Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and his wife were diagnosed with coronavirus and are in isolation following guidelines, his ministry said on Thursday. Several other senior officials, including the head of Israel's foreign intelligence agency Mossad, were also self-isolating due to...

Iran has no proxies but it has friends, tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the country or its proxies planned a sneak attack on U.S. targets in Iraq. "Don't be misled by usual warmongers, AGAIN,...

President Donald Trump has held an unequivocal position about China and the coronavirus - several of them. Trump initially praised China, then excoriated Beijing after it made unsubstantiated claims that the virus originated in the United States. Now, Trump is back to offering niceties....

While the world is gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, war-shattered Libya marks one year Saturday of its latest bloody conflict that is plunging it ever deeper into chaos. Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and others have fuelled the fighting in the oil-rich but poverty-stricken...

 BlackRock’s Managing Director Amer Bisat said on Wednesday that the world economy could contract by 11% in the first half of 2020 and lose $6 trillion in economic output due to the coronavirus pandemic. “To put this in context, this will be worse than the contraction that we saw in...

Turkey’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak increased by 63 to 277 on Tuesday, its highest rise yet, while the number of confirmed cases from the disease rose by 2,148 to 15,679, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Koca said 14,396 tests had been...

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) voiced deep concern on Wednesday about “the rapid escalation and global spread” of COVID-19 infections with the new coronavirus, which has now reached 205 countries and territories. “In the past 5 weeks there has been a near exponential growth...

French health authorities reported 509 new deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the total to 4,032, making the country the fourth to pass the 4,000-fatalities threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States. The daily government tally still only accounts for those dying in...

President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday of a "heavy price" if it or its allies in Iraq attack US troops stationed there. "If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!" Trump tweeted. The US president also wrote: "Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are...

New York authorities rushed to bring in an army of medical volunteers Wednesday as the statewide death toll from the coronavirus surged past 1,900 and the wail of ambulances in the otherwise eerily quiet streets of the big city became the heartbreaking soundtrack of the crisis. As hot spots...

Israel on Wednesday linked any assistance it might offer for the Gaza Strip's efforts against coronavirus to progress in its attempt to recover two Israeli soldiers lost during the 2014 war in the Palestinian enclave. Blockaded and impoverished, Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza has reported 12...

A top Iranian general arrived in Baghdad this week to try and unify Iraq's fractured political leaders, Iraqi officials said Wednesday, as stiff opposition by one major bloc thwarts the chances the country's latest prime minister-designate can form a government. Esmail Ghaani, head of...

UEFA have made a move towards clearing the decks for the return of club football by announcing on Wednesday that all international matches that had been pushed back to June have now been postponed until further notice. "This includes the play-off matches for UEFA EURO 2020 and qualifying...

Anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine should only be used to treat COVID-19 in clinical trials or in case of "national emergency", the European Medicine Agency warned Wednesday. Around the world, countries are expanding access to the two compounds, which are used to treat...

A famous Kuwaiti actress has sparked a furore by calling for expatriates to be expelled from the oil-rich nation so that locals can be sure of having a hospital bed if they fall ill with coronavirus. Hayat al-Fahad, 71, who is known for playing a range of roles in Arabic dramas, told a...

Formula One and Silverstone chiefs say they have until the end of April to decide if the British Grand Prix will go ahead in July. The first eight Formula One races of the 2020 season have been called off due to the coronavirus. The Canadian Grand Prix is the next scheduled race, in...

The number of cases of coronavirus in Spain surpassed 100,000 on Wednesday while the number of fatalities reported overnight reached a new record, the country's health ministry said. The number of cases rose to 102,136 on Wednesday up from 94,417 on Tuesday, the ministry said. Overall...

Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 3,036, with 138 deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV on Wednesday, adding that the country had 47,593 infected cases. "We had 2,987 new cases of infected people in the past 24 hours and...

The Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah is marshalling its deep resources in the fight against coronavirus, using a corps of volunteers, doctors and facilities to carve out a prominent role in the crisis-riven state's response. The campaign is part of wider efforts by Lebanon's sectarian...

A roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday killed at least eight civilians, including six children. The victims were all from a single family, according to Helmand police spokesman Zaman Hamdard. The family had just left the southern district to Greshk when the bomb hit their...