Twitter took down thousands of accounts linked to Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Serbia on Thursday for either taking directions from the governments or promoting pro-government content. Twitter and other social media companies are under pressure to clean up misinformation and...

Istanbul's opposition mayor on Thursday called for a lockdown in Turkey's largest city after it reported the country's highest number of coronavirus cases and criticised the lack of coordination with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey's government has announced measures to contain the...

Australia's science agency announced on Thursday it has begun trials on ferrets to produce a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.  A statement released by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) -- the country's national science agency -- said that...

Iraq has thousands of confirmed COVID-19 cases, many times more than the 772 it is has publicly reported, according to three doctors closely involved in the testing process, a health ministry official and a senior political official. The sources all spoke on condition of anonymity. Iraqi...

Oil prices rocketed Thursday after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Saudi Arabia planned to end their price war by slashing output. But gains for Brent North Sea crude of nearly 46 percent cooled to around 20 percent as Russia denied it had spoken with Saudi Arabia, the world's...

The U.S. Democratic Party on Thursday postponed its presidential nominating convention by a month until August, citing the coronavirus health crisis which has upended life in the country. The delay is the latest sign the coronavirus pandemic is having a profound impact on the presidential...

 Iran’s parliament speaker has contracted the coronavirus, the country's highest-ranking government figure yet to catch the disease, while in Israel, several top officials entered quarantine when the health minister tested positive on Thursday. Iran's parliament announced Ali...

Jordan imposed a 24-hour nationwide curfew on Thursday, starting from midnight, to help stem the coronavirus outbreak, the state news agency reported. Medical staff will be exempt. Jordan had registered 278 coronavirus cases and five deaths as of April 1.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday Britain would "massively increase testing" for the COVID-19 virus as the country recorded more than 500 daily deaths for a second consecutive day. Johnson made the vow amid a growing wave of criticism of his government's failure to provide...

Malka Abu Aker has seen her crowded refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank swell year upon year since fleeing there over 70 years ago, with the arrival of new generations and those escaping successive Mideast conflicts. But with the coronavirus spreading locally, the 73-year-old...

Battered by Lebanon’s economic crisis, Hassan Zeitar was already struggling to keep his family fed when the coronavirus lockdown stripped him of the little money he made as a minibus driver. Now housebound in Beirut, Zeitar is racking up debt at a local grocery to provide rice and lentils...

The UN envoy to Yemen said Thursday he was engaged in talks with the country's warring parties to secure a nationwide ceasefire to help counter the threat of the coronavirus. Martin Griffiths' office said he is discussing "concrete steps" with the warring sides despite a recent escalation...

Google on Thursday said it is pumping $6.5 million into fact-checkers and nonprofits as it ramps up its the battle against coronavirus misinformation. Fact-checking organizations, which often operate on relatively small budgets, are seeing a surge in demand for their work as mistaken or...

More than 500,000 coronavirus infections have been diagnosed in Europe, over half the global total, according to a tally by AFP from official sources at 1000 GMT Thursday. The continent has recorded 508,271 cases and 34,571 COVID-19 deaths, compared to global figures of 940,815 and 47,836...

Saudi Arabia imposed a 24-hour curfew Thursday in Mecca and Medina , the interior ministry said, extending measures taken to combat the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 1,700 people and killed 16. The interior ministry said in a statement there were some exceptions,...

Iran said Thursday it "only acts in self-defence" after President Donald Trump warned it against attacks on US troops in Iraq, as a new war of words heated up despite the coronavirus pandemic. Tensions between the arch-foes flared in Iraq where the United States deployed Patriot air defence...

Spain's death toll from coronavirus surpassed the 10,000 threshold after a record 950 people died overnight, the country's health ministry said on Thursday. The country's total death toll caused by the coronavirus outbreak was 10,003 while the number of cases registered rose to 110,238...

Iran on Thursday reported 124 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising its total to 3,160, as President Rouhani warned that the country may still battle the pandemic for another year. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced the latest toll in a news conference and confirmed...

The death toll from the novel coronavirus in the U.S. pushed past the 5,000 mark Thursday, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.  The number of infected cases rose to 216,721, while 8,672 have recovered from the virus. Most of the deaths were reported in New York state....

Ellis Marsalis Jr., jazz pianist, teacher and patriarch of a New Orleans musical clan that includes famed performer sons Wynton and Branford, has died after battling pneumonia brought on by the new coronavirus, one of his sons said late Wednesday. He was 85. Ellis Marsalis III confirmed in...