The UN envoy for Iraq said Wednesday the coronavirus pandemic has made things worse in the country, with a 10 percent increase in poverty and 3 million people who can’t afford to buy enough food. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told the UN Security Council the pandemic has also disrupted studies...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Oman Thursday as part of a Middle East tour following a US-brokered deal on normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced on Aug. 13. He is expected to meet Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, who took power in January...

 France's foreign minister said Thursday that Lebanon risked disappearing due to the inaction of its political elite who needed to quickly implement a new government to implement crucial reforms for the country. "The international community will not sign a blank check if the they...

Gaza will remain in lockdown at least until Sunday, health officials said Wednesday after reporting two deaths and 26 COVID-19 cases in the first public outbreak of the coronavirus in the blockaded Palestinian enclave. As of two days ago, when the first four cases were discovered in a...

Moscow Thursday accused the US military of trying to hinder a Russian patrol in Syria after Washington said US troops had been injured in a collision with a Russian vehicle. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military's General Staff, told his US counterpart in a phone call that Russia...

Armed men have abducted at least six peaceful protesters in Libya's capital and used live fire to disperse a demonstration wounding others, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. The protest was one of several that took place Sunday against poor public services and living conditions, with...

Turkey confirmed on Wednesday 1,313 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the tally to 262,507. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter that the total number of recoveries had reached 239,797. Citing Health Ministry data, Koca said that 1,002 patients recovered from...

Saudi Arabia has detained another relative of a former senior intelligence official living in exile who recently filed a lawsuit in a US court alleging the kingdom's crown prince had tried to have him killed, his family said Wednesday. Saudi authorities had already detained Saad al-Jabri's...

 A small number of U.S. troops were injured during an interaction with Russian forces in Syria, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. While such interactions between American and Russian forces are not rare, the incident highlights the risks of troops from both countries...

Spain continues to lead Europe in terms of new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are beginning to rise fast with 922 more COVID-19 patients admitted in the past 24 hours, according to data published by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday. Currently, more than 5,903 COVID-19...

 A Palestinian who entered Israel from the occupied West Bank on a work permit stabbed an Israeli to death Wednesday and was later arrested, Israeli police said. The stabbing took place at a junction near Petah Tikva, in central Israel. Police said the suspect, a 46-year-old man from...

Iran said Wednesday it had agreed to grant the U.N. nuclear watchdog access to two sites that the agency suspects once secretly hosted nuclear material or activities, easing a months-long standoff over the issue. Wednesday's breakthrough in the dispute over the sites near Karaj and Isfahan...

The city of Berlin will put thousands of police on the streets at the weekend to enforce a ban on demonstrations opposing measures imposed to stem the coronavirus pandemic after marchers at a recent rally failed to wear masks or keep their distance. Andreas Geisel, the Berlin interior...

The Kremlin said Wednesday it doesn't want the illness of Russia's opposition leader, who is in a coma in a German hospital after a suspected poisoning, to affect relations with the West as international pressure mounted on Moscow to investigate Alexei Navalny's condition. The statement...

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Beirut Sept. 1, his office said Wednesday. Macron was the first foreign leader to visit Beirut after a massive blast destroyed parts of the Lebanese capital in early August.

European Union nations, Britain and EU partners have agreed on a blueprint for a COVID-19 vaccination plan envisaging inoculation of at least 40% of their populations, a step that may set back the World Health Organisation's own vaccine blueprint. The EU target for early vaccinations is...

France is joining military exercises with Italy, Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean amid a worsening dispute between Turkey and Greece over energy resources in the region, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Wednesday. Tensions between Turkey and Greece escalated after...

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Wednesday the country was at risk of losing its control over the country’s coronavirus outbreak after a spike in the number of cases following the massive explosion in Beirut on Aug 4. “The number of cases is increasing greatly, and if...

 Oil held near $46 a barrel on Wednesday, close to its highest since March, lifted by U.S. producers shutting most of their offshore Gulf of Mexico output ahead of Hurricane Laura and a report showing a drop in U.S. crude inventories. Renewed worries over the COVID-19 pandemic, which...

The Israeli military struck what it said were posts belonging to Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah movement early on Wednesday after shots were fired from the other side of the border towards its troops. After a meeting, Lebanon’s Supreme Defence Council denounced the incident which it called “an...