Like most Spaniards, Emma Gaya thought the worst of the pandemic was behind her. Spain’s government had ended a three-month lockdown after an COVID-19 onslaught that claimed at least 28,400 lives in the European Union nation. To kickstart its stalled economy, Spaniards were encouraged to...

Russia said Monday it aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus vaccine next month and turn out "several million" doses per month by next year. The country is pushing ahead with several vaccine prototypes and one trialled by the Gamaleya institute in Moscow has reached advanced stages...

This year's Formula One title will be just as precious as in other seasons despite the coronavirus-shortened schedule, says Mercedes chief Toto Wolff. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is hot favourite to be crowned champion for a record-equalling seventh time after his dramatic victory in the...

 One person is dying from COVID-19 every seven minutes in Iran, state television said Monday, as the Health Ministry reported 215 new deaths from the disease and state media warned of a lack of proper social distancing. Health Ministry spokesman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted by the state...

The World Health Organization warned Monday that, despite strong hopes for a vaccine, there might never be a "silver bullet" for COVID-19, and the road to normality would be long. More than 18.14 million people around the world are reported to have been infected with the disease and...

 Power cuts that last up to 20 hours a day. Mountains of trash spilling into streets. Long lines at gas stations. It may seem like a standard summer in Lebanon, a country used to wrestling with crumbling infrastructure as it vaults from one disaster to another. Only this time, it's...

Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes on Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip after a "rocket" was fired from the Hamas-controlled enclave towards the Jewish state, its military said Monday. Israel said Sunday night a "projectile" fired from Gaza had been intercepted by its Iron Dome...

Lebanon's foreign minister announced his resignation Monday in protest at the government's mishandling of the worst economic crisis in decades that has forced Beirut to ask for IMF support. "I have decided to resign today as foreign minister," Nassif Hitti said in a statement seen by AFP,...

Dr Firass Abiad was a little-known Beirut hospital director until the coronavirus pandemic propelled him into the spotlight and restored at least some faith in Lebanon's much-maligned public sector. At a time when the country has also been mired in its deepest economic crisis in decades and...

An Islamic State group attack on a prison in eastern Afghanistan holding hundreds of its members raged Monday after killing at least 21 people in fighting overnight, a local official said. That's according to Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province. He says the...

The death of Rafic Hariri is to many Lebanese what the JFK assassination was to Americans four decades earlier -- everybody remembers what they were doing when the news broke. On Valentine's Day 2005, the former prime minister who embodied the reconstruction of the country after its...

Italy inaugurates a sleek new bridge in Genoa on Monday, though relatives of the 43 people killed when the old viaduct collapsed say the pomp and ceremony risk overshadowing the tragedy. Jets trailing the colours of the Italian flag will roar overhead as the national anthem plays, almost...

The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide passed the 18-million mark on Monday, with the World Health Organization warning that the effects of the pandemic "will be felt for decades to come". The virus that causes Covid-19 has killed more than 687,000 people since it first emerged...

 Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, the group’s Amaq news agency said on Sunday . At least three bombs exploded outside a jail compound, officials said.

The Libyan army on Sunday said Russian-made cargo planes made new military shipments to the forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar. Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Gen. Abdulhadi Dirah, the spokesman for the army’s Sirte-Jufra Joint Operations Unit, said that carrying military ammunition,...

The Afghan government on Sunday urged the Taliban to extend a rare ceasefire hours before it was due to end, as a contentious prisoner swap between the two warring sides edged closer to completion. Officials said there were no reports of fighting between the enemies across much of...

Muslim pilgrims circled Islam's holiest site along socially distanced paths Sunday in the final ritual of the hajj, the smallest in modern history as Saudi authorities sought to prevent a coronavirus outbreak. Only up to 10,000 Muslims took part in the hajj, a far cry from the 2.5 million...

Social media has become a new and dangerous battleground for women's rights in Egypt after young TikTok influencers were jailed while a resurgent #MeToo movement decried male sexual violence. Last Monday, a court sentenced five female social media influencers, Haneen Hossam, Mowada al-Adham...

Algeria's president phoned his Turkish counterpart last month to secure the return of a fugitive military official who fled Algeria days after its powerful army chief died in December, a top Algerian security source said. Guermit Bounouira was handed over to Algerian security officials in...

The foreign minister of United Arab Emirates told his Iranian counterpart that strengthening bilateral cooperation was an important element in tackling the coronavirus, UAE state news agency WAM said Sunday. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan made the comment to Mohammad Javad Zarif in a...