As Russian maestro Valery Gergiev strolled onstage amid the ruins of Palmyra in 2016, few were in any doubt how much of a PR coup the orchestral concert was for Russia. Moscow had helped recapture a historic site, ravaged by ISIS, but more importantly, they had beaten the Iranians to...

Britain could hit the grim milestone of 20,000 COVID-19 deaths later Saturday, when the daily count is added to the current toll of 19,506 people who tested positive for the new coronavirus and died in hospital. As the death toll rises, the government is facing growing criticism over...

Italy's economically punishing coronavirus lockdown, combined with big-spend stimulus packages to support families and firms, will push public debt and deficit to dizzying heights, the government said Friday. The cabinet approved the spring budget document (DEF), which forecast that the...

Stuck in their Tirana flat under a coronavirus lockdown, 81-year-old Osman Hoxha and his family quietly mark the start of Ramadan, recalling the communist era when practicing religion meant risking death. Like many parts of the world, mosques in Muslim-majority Albania are eerily empty...