North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not undergo surgery during his almost three week absence from public life, South Korean news outlet Yonhap said citing a senior government official, as the two Koreas exchanged gunfire around the border on Sunday. The South Korean official declined to...

North Korean troops fired multiple gunshots towards the South in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula on Sunday, prompting South Korean forces to fire back, Seoul said. The rare exchange of gunfire comes a day after North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un had made...

The United Kingdom's COVID-19 death toll rose 621 to 28,131 as of May 1, just short of Italy which has so far had the world's second most deadly outbreak of the disease after the United States. As Britain shadows Italy for the grim status of being the worst hit country in Europe, Prime...

The U.S. military in Afghanistan Saturday urged warring parties to "return to the political path" in a rare open letter to the Taliban as a surge in violence risks shattering a hoped-for peace process. In a two-page letter to the Taliban, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Colonel Sonny...

Top U.S. health official Anthony Fauci will not testify next week to a congressional committee examining the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, the White House said on Friday, calling it "counterproductive" to have individuals involved in the response testify....

The International Monetary Fund has approved a $643 million emergency loan for Ecuador, as the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices hit the South American nation. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Economy and Finance said Friday the five-year loan came with "favorable conditions" at 1.05...

The World Health Organization reiterated Friday that the new coronavirus was of natural origin after US President Donald Trump claimed he had seen evidence it originated in a Chinese lab. Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year,...

A North Korean defector who lives in South Korea claimed Friday that he is "99%" sure the communist republic's leader Kim Jong-un died last weekend after surgery. "I've wondered how long he could have endured after cardiovascular surgery. I've been informed that Kim died last weekend," Ji...

The tally of coronavirus infections globally has exceeded 3.3 million on Friday, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University. The university's data showed that the number of virus-linked deaths reached 235,290, while the number of people who recovered climbed to nearly 1.04 million....

US presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday emphatically denied sexually assaulting a former staffer, saying the incident she claims occurred 27 years ago "never happened." "They aren't true. This never happened," Biden said in a statement regarding the accusations made by Tara Reade, a...

A bitter feud between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah appeared closer to resolution Friday after Abdullah said the two men had moved forward in talks. "We have made progress in negotiations & reached tentative agreement on a range of principles. Work on...

 Pakistani and Indian troops traded fire in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing three Pakistanis and a teenage Indian student, officials from the two sides said Thursday. In a statement, the military blamed Indian troops for initiating an "unprovoked cease-fire violation" in the...

A journalist who had worked for some of China's most powerful propaganda outlets has been jailed for 15 years after being accused of attacking the ruling Communist Party, court documents showed. The sentence handed down on Chen Jieren is one of the harshest moves yet against free speech by...

Australia will consider next Friday whether to relax coronavirus-related mobility restrictions, as the growth rate of new infections slows, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday following a national cabinet meeting. Morrison urged Australians to download an app aimed at tracing...

Afghanistan, beset by a poor healthcare system, malnutrition, war and other vulnerabilities, likely is facing a “health disaster” from the coronavirus, a watchdog report to the U.S. Congress warns. The report released late on Thursday by Special Inspector General for Afghanistan...

Riot police hit Hong Kong's streets on Friday ahead of planned rallies by pro-democracy protesters who were looking to defy restrictions on gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic to voice anger against authoritarian Chinese rule. The semi-autonomous financial hub was upended by seven...

Donald Trump claimed he has seen evidence the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, as he threatened tariffs on Beijing over its role in the global pandemic. The US president's assertion was immediately undermined by his intelligence chief and by his top diplomat, who said: "We don't...

Japan is preparing to extend its state of emergency over the novel coronavirus, originally set to end on May 6, for about a month, government sources told Reuters on Thursday, even as some other countries begin to reopen after strict lockdowns. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told...

A researcher in a lab coat in Beijing holds up the hopes of humanity in his fingers: "Coronavac", an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus that has upended the world. Sinovac Biotech, which is conducting one of the four clinical trials that have been authorised in China, has claimed...

More than 224,000 people around the world have lost their lives from the novel coronavirus as of Wednesday, according to data compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University. The university's study found 224,562 fatalities caused by COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, as...