The US economy shrank at a dizzying 33% annual rate in the April-June quarter - by far the worst quarterly plunge ever - when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday. The Commerce...

Up to 800 million children around the world are being poisoned by lead from water and air pollution, the United Nations warned Thursday in a special report on the "massive and previously unknown" health crisis. One out of every three children is estimated to have levels of lead -- a potent...

Tradition dictates that Muslims donate cuts of mutton during Friday's Eid al-Adha festival, which would spell brisk business for butcher Abdulrazak Darwish but Lebanon's economic crisis has cast a pall over his trade. "This year has been the worst for us because of soaring inflation," said...

Thirty years have passed since Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait, but despite hints of a diplomatic rapprochement, people in both countries say the wounds have yet to heal. On August 2, 1990, Saddam sent his military, already exhausted by an eight-year conflict with...