Oman will on Saturday lift a domestic ban on travel between governorates, imposed on Jul. 25 to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, the state news agency ONA said on Wednesday. From Saturday it will also reduce its curfew for a week to the period...

Pakistani citizens living abroad should raise awareness about the plight of people in Jammu and Kashmir, which was annexed by India and reduced to a centrally administered territory a year ago, Pakistan's ambassador to Ankara said on Wednesday. Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi’s comments came at...

France will send three planes to Beirut Wednesday with rescuers, medical equipment and a mobile clinic, followed by a visit Thursday by President Emmanuel Macron to the city devastated by a massive blast, the government said. The presidency announced that two military planes would leave...

North Korea’s test results for a man suspected of being the country’s first coronavirus case were inconclusive, though authorities have quarantined over 3,635 primary and secondary contacts, a World Health Organization official told Reuters. On July 26 North Korea said it had declared a...

Oil prices rose to their highest since early March on Wednesday after data showed a big drop in U.S. crude inventories, although concerns that mounting coronavirus infections will lead to reduced fuel demand capped gains. Brent crude was up $1.03, or 2.3%, at $45.46 a barrel by 0951 GMT,...

Initial investigations indicate years of inaction and negligence over the storage of highly explosive material in Beirut port caused the blast that killed over 100 people on Tuesday, an official source familiar with the findings said. The prime minister and presidency said on Tuesday that...

Iran’s president offered on Wednesday to send medical aid to Lebanon and treat people injured in the massive blast that killed at least 100 people in Beirut. “Iran announces its readiness to send medical aid to Lebanon and also offers treatment of the injured and other necessary medical...

The death toll worldwide from the novel coronavirus rose to 700,647 on Wednesday, according to a running tally by the US-based Johns Hopkins University. Data showed the total number of cases worldwide climbed to 18.54 million, with 11.13 recoveries. Brazil has the highest number of...

The death toll from a massive explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut has risen to 73, the country's Health Ministry said early Wednesday. A fire at a warehouse containing explosives at the Port of Beirut led to the blast, which leveled a three-story building and was heard across the...

In Iraq's Kurdistan region and at the country's Muslim Shiite holy sites, trading US dollars for rials from Iran was once big business. But the money exchange trade has been hard hit by lockdown restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19, and by deep economic woes in both countries....

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Wednesday lay the foundation for a temple at a flashpoint holy site exactly a year after imposing direct rule on Muslim-majority Kashmir -- twin triumphs for his Hindu nationalist government. The site of Ayodhya and divided Kashmir have been two...

Residents of Beirut awoke to a scene of utter devastation on Wednesday, a day after a massive explosion at the port sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 100 people and wounding thousands. Smoke was still rising from the port, where a towering grain silos had...

A massive explosion rocked Beirut on Tuesday, flattening much of the city's port, damaging buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. More than 70 people were killed and 3,000 injured, with bodies buried in the rubble, officials said. The blast struck...

The death toll from a massive explosion in Beirut on Tuesday has risen to more than 50 killed and over 2,700 injured, Lebanon’s health minister said in televised remarks. The minister earlier said more than 25 people had been killed and more than 2,500 injured.

A US official voiced confidence Tuesday that key powers would keep recognizing opposition figure Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president even if he is sidelined in disputed elections. The United States and most Western and Latin American nations no longer recognize leftist Nicolas...

The US has begun late stage clinical trials into a drug formulated to fight COVID-19, officials said Tuesday. The medicine is an antibody against the new coronavirus called LY-CoV555, which was identified in the blood sample of a recovered patient by Canada's Abcellera Biologics. It was...

Former king Juan Carlos, who has decided to leave Spain six years after his abdication amid a series of scandals, was a popular monarch for most of his four-decade reign who played a critical role in the country's transition to democracy. Early life and handover from dictatorship Born...

A massive explosion rocked downtown Beirut on Tuesday, flattening much of the port, damaging buildings and blowing out windows and doors as a giant mushroom cloud rose above the capital. Lebanese Red Cross official Georges Kettaneh said there were dead and wounded, but did not have an...

Spain's World Cup-winning captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas announced his retirement from the professional game Tuesday, ending a career that spanned over two decades in which he captured the game's biggest prizes. The former Real Madrid skipper had called time on his five-year spell...

A second wave of the coronavirus epidemic is highly likely to hit France in the autumn or winter, the government's top scientific body warned Tuesday as authorities seek to contain an increase in new cases over the past two weeks. The warning came as an increasing number of French cities...