Spain's government on Monday warned the Madrid authorities it could take drastic measures if the region failed to move decisively to slow the uncontrolled spread of coronavirus infections. The city and the surrounding region is at the epicentre of a second wave of coronavirus that is...

An Iranian dissident who fled his country fearing arrest has fallen foul of politics and COVID-19 restrictions in ethnically split Cyprus. Since mid-September, Omid Tootian has been living in a small tent in Cyprus’s buffer zone, a United Nations-controlled slice of territory carved out...

Lebanese are in despair at their sectarian leaders who have left the nation without government during the worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war that has already driven many into poverty. Emmanuel Macron, president of Lebanon’s former colonial power France who has led international...

Three Iraqi civilians were killed and two severely wounded Monday after a katyusha rocket hit near the vicinity of Baghdad airport, two Iraqi security officials said. The rocket targeted the international airport but struck a residential home close by, two security officials said. They...

Senior Afghan peace official Abdullah Abdullah arrived in Pakistan on Monday for meetings in a country seen as vital to the success of Afghan talks aimed at ending decades of war. During his three-day visit to Islamabad, Abdullah, a former foreign minister and chairman of Afghanistan’s High...

A huge Palestinian flag suddenly looms up above the grey concrete slabs of Israel’s West Bank barrier, a rare glimpse of “the other” before it disappears in your rear-view mirror. Farther north around ancient Armageddon and the tourist lookout points of Mount Gilboa, a wrong turn leads to a...

The European Union and Britain both said a post-Brexit deal was still some way off and differences persisted Monday over putting in place their earlier divorce deal as they began a decisive week of talks in Brussels. Britain left the EU last January and is locked in negotiations on a new...

France's government presented its 2021 budget Monday, a plan that aims to rescue the country's beleaguered economy from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic by injecting a 42 billion-euro ($49 billion) stimulus next year. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said "we are convinced that France...

Washington has made preparations to withdraw diplomats from Iraq after warning Baghdad it could shut its embassy, two Iraqi officials and two Western diplomats said, a step Iraqis fear could turn their country into a battle zone. Any move by the United States to scale down its diplomatic...

Turkish prosecutors have prepared a second indictment in connection with the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, naming six new Saudi nationals as suspects, broadcaster CNN Turk and other media said on Monday. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin...

Jordan on Sunday resumed its land border traffic with Syria, following a more than month-long closure, after applying new rules to prevent truck drivers spreading the novel coronavirus into the kingdom, officials and businessmen said. They said authorities imposed back-to-back handling of...

A quarter of school-age children in Lebanon's capital risk missing out on school after last month's deadly port explosion, the International Rescue Committee aid group warned Monday. "With 163 schools damaged by the Beirut explosion, at least 1 in 4 children in the city are now at risk of...

Azerbaijan has rejected a statement by an Armenian official saying Turkey had sent fighters from Syria to support Azerbaijani forces amid intensifying fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Interfax and RIA news agencies on Tuesday quoted Vardan Toganyan, Armenia’s...

On 10 September 2020 Dr Adnan Al-Jasem became the first doctor in northern Syria to die from coronavirus. Al-Jasem had fled the bombings in Deir Ezzor in the east of the country and tended to the wounded throughout Syria’s nine-year long war. Yet it was the virus he died of whilst working...

Beijing's city government will protect "non-malicious" medical whistleblowers under a new law, passed months after a Chinese doctor was punished for sounding the alarm at the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. China's leaders suffered a rare wave of public outrage after...

Saudi Arabia said Monday it will hold the G20 summit virtually in November, instead of having leaders of the world's richest nations converge on Riyadh as planned before the coronavirus crisis. The pandemic has forced all of the group's meetings to be held by videoconference since March....

The Tokyo 2020 torch relay, which was put on hold when the Olympics were delayed over the coronavirus, will start next March from Japan's Fukushima region, organisers said Monday. The Olympic flame had already arrived in Japan from Greece and the relay was days from beginning earlier this...

Azerbaijan issued a final warning Monday to Armenia, which is continuing to attack civilian settlements. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Azerbaijani city of Terter has been under fire from Armenian forces since this morning. “The Ministry of Defense gives the last...

American actress and former television host Olivia Munn has come under fire after it was announced that she is set to play the lead role of a UN journalist in a new drama about Syrian refugees. The drama, titled Aleppo, is to be directed by Brazilian filmmaker David Schurmann and...

Lawyers for TikTok pleaded with a U.S. federal judge on Sunday to delay the Trump Administration's ban of the popular video sharing program from app stores set to take effect at the end of the day, arguing the move would infringe on First Amendment rights and do irreparable harm to the...