Pope Francis Wednesday compared migrant detention centers in Libya to concentration camps, saying the world was being given only a diluted version of how hellish life really was for the people living there. The pope, who has in the past called for the camps to be closed, made his...

US Deputy Secretary of State and North Korea envoy Stephen Biegun on Wednesday poured cold water on reports Washington had sought a meeting with Pyongyang officials, with nuclear discussions at a standstill. Biegun is on a four-day trip to Seoul and Tokyo to discuss North Korea's...

Donald Trump's niece describes the US president as a lying narcissist who was shaped by his domineering father, according to excerpts of her eagerly anticipated memoir carried in US media Tuesday. Mary Trump's "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man"...

Venezuela's Supreme Court, stacked with loyalists of the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, on Tuesday ordered Juan Guaido to relinquish his position as leader of one of the main opposition parties, giving the position to one of his rivals instead. Guaido, who is recognized by the United...

Some 400,000 new cases of Covid-19 were reported over the weekend and the new coronavirus pandemic shows no sign of slowing down, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. "The outbreak is accelerating and we've clearly not reached the peak of the pandemic," WHO director-general Tedros...

The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has announced live on television he has tested positive for coronavirus. “It came back positive,” a mask-wearing Bolsonaro told a hand-picked group of reporters on Tuesday lunchtime outside his official residence. “There’s no reason for fear....

Brazil may be struggling in its battle against the coronavirus, but it is on the cutting edge of vaccine development with large-scale trials and the production of millions of doses on the horizon. Unlike Europe and China, COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly across the Latin American nation...

Germany and Belgium have asked the UN Security Council to vote to extend authorization for cross-border humanitarian aid in Syria despite a likely Russian veto, diplomatic sources said Tuesday. The German-Belgian draft resolution would extend for a year an authorization for aid to move into...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the US is "looking at" banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok, over allegations Beijing is using them to spy on users. India has already barred the wildly popular TikTok app over national security and privacy concerns while other...

Australia warned its citizens Tuesday they could face "arbitrary detention" if they travel to China, the latest sign of growing tensions between the two nations. The foreign ministry issued the warning in updated travel advice, which also noted that Chinese authorities had detained...

As US coronavirus cases surge and deaths topped 130,000, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo harshly criticized the White House's COVID-19 response Monday, accusing President Donald Trump of "enabling" the virus and downplaying its threat. Infections are on the rise in 39 states, according to a...

More than 200 scientists have called for the World Health Organization and others to acknowledge that the coronavirus can spread in the air - a change that could alter some of the current measures being taken to stop the pandemic. In a letter published this week in the journal Clinical...

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is expected to start pushing Monday for a global consensus on peace talks with the Taliban, even as his spokesman slammed the militants for a spike in violence. Ghani is hosting three online conferences with representatives of some 20 countries this week, with...

On an average day, President Donald Trump sends about 14 posts to the 28 million Facebook followers of his campaign account. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, delivers about half that many posts to an audience of just 2 million. The numbers are similarly skewed in other spheres of the social...

Chinese authorities on Monday detained a law professor who published essays criticising President Xi Jinping over the coronavirus pandemic and his efforts to consolidate power, according to friends of the man. Xu Zhangrun, a rare outspoken critic of the government in China's heavily...

A leading opposition party representing Ethiopia's Oromo ethnic group said Monday that five senior members had been detained following violence last week that claimed at least 166 lives. The political crackdown deepens fears of a large-scale roundup of government critics as Prime Minister...

Hundreds of drones lit up the night sky in Seoul for a spectacular showcase of motivational and awareness messages as the world battles the coronavirus pandemic. Three hundred unmanned aerial vehicles were programmed to form images above the Han river -- which runs through the South Korean...

The hard-hit Australian state of Victoria has recorded a death and its highest-ever daily increase in coronavirus cases as authorities prepare to close its border with New South Wales. The death of a man in his 90s brings the national death toll from COVID-19 to 105. Victorian...

India added a record number of coronavirus cases Sunday, as the world's fourth worst-hit nation opened a huge treatment centre with 10,000 beds in the capital to fight the epidemic. The health ministry reported just under 25,000 cases and 613 deaths in 24 hours -- the biggest daily spike...

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike declared victory in Sunday's vote to elect the leader of one of the world's most populous cities and immediately vowed to step up the fight against a recent coronavirus resurgence. Major media exit polls suggested a landslide victory after voting stations closed...