The Taliban should commit to a ceasefire as a way of tackling the novel coronavirus, Afghanistan's defence minister said Thursday, while also vowing that security forces would respond to continued insurgent attacks. "Our proposal is that to prevent this plague, a ceasefire should come, so...

World finance leaders tried to lift confidence with emergency measures to pour cash into panic-stricken markets on Thursday, as investors everywhere dumped assets, switching to dollars amid the escalating coronavirus pandemic. Policymakers in the United States, Europe and Asia have slashed...

A network of makeshift barriers has kept residents walled in their neighbourhoods for weeks in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the heart of the coronavirus pandemic. The city of 11 million, where the virus first erupted, became a ghost town after authorities prevented people from leaving on...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his administration will use a health-focused statute to swiftly remove migrants or asylum seekers who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally as part of efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus. During a press conference at the White House,...

Greece has said it is placing migrant camps across the country on a two-week shutdown to visitors to ward off the new coronavirus. "Visits (to camps) by individuals and organisations are suspended for at least 14 days," the migration ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. "Entry will...

Restaurants are reopening, traffic and factories are stirring, and in one of the clearest signs yet that China is awakening from its coronavirus coma, the country's "dancing aunties" are once again gathering in parks and squares. As the rest of the world runs for cover, China -- where the...

Australia and Taiwan joined a growing list of countries offering financial aid to their ailing aviation sectors as global airlines announced deeper capacity cuts due to plummeting demand and stricter border controls associated with the coronavirus. With airlines halting plane deliveries and...

President Nicolas Maduro asked the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday for a $5 billion loan to help crisis-worn Venezuela cope with the onslaught of the coronavirus. In a letter to IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, Maduro said a $5 billion loan from the IMF's Rapid Financing Instrument...

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration pushed lawmakers to send money directly to Americans to counter the economic toll of the coronavirus outbreak, as the Senate weighed a multibillion-dollar emergency bill passed by the House of Representatives. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin...

“The temporary shutdown of cross-border movement within the EU will inevitably impact when and how vulnerable children in Greece are relocated to Germany, Finland and other states,” Afshan Khan, Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant response in Europe, wrote in an email. She urged...

The large US internet platforms have pledged a joint effort to root out misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and to promote "authoritative content" about the crisis. A joint statement was issued late Monday by Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Reddit along with Google-owned...

A South Korean hospital has introduced phone booth-style coronavirus testing facilities that allow medical staff to examine patients from behind the safety of a plastic panel, the latest innovation in the country's drive to track down infections. The row of four booths -- which use negative...

Millions of anxious Americans troop to polling stations Tuesday in three states, but not Ohio, as the coronavirus pandemic roils the nation's Democratic primaries featuring frontrunner Joe Biden and his rival Bernie Sanders. Campaigning has shifted from rallies to online events, candidate...

The World Health Organization called on all countries on Monday to ramp up their testing programmes as the best way to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic. “All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded,” he added. In the...

 U.S. researchers gave the first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine Monday -- leading off a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges. With a careful jab in a healthy volunteer’s arm, scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington...

Nearly 70,000 Afghans have returned from virus-hit Iran in the past 20 days, an official said Monday, overwhelming health workers at border crossings and raising fears of a major outbreak in the impoverished country. They were allowed back in after Kabul reopened land crossings for Afghans...

As the coronavirus crisis sweeps the US government, the nation has come to rely on a voice of calm from the White House -- only it's not Donald Trump's. Caricatured as a meek and loyal yes man, Vice President Mike Pence is surprising even some of his critics with an authoritative...

A young child died in a fire in an overcrowded migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Monday, fire brigade officials said. The fire burned through two containers used as living quarters by people in the Moria camp, as well as some tents, a spokesman said. “During the operation a...

Bars, restaurants, theaters and movie houses in New York and Los Angeles were ordered to shut down to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic as central banks around the world took aggressive steps to cushion the economic impact of the disease. The U.S. Federal Reserve slashed...

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said Monday he was increasingly confident the country would overcome the coronavirus as the rate of new infections continued to drop, although authorities noted another large cluster had emerged in the greater Seoul area. There were 74 new coronavirus...