The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, infected more than 97,000 people across the world, according to a data collecting website "worldometer". The death toll has risen to 3,390 worldwide, including 3,042 in China, where the virus outbreak first emerged from the city of Wuhan...

Representatives of Iraq's top Shiite cleric did not deliver his weekly sermon in Karbala on Friday, a first since the fall of Saddam Hussein, due to fears of spreading the novel coronavirus. Religious authorities had already closed the shrine of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet...

A surge in 1948 Palestinian voter turnout was key to depriving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist allies of a parliamentary majority in this week’s Israeli election. Undercutting Netanyahu’s ambitions was celebrated as sweet payback in the nearly 2 million-strong...

 Thousands of migrants have made for Greece since Ankara said on Feb. 28 that it would let migrants cross its borders into Europe, reneging on a commitment to hold them on its territory under a 2016 deal with the European Union. Ankara has accused Greek forces of shooting dead...