence in Afghanistan is unacceptably high and the United States expects further setbacks during talks, the Special Representative for Afghanistan said on Tuesday, as the Afghan government and Taliban remained far apart on even basic issues 10 days into talks meant to end two...

The US death toll from the coronavirus topped 200,000 Tuesday, a figure unimaginable eight months ago when the scourge first reached the world’s richest nation with its sparkling laboratories, top-flight scientists and stockpiles of medicines and emergency supplies. "It is completely...

President Donald Trump's push to widen the US Supreme Court's conservative majority received a boost Tuesday as a longtime rival, Republican Senator Mitt Romney, said the Senate should move forward with a vote on his replacement for liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Romney's decision...

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro defended his administration’s record protecting the Amazon rainforest, telling the United Nations’ virtual meeting of global leaders Tuesday that his country has been wrongly portrayed as an environmental villain. Speaking first in the General Debate of the...

U.S. President Donald Trump will tell the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday it “must hold China accountable for their actions” related to the coronavirus pandemic. “The Chinese government, and the World Health Organization – which is virtually controlled by China – falsely declared...

An arms depot of the Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah exploded in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, a security source said, injuring several people and sending a new shockwave across a nation grappling with its deepest crisis in three decades. The security source said the arms depot...

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib urged all parties on Monday to ensure the immediate success of the French initiative and facilitate the creation of a technocratic government to prevent the further collapse of the state. “Lebanon cannot waste time amid this unprecedented...

Britain on Tuesday handed to US authorities evidence related to two members of a Daesh murder cell dubbed the "Beatles," clearing the way to a trial after Washington said it would not seek the death penalty. The evidence regarding El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey "has now finally been...

The number of recorded novel coronavirus cases in the six Gulf Arab states has doubled in three months to over 800,000, according to a Reuters tally. All countries have lifted internal curfews and lockdowns, but restrictions on gatherings and foreign travel remain, and social distancing...

Russia said on Tuesday new US sanctions against Iran would have no political or practical consequences for Moscow's cooperation with Tehran, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. The United States Monday slapped new sanctions on Iran's defense...