Iran Sunday announced 87 new deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, raising the official toll to 5,118, as it takes steps to reopen the economy. It is the sixth consecutive day that Iran has announced a death toll under 100, though Sunday's toll was 14 higher than the...

The players and coaching staff at Serie A side AS Roma have agreed to go without four months' salary to help the club through the crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Serie A has been suspended since March 9 and it is not known if or when the season will be able to re-start. Roma said in...

 U.S. lawmakers are very close to an agreement on approving extra money to help small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic and could seal a deal as early as Sunday, congressional and Trump administration officials said. "I think we're very close to a deal today and I'm hopeful...

Spain registered a sharp drop in its daily death toll from the new coronavirus Sunday, with the number falling to 410 from 565. The total number of fatalities in Spain, the third hardest-hit country in the world after the U.S. and Italy, has reached 20,453, the health ministry said....

 Iran will give a decisive response to any mistake by the United States in the Gulf, the Revolutionary Guards navy said in a statement published on the Guards' news site Sepah News. The U.S. military said on Wednesday that 11 vessels from the Revolutionary Guards navy had come...

President Vladimir Putin said that Russian authorities had the coronavirus crisis under full control and that everything would work out with God's help, even as the country Sunday registered a record daily rise in cases of the new virus. Russia on Sunday reported 6,060 new cases in the...

The emirate of Abu Dhabi said Sunday it had sold $7 billion of bonds in the third major sale this month by Gulf sovereigns seeking to counter slumping oil prices. OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia last week raised $7 billion in a bond sale, while gas-rich Qatar sold bonds worth $10 billion two...

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus Monday, Tehran said over the weekend, in what would be their first official meeting in a year. Zarif plans to travel to Damascus for a one-day visit to discuss bilateral relations, regional...

Tens of thousands of stranded labourers have been herded into camps and shelters across India like the Yamuna sports complex in Delhi where their suffering has been forgotten amid the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown. Once used for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the air is now rank with...

Polls opened in Mali Sunday for the final round of legislative elections aimed at reviving public faith in the country's embattled institutions despite a bloody jihadist conflict and the coronavirus pandemic.  Voters in Mali, one of the world's most impoverished nations with a...

Italians debated Sunday their first cautious steps out of a coronavirus lockdown that has left an estimated half of the working population seeking government support. The Mediterranean country has been filled with rumours and speculation about when people will finally be allowed to walk the...

British education minister Gavin Williamson said on Sunday that no decision had been taken on when to reopen schools, as the coronavirus lockdown enters a fourth week. “I can reassure schools and parents that they will only reopen when the scientific advice indicates it is the right time to...

Iran has extended furloughs for prisoners for another month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, as the Islamic Republic endeavors to stem the spread of the new coronavirus in its crowded jails. Iran’s reported temporary release of 100,000 prisoners since February - including...

 A virtual concert packed with A-lister performers -- from The Rolling Stones to Taylor Swift to Billie Eilish -- entertained fans around the world with a show celebrating health workers, as billions shelter at home due to coronavirus. Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonder, Paul...

Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, urged Muslims worldwide to pray at home during Ramadan if their countries require social distancing to combat coronavirus, state news agency SPA reported on Sunday. "Muslims shall avoid gatherings, because they are the...

The director of a maximum-security laboratory in China's coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan has rejected claims that it could be the source of the outbreak, calling it "impossible". Beijing has come under increasing pressure over transparency in its handling of the pandemic, with the US...

American families slammed by the coronavirus pandemic are turning more and more to food banks to get by, waiting hours for donations in lines of cars stretching as far as the eye can see. And with 22 million people out of work seemingly overnight as business after business closes under the...

Libya's internationally-recognised government has said its forces have killed eight fighters loyal to eastern-based renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.  The announcement by military spokesman Mohamed Gnunu on Saturday came as forces aligned with the United...

France on Saturday reported 642 more deaths from COVID-19 in hospitals and nursing homes over the last 24 hours, but registered new falls in the total numbers of coronavirus patients in hospitals and intensive care. The new deaths -- 364 in hospitals and 278 in nursing homes -- brought the...

Turkey's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 82,329, Health MinisterFahrettin Koca said on Saturday, overtaking neighbouring Iran for the first time to register the highest total in the Middle East.  An increase of 3,783 cases in the last 24 hours also pushed Turkey's confirmed...