Some 74 million people in the water-scarce Arab region are at greater risk of catching the novel coronavirus because they lack a sink or soap at home, the United Nations said Wednesday. This includes 31 million people in Sudan, more than 14 million in war-torn Yemen and 9.9 million in...

With 94 new deaths reported in Iran, the death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 4,777, state media said on Wednesday. The Iranian state TV reported Kianoush Jahanpour, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, as saying that 1,512 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24...

Apple has launched a new website that shows with striking graphs how the coronavirus pandemic has slammed the brakes on life around the world. The tool visualises the movement of people in dozens of major cities and countries around the world based on the number of requests made for...

Oman's finance ministry has told all ministries and civilian government units to reduce approved liquidity for development budgets by 10 percent, state media said Wednesday. It also said the creation of government companies performing business activities would cease and priority would be...

German authorities say police have arrested four suspected members of the Daesh group alleged to be planning an attack on American military facilities. Federal prosecutors said the suspects were arrested by tactical police units early Wednesday at various locations in the western state of...

Russia on Wednesday reported 3,388 new cases of the coronavirus, a record daily rise, bringing its overall nationwide tally to 24,490, the country’s coronavirus response centre said. It said 198 people in Russia diagnosed with the virus had now died, an overnight rise of 28.

The British government must publish its exit strategy from the stringent lockdown that was imposed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said on Wednesday. The nationwide lockdown, imposed on March 23, is due to be reviewed by Thursday....

Japan’s death toll from the novel coronavirus could reach 400,000 without measures to stem the contagion, according to a health ministry projection reported by local media. A ministry team studying clusters of the disease estimated that serious cases needing ventilator intervention could...

As the negative impacts of the coronavirus on economies are mounting by day, G2O leaders will continue to work on a roadmap for global response to the pandemic.  The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will hold meeting on Wednesday to form an action plan to combat the...

The number of deaths in Germany from the coronavirus has surpassed those reported by China, according to statistics released on Wednesday by local health authorities. Data analysis firm Risklayer and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which compiles real-time figures from nearly 400 local...

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations....

Tunisia's vital tourism sector could lose $1.4 billion and 400,000 jobs this year due to the new coronavirus pandemic, an official document showed, as the country seeks a loan guarantee from bilateral partners to issue sovereign bonds this year. In a letter sent to the International...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Wednesday she will take a 20 percent pay cut in a symbolic act of solidarity with people struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic. Ardern said her personal salary, those of her fellow ministers and of top public servants...

North Korea marked the anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il Sung in subdued fashion Wednesday, with mask-wearing citizens placing flowers before his statue in Pyongyang as the country imposes strict anti-coronavirus measures. The grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong Un was...

Armed men boarded a vessel at anchor in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday but the ship was later released, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said. “Vessel and crew are safe,” it said in an updated advisory, urging all vessels in the vicinity to remain vigilant. UKMTO had...

It will be difficult to hold the Cannes film festival in its original form in 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, organisers said Tuesday, adding they were looking at new ways of hosting the world's biggest annual celebration of cinema. The festival had already been postponed from its...

The political fallout from Turkey’s rushed coronavirus lockdown at the weekend has exposed tensions at the top of President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party after he rejected the resignation of his interior minister. Suleyman Soylu submitted his resignation on Sunday after authorities gave just...

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday about a "dangerous epidemic of misinformation" surrounding the global coronavirus outbreak. "This is a time for science and solidarity," Guterres said in a statement and video message. "As the world fights the deadly COVID-19...

France officially registered more than 15,000 deaths from coronavirus infections on Tuesday, becoming the fourth country to go beyond that threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States, while the rate of increase of fatalities is slightly up again after steadying the days before. But...

There is no “Plan B” for the Olympics if they need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic, Tokyo organizers said Tuesday. Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said organizers are proceeding under the assumption the Olympics will open on July 23, 2021. The...