Taking selfies and waving Chinese flags curious locals flocked to the US consulate in Chengdu Sunday as officials prepared to remove its official plaque just days after Washington and Beijing ordered each other to close one of their diplomatic missions. Tensions between the two countries...

Brazil reported Sunday 1,211 more deaths from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, according to its Health Ministry. Brazil, one of the worst-hit countries in the world, registered a death toll of 86,449 with the latest fatalities, according to the ministry. The number of...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un placed the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea under total lockdown after a person was found with suspected COVID-19 symptoms, saying he believes “the vicious virus” may have entered the country, state media reported Sunday.  If the person...

Security was tight outside the U.S. consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu on Saturday as staff inside prepared to leave, a day after China ordered it to close in response to a U.S. order for China to shut its consulate in Houston. The tit-for-tat consulate closures have brought a sharp...

A surge in coronavirus cases across the United States and Europe has forced governments to strengthen containment measures as a survey released Saturday showed support for the handling of their pandemics has slipped. The disease has now killed almost 635,000 people around the world and...

Australia has rejected Beijing's territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea in a formal declaration to the United Nations, aligning itself more closely with Washington in the escalating row. In a statement filed on Thursday, Australia said there was "no legal basis" to several...

Twitter and Facebook suspended the accounts Friday of 16 allies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after a Supreme Court judge ordered them blocked as part of a probe into an alleged disinformation campaign. Tension has been soaring between the far-right leader and the court, which...

US air safety regulators Friday ordered plane operators to inspect some 2,000 Boeing jets that have been dormant due to weak flying demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency airworthiness directive for Boeing 737 NG and Classic aircraft to...

US police and security forces must not use disproportionate force against protesters and journalists in US cities including Portland or detain them unlawfully, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. Law enforcement officers and federal forces must be clearly identifiable so...

The Taliban say they are ready for talks with Afghanistan's political leadership after the Muslim holiday of Eid ul Adha at the end of July, offering to hand over the last of the government prisoners in a week's time, providing the government frees the last of its Taliban prisoners. The...

US President Donald Trump spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Thursday in a discussion the White House says focused on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and ongoing arms control disputes. "President Trump and President Putin discussed efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic...

The devastating economic toll the coronavirus crisis is taking around the world could spark huge waves of fresh migration once borders reopen, the head of the Red Cross warned in an interview. Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies...

The World Health Organization chief on Thursday rejected as false an allegation by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he owed his position to a deal with China. Pompeo told a private meeting of MPs on Tuesday that the WHO had become a "political" body, alleging that its decisions were...

Airstrikes in western Afghanistan killed 45 people, including civilians and Taliban, local officials said Wednesday. Ali Ahmad Faqir Yar, the governor of Adraskan District in the western Afghanistan province of Herat, said at least eight civilians were among the dead. "Forty-five people had...

The novel coronavirus claimed hundreds of lives in Brazil and Mexico in the past 24 hours, according to health authorities. Brazil stands as the second worst-hit country by the pandemic worldwide, as its death toll climbed to 82,771 with 1,284 new fatalities in the last 24 hours, according...

The China National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) said Thursday a coronavirus vaccine could be ready by the end of 2020, according to official media. Chinese pharmaceutical companies completed early trials and are preparing for market entry by the end of the year, ahead of schedule, the...

Joe Biden said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was the country's "first" racist president. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s comments came during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union. When a questioner complained of racism...

China launched its most ambitious Mars mission ever on Thursday in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet. The Tianwen-1 was launched on a Long March-5 carrier rocket from a launch site on Hainan Island. It marked the second...

 Researchers are making good progress in developing vaccines against COVID-19, with a handful in late-stage trials, but their first use cannot be expected until early 2021, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert said Wednesday. "Realistically it is going to be the first part of next...

The global tally of people infected with the coronavirus neared 15 million Wednesday, while in the worst-hit pandemic hot spot of the United States, President Donald Trump warned the pandemic would "get worse before it gets better." With COVID-19 set to pass another shocking milestone,...