President Donald Trump signed into law Friday the $2 trillion rescue plan to salvage a US economy crippled by the novel coronavirus, on a day the nation's total count of COVID-19 cases surpassed 100,000. Trump's signature brings an end to a dramatic, weeklong legislative saga on Capitol...

Italy has logged a shocking spike in its already staggering coronavirus death toll, with officials warning the peak of the crisis was still days away, as the global infection rate surges relentlessly upwards. With more than 300,000 people infected in Europe alone, the disease shows few...

The head of the International Monetary Fund said Friday it is clear that the global economy has now entered a recession that could be as bad or worse than the 2009 downturn. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the 189-nation lending agency was forecasting a recovery in 2021,...

Health workers racing to save lives as France contends with one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks have received a huge show of gratitude with the help of the Eiffel Tower.  The Paris landmark also had a message for the broader French public: Stay home.  Lights...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for moving towards forming a government, the Israeli premier said. “Trump called Prime Minister Netanyahu and congratulated him on the fact that he would form a government under his premiership,”...

Morocco will spend an initial 2 billion dirhams ($200 million) to help its health system cope with the coronavirus outbreak, the finance ministry said on Friday as the number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 333. It will spend the money on 1,000 more intensive care beds, 550...

Coronavirus has infected more than half a million people and killed more than 20,000 globally, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, as he appealed again for protective gear for medical staff working to save lives. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general,...

Juventus star Paulo Dybala revealed Friday how he "struggled to breathe" after contracting coronavirus which has killed over 9,000 people in Italy. The Argentine international announced last Saturday he was one of three Juventus players to catch the virus along with Daniele Rugani and...

Google pledged $800 million worth of support Friday in response to the coronavirus pandemic for health organizations, researchers and businesses impacted by the crisis. The aid will come in the form of cash, ad credits, and cloud services from the California-based internet colossus,...

The United Nations, which had urged a global ceasefire in the face of the coronavirus crisis, on Thursday hailed armed groups in Cameroon, the Philippines and Yemen for heeding the call. The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffith, said he was "heartened" to see positive responses from...

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad congratulated Afghan political and civil society leaders on Friday on forming a negotiating team for talks with Taliban. “This consensus is a meaningful step that moves the parties significantly closer to intra-Afghan negotiations,” he...

World Bank President David Malpass on Friday said poorer countries will need debt relief or restructuring so they can fund their fights against the coronavirus pandemic, and said the World Bank would present a debt-relief approach in April. “Poorer countries will take the hardest hit,...

One town and four villages in Turkey’s Black Sea province of Rize have been quarantined over the coronavirus outbreak, the local mayor said on Friday, in the first case of a lockdown in the country since the beginning of the outbreak two weeks ago. Alaettin Serdar, the mayor of the Kandirli...

France extended its stay-at-home order for all non-essential employees, as well as widespread business closures, until at least April 15 in an effort to curtail the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Friday. "In agreement with the president, today I'm announcing the...

The Red Cross called Friday for increased psychological support to health workers and others fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, warning of rising suicides as a result of pressure and isolation. Countries around the world have taken dramatic measures to try to halt the spread of the virus,...

Manchester United will offer fans either a pro-rata cash refund or a rebate on next season's tickets if this season's remaining Premier League games are cancelled or played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, the club said Friday. The outbreak has brought sport around the...

Has the coronavirus saved Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? The sense of urgency created by the pandemic has opened the way for the right-wing premier to stay in power as head of a "corona government" despite his corruption indictment. After more than a year of political...

Through decades of conflict, Dr Haidar Hantoush has watched wounded soldiers and civilians flood into Iraq's emergency wards. But he's never been so scared. "Violence we can just about handle. Patients stream into hospitals for hours at a time - but you can see how many there are. You get a...

Battles raged on several fronts in Libya Friday after a night of heavy bombardment in Tripoli, combatants and residents said, despite the threat continued fighting poses to efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic. Serious warfare resumed this week after a comparative lull in recent weeks,...

Iran Friday announced 144 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the official number of fatalities to 2,378 in one of the world's worst-hit countries. "In the past 24 hours, we've had 2,926 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections across the country," health ministry spokesman...