An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 jolted Chiba prefecture in eastern Japan, the country’s meteorology agency said Thursday. The agency said the quake occurred around 4:47 a.m. local time off the coast with its epicenter at a depth of 30 kilometers (18 miles) and was felt in neighboring...

South Korea and the United States on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to defending "the hard-fought peace" on the divided peninsula as the allies marked the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. Communist North Korea invaded the US-backed South on June 25, 1950, triggering...

Russia and China will be isolated at the United Nations if they continue down the "road to dystopia" by blocking a US bid to extend a weapons ban on Iran, US Iran envoy Brian Hook told Reuters ahead of his formal pitch of the embargo to the UN Security Council Wednesday. The 13-year-old...

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom said on Wednesday he expected the number of novel coronavirus cases around the world, now at about 9.3 million, to reach 10 million next week. Tedros also told a news briefing he backed Saudi Arabia's decision to ban pilgrims from...

Researchers in Brazil began administering an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University to volunteers, the Federal University of Sao Paulo said Wednesday. The vaccine, developed together with pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca, is one of the most promising of the dozens...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that the Trump administration was imposing sanctions on five Iranian ship captains who had delivered oil to Venezula. Speaking to reporters, Pompeo also said the United States continues to support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido....

Coronavirus infections are surging across large parts of the United States, the top US infectious disease expert has warned, as the death toll in Latin America passed 100,000. The developments highlighted how far away the world remains from ending the pandemic, six months into a crisis that...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suspended plans for military action against the South, state media reported Wednesday, in an apparent sudden dialling down of tensions after Pyongyang blew up a liaison office. In recent weeks, Pyongyang has issued a series of vitriolic condemnations of...

A top German court on Tuesday ordered Facebook to stop merging data collected through its Whatsapp and Instagram subsidiaries or other websites unless users explicitly agree, in a legal victory for competition authorities. Germany's Federal Cartel Office (FCO) had told Facebook to rein in...

India told Pakistan Tuesday to slash its embassy staff in New Delhi by half -- saying it would do the same in Islamabad -- as a diplomatic spat continued between the nuclear-armed rivals. The fractious relationship between the neighbours has worsened since New Delhi expelled two Pakistan...

North Korean defectors to South Korea were reported on Tuesday to be behind anti-Pyongyang leaflet propaganda that have recently sparked tension between the two neighbors. "[We] sent anti-North Korea leaflets over [to the North] between 11 p.m. [1400GMT] and midnight on Monday [from a town]...

In an apparent broadside against the drive to take down statues of figures linked to racism, US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had authorized the government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys historical statues, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison. "I have...

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has upped the ante in the chaotic conflict in Libya, warning Cairo could intervene militarily to halt a march eastwards by the Turkey-backed forces of the UN-recognised government. Sisi's tough words came after the Tripoli-based Government of National...

China and India have agreed to reduce tensions a week after clashes on their disputed Himalayan border left 20 Indian troops dead in brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The June 15 battle, reportedly fought with fists, clubs and rocks, was the first time troops have been killed on their border...

The Taliban killed at least 291 Afghan security personnel over the past week, a top government official said Monday, accusing the insurgents of unleashing a wave of violence ahead of potential talks. The previous week was the "deadliest" in the country's 19 years of conflict, said Javid...

Nearly 260 million children had no access to schooling in 2018, the United Nations education agency said in a report Tuesday that blamed poverty and discrimination for educational inequalities that are being exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak. Children from poorer communities as well...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday faced another difficult day in office with the publication of a tell-all book by former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, after efforts to block the book release failed in a US court. Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” is an account of his...

More than nine million people have now been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, according to an AFP tally drawing on official sources, as of Monday. More than half of the 9,000,091 cases are in Europe and the United States: Europe having recorded 2,537,451 and the United States...

Dozens of girls from a state-run shelter for runaways and victims of sexual abuse -- including seven who are pregnant -- have tested positive for coronavirus, Indian officials said Monday, raising fears about its spread in institutional homes. A probe was launched after almost 60 out of 171...

The novel coronavirus pandemic is still accelerating and its effects will be felt for decades, the World Health Organization's director-general told an online conference Monday. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual health forum organized by Dubai authorities that the greatest threat...