A car bomb Tuesday killed 18 people, including at least 13 civilians, in the Turkish-controlled town of Al-Bab in northern Syria, a war monitor said. The explosion near a bus station in the town also wounded at least 75 people, some of them seriously, the Britain-based Syrian...

A vaccine against COVID-19 may be ready by year-end, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday, without elaborating. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, addressing the end of a two-day meeting of its Executive Board on the pandemic, said: "We will need...

 The United Arab Emirates foreign minister visited Germany's main Holocaust memorial together with his counterpart from Israel and vowed "never again" Tuesday, an event showcasing the two Middle East countries' unusually warm new rapprochement. A U.S.-brokered establishment of full...

His press secretary once described President Donald Trump as the “most tested man in America” when it came to COVID-19. And variations on that message were the White House ready response any time critics questioned the president's lax approach to following guidelines for avoiding the novel...

Russia Tuesday reported 11,615 new cases and 188 fatalities, taking the total number of coronavirus cases to 1.2 million and the death toll to 21,663. The country saw the highest daily number of cases on May 11 when 11,656 cases were recorded throughout the country. Over 6,252 more...

The UN called Tuesday Iran to immediately release human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and other political prisoners who have been excluded from a push to empty jails amid the pandemic. UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation of rights...

China is in talks to have its locally-produced COVID-19 vaccines assessed by the World Health Organization, as a step toward making them available for international use, a WHO official said Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk in China...

Kuwait's new emir has asked the Gulf state's cabinet to carry on its duties and prepare for parliamentary elections due this year after the prime minister handed in his government's resignation, state news agency KUNA reported Tuesday. Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah met Emir...

After a summer of civil unrest over racial injustice in the United States, the National Guard has put hundreds of military police on standby specifically to help law enforcement deal with any potential violence in the coming months, three US military officials have told Reuters. Officials...

Lawyers representing victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria say they have filed criminal complaints with Germany's federal public prosecutor against Syrian officials they blame for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in rebel-held areas. Germany, which is home to 600,000 Syrians, has...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of being the main instigator of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, speaking in an interview with Russia’s RIA news agency published on Tuesday. The fighting between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians over the region began...

 U.S. President Donald Trump faced a fresh backlash on Tuesday for removing his mask when he returned to the White House and urging Americans not to fear the COVID-19 disease that has killed more than 209,000 people in the country and put him in hospital. Trump arrived at the White...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered a nationwide drive to boost the ailing economy ahead of a key party congress in January, state media reported Tuesday. The decision was made during a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party and comes as the coronavirus pandemic and recent floods have...

Almost two decades after the United States launched what would become its longest-ever war with air strikes on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, the hardline group are in a stronger position than ever. The invasion on October 7, 2001 quickly toppled the militants, who had harbored...

Lebanese President Michel Aoun will not sign decrees dismissing three officials charged in a probe into the August 4 Beirut port blast without a formal cabinet vote, his office said Monday. The director of land and maritime transport, Abdel Hafiz Kaissi, the port's director-general Hassan...

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at Israel late Monday, the army said, without reporting any casualties. Sirens sounded in areas of southern Israel neighbouring Gaza to warn of the incoming fire, for which there was no claim of responsibility. The last cross-border...

Iran’s Health Ministry said on Monday nearly the whole country was on a coronavirus red alert as cases and deaths rose to record levels, with a member of the state task force’s warning field hospitals might be needed if people flout the rules. Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told...

A top Palestinian business executive said on Monday that new Gulf Arab ties with Israel, condemned by Palestinian leaders, could also be an opportunity to apply fresh pressure to halt Jewish settlement in occupied land. Bashar Masri, a Palestinian-American who runs two of the Palestinians’...

 A drastic rise in COVID-19 infections has pushed Lebanon’s hospitals to the edge, and experts warn they will soon be unable to cope as the country buckles under a succession of devastating crises. Lebanon’s healthcare system was already struggling before several hospitals were badly...

The number of total coronavirus cases around the world surpassed 35 million on Monday, less than a week after deaths from COVID-19 passed one million, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US leads the world with over 7.4 million cases and almost 210,000 deaths, while India had...