Japan will offer a cash payment of 100,000 yen ($930) to every resident, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday, as measures to contain the coronavirus decimate the world's third-top economy. "We are moving quickly to deliver cash to all people," Abe said in a televised news conference...

The coronavirus is poised to reshape the political map, pummeling battleground states and alarming Republicans who see early signs of an election that could be a referendum on President Donald Trump’s management of the crisis. The pandemic, which has killed more than 30,000 Americans and...

An unknown gunman shot dead six local workers from the main American military base north of Afghanistan’s capital and wounded three others, an Afghan official said Friday. The nine workers, all Afghan nationals, were on their way home late Thursday when a gunman riding a motorcycle opened...

China's coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan on Friday admitted missteps in tallying its death toll, and abruptly raised the count by 50 percent following growing world doubts about Chinese transparency. The United States has led the charge in questioning China's handling of the pandemic...

China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday the World Health Organization has said there is no evidence that the coronavirus that has infected more than 2 million people globally was made in a lab. Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remark in response to a question about accusations the...

The world body also said in a risk report that nearly 369 million children across 143 countries who normally rely on school meals for a reliable source of daily nutrition have now been forced to look elsewhere. “We must act now on each of these threats to our children,” U.N....

The number of people who have died from the novel coronavirus worldwide now exceeds 140,000, according to data released Thursday from Johns Hopkins University. In crossing the grim milestone, the university tally found 140,773 fatalities, and nearly 2.1 million infections. In all, over...

Even as the Trump administration was struggling to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, it was ramping up efforts to seize land along U.S. southern border to build a wall and fulfill a major campaign promise, a Reuters review of federal court records shows. Donald Trump made building the...

The ruling party in South Korea clinched a landslide victory in the general elections held amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to unofficial results on Thursday. With nearly all votes for the directly contested seats counted, the country's election commission said the ruling...

Japan's government will convene a key panel of medics Thursday to advise on its state of emergency over the coronavirus, as local media reported the prime minister would expand the measures to cover the entire country. Shinzo Abe has already declared a month-long state of emergency in seven...

President Donald Trump vowed to unveil plans Thursday to reopen the world's top economy, following cautious moves in Europe, claiming the US had "passed the peak" of new coronavirus cases, even as the country logged a record number of deaths from the disease. Since emerging in China late...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called for coronavirus cooperation in talks with a top Chinese official, signaling a bid to keep a lid on renewing tensions. President Donald Trump's administration has berated China for not sharing data more quickly and said Tuesday it was...

People infected with the new coronavirus may start spreading the virus several days before they have any noticeable symptoms, according to a new modelling study published Wednesday. The study comes as nations have broadened restrictions aimed at curbing the epidemic, amid concerns over...

A team of robot-designing girls in Afghanistan is trying to build a low-cost medical ventilator from car parts, as health authorities look to boost critical-care capabilities for coronavirus patients in the impoverished country. If the teenagers succeed and can get government approval for...

Japan’s death toll from the novel coronavirus could reach 400,000 without measures to stem the contagion, according to a health ministry projection reported by local media. A ministry team studying clusters of the disease estimated that serious cases needing ventilator intervention could...

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations....

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Wednesday she will take a 20 percent pay cut in a symbolic act of solidarity with people struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic. Ardern said her personal salary, those of her fellow ministers and of top public servants...

North Korea marked the anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il Sung in subdued fashion Wednesday, with mask-wearing citizens placing flowers before his statue in Pyongyang as the country imposes strict anti-coronavirus measures. The grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong Un was...

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday about a "dangerous epidemic of misinformation" surrounding the global coronavirus outbreak. "This is a time for science and solidarity," Guterres said in a statement and video message. "As the world fights the deadly COVID-19...

The death toll from a tornado outbreak that ravaged the South rose to at least 34 on Tuesday as Mississippi officials said a 12th person had died there. The storms claimed lives in at least six states, and the National Weather Service said preliminary assessments found evidence that at...