Lebanese banks are to apply an exchange rate of 2,600 pounds per dollar for withdrawals from small accounts of up to 5 million Lebanese pounds, a central bank source said Monday, in the implementation of a new circular issued Friday. Lebanon is still applying an official peg of...

Iran will never ask the United States for help in the fight against the new coronavirus, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Monday. The Iranian Health Ministry announced Monday that the death toll in Iran from the coronavirus outbreak has reached 3,739. The total number of people...

The United States had no knowledge of a shipment of face masks bound for Germany that officials in Berlin have accused it of diverting from an airport in Bangkok, a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Thailand said. The comment came after Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel said...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in hospital on Monday undergoing tests after suffering "persistent" symptoms of coronavirus for 10 days, but colleagues insisted he remains in charge of the government. The Conservative leader announced on March 27 that he had tested positive for...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday the government plans to declare a state of emergency and proposed a stimulus package worth $1 trillion as new coronavirus infections spike in Tokyo and elsewhere.  "We hope to declare a state of emergency as early as tomorrow after...

Taiwan has replaced its tourism chief and ordered vacationers who visited crowded scenic sites over the recent holiday weekend to avoid public spaces as it strives to maintain its relative success in containing the coronavirus.  Tourism Bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui was demoted...

Queen Elizabeth told the British people on Sunday that they would overcome the coronavirus outbreak if they stayed resolute in the face of lockdown and self-isolation, invoking the spirit of World War Two in an extremely rare broadcast to the nation. In what was only the fifth televised...

Officials in Greece on Sunday placed a second migrant camp near Athens under lockdown after an Afghan resident tested positive for the coronavirus, the migration ministry said. Officials said the camp in Malakasa, some 38 kilometres (24 miles) northeast of Athens, had been placed under...

France on Sunday reported 357 coronavirus deaths in hospital in 24 hours, a lower tally than in each of the previous two days, bringing the country's total death toll to 8,078. The total death tally included 5,889 patients who died in hospital, and 2,189 people in old age homes and other...

Italy Sunday recorded its lowest daily death toll from the novel coronavirus in over two weeks and saw the number of critical care patients decline for the second day. The 525 official COVID-19 fatalities reported by the civil protection service were the lowest since 427 registered on March...

An Algerian court Sunday sentenced to eight months in jail a journalist who had provided images of months-long anti-government protests to foreign media, a prisoners' support group and a non-government organization said. Sofiane Merakchi, a correspondent for Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen,...

Jordan on Sunday started to deploy drones to fight the coronavirus pandemic, joining a host of Middle East countries using the technology to enforce curfews, deliver public health announcements and even monitor people's temperatures. Jordan has declared five deaths and 323 cases of COVID-19...

Most Brazilians are against President Jair Bolsonaro’s potential resignation despite mounting criticism toward his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a poll published by local newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Sunday. The survey conducted by Datafolha pollster between April 1-3...

Germany’s confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 5,936 in the past 24 hours to 91,714 on Sunday, the third straight drop in the daily rate of new cases, according to data from the government’s Robert Koch Institute. Sunday’s figure amounted to a drop of 146 cases compared with 6,082 new...

Manchester City say they will not be furloughing employees at the taxpayer's expense after a number of Premier League clubs took advantage of the British government's scheme to fund non-playing staff during the coronavirus epidemic. On Saturday, table-topping Liverpool became the fifth...

The United States enters one of the most critical weeks so far in the coronavirus crisis with the death toll exploding in New York, Michigan and Louisiana and some governors calling for a national order to stay at home. New York is the hardest-hit state with more than 40 percent of all U.S....

Mahmud Jibril, the former head of the rebel government that overthrew Libyan dictator Moamer Qadhafi in 2011, died Sunday of the coronavirus, his party said. Jibril, 68, died in Cairo where he had been hospitalized for two weeks, said Khaled al-Mrimi, secretary of the Alliance of National...

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry plans to fly home any citizens abroad who wish to return to the country during the coronavirus outbreak, and has launched an electronic service to register those interested, it said Sunday. "Registration will start on Sunday and will take five days. Priority...

Pope Francis called for courage in the face of the coronavirus pandemic as he delivered Palm Sunday mass by livestream instead of before Saint Peter's Square crowds. The Vatican is abandoning centuries of tradition and refraining from public celebrations of the official start of the...

Iran said Sunday it will allow "low-risk" economic activities to resume from April 11 as its daily coronavirus infection rates slowed for a fifth straight day. "Restarting these activities does not mean we have abandoned the principle of staying at home," President Hassan Rouhani said at a...