Tunisia will reopen places of worship, restaurants and hotels from June 4, authorities announced Thursday, more than two months after closing them over the coronavirus pandemic. The reopening could be delayed if there is a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, the ministers of major projects,...

A wave of coronavirus infections among residents returning to Gaza has more than doubled the number of cases in the strip in recent days, raising fears of a bigger outbreak. The impoverished Palestinian enclave had managed to limit the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to no more than 20,...

More than 2.4 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week in the latest wave of layoffs from the viral outbreak that triggered widespread business shutdowns two months ago and sent the economy into a deep recession. Roughly 38.6 million people have now filed for jobless...

Bethlehem is struggling back to life just in time for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, nearly three months after it became the first town in the West Bank to be sealed off because of a coronavirus outbreak. Although the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, remains...

Olympics chief Thomas Bach agreed that 2021 was the "last option" for holding the delayed Tokyo Games Thursday, stressing that postponement cannot go on forever. Bach said he backed Japan's stance that the Games will have to be cancelled if the coronavirus pandemic isn't under control by...

Turkey's foreign ministry warned Thursday of grave consequences if General Khalifa Haftar's forces attacked Turkish interests in Libya. Ankara has provided military support to the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya, which has been battling to fend off a...

When Jamil al-Saboot and his family were told by a Yemeni aid agency to self-isolate to stop the spread of coronavirus, he knew he would not heed the advice. For the 40-year old father of ten, uprooted by civil war and living in a tent on a hillside above the southwestern city of Taiz,...

Doubts were growing Thursday over whether ambitious plans by European governments to use contact-tracing apps to fight the spread of the coronavirus will be able to be implemented with any real effectiveness soon. In contrast, there appeared to be some movement forward in the sprint to find...

Many Israeli websites were hit by a coordinated cyber attack Thursday, with the home pages replaced by images of the country's commercial capital Tel Aviv in flames. Israel's National Cyber Directorate said private companies using a particular operating system were targeted, but said the...

Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab pledged Thursday to stem devaluation and introduce subsidies on food imports, as his cabinet marked 100 days since it was formed to redress a free-falling economy. Lebanon is facing its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, now compounded...

Global coronavirus recoveries crossed the 1.9 million mark on Thursday, according to a running tally by the US’ Johns Hopkins University. The university's data showed a total of 1,901,079 million people won the battle against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus....

Iran will support any nation or group that fights Israel, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday, ahead of this week's annual observance of Quds (Jerusalem) Day to express support for Palestinians. "We will support and assist any nation or any group anywhere who opposes and...

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are to suspend oil production from the neutral zone they share in June as part of cuts they agreed to shore up prices, a Kuwaiti official said. The OPEC oil cartel to which they both belong struck a deal with non-OPEC producers led by Russia in April to cut output by...

The World Health Organization has reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases, as U.S. President Donald Trump proposed hosting world leaders for the annual G7 summit as a sign of "normalization." The WHO said Wednesday that more than 106,000 virus cases had been reported...

Algeria has sentenced three opposition activists to jail over Facebook posts, in what rights groups said Wednesday was the latest sign of increased repression after the coronavirus lockdown stifled a popular protest movement. Soheib Debaghi was sentenced in Algiers to one year in prison on...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday voiced regret at Palestinian threats to end security coordination if Israel annexes occupied territory in line with President Donald Trump's Middle East plan. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, playing one of his only cards, said Tuesday...

The only man ever convicted in a U.S. court for a role in the Sept. 11 attacks now says he is renouncing terrorism, al-Qaida and Daesh. Zacarias Moussaoui is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado after narrowly escaping the death penalty at his 2006 trial. He was...

Turkey does not risk a second wave of infections from the new coronavirus at the moment and it is preparing to start controlled "medical tourism" with 31 countries as of Wednesday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. "If we continue to abide by the rules of social distancing, wearing a...

The U.S. government imposed sanctions Wednesday on an Iranian government minister and senior law enforcement and military officials over human rights abuses. "The Iranian regime violently suppresses dissent of the Iranian people, including peaceful protests, through physical and...

U.S. President Donald Trump and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed their concern about "worsening foreign interference" in Libya and "agreed on the need for urgent de-escalation," the White House said. The two leaders also discussed progress on reopening the United States and...