Iraq has ordered schools to teach pupils online, cancelled Friday prayers and suspended trade with major partner Iran, after confirming its first three deaths from the new coronavirus. Authorities stepped up attempts to contain COVID-19 on Thursday. With students scheduled to return to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Thursday said they had reached a ceasefire agreement for the northwestern Syrian town of Idlib. "At 00.01 tonight, as in, from midnight, the ceasefire will be put in place," Erdogan said, following...

At least 11 people were killed and 22 others wounded when a five-storey residential complex collapsed in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Thursday, leaving additional victims trapped in the rubble. The building had initially been constructed as a four-storey complex, but another floor was...

Algeria's state prosecutor has requested four years in prison for Karim Tabbou, a key figure of anti-government protests, and the verdict has been set for March 11. Tabbou's trial opened Wednesday in Algiers and continued until dawn as around 60 defence lawyers argued for his innocence, the...