Turkey Thursday reported its lowest daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the past two months, with 961 new infections in the past 24 hours. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca also reported 27 more deaths in the past 24 hours. The total number of infections in the country now stands...

The growth rate of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in France slowed slightly Thursday, with health authorities reporting an additional 318 known infections, an increase of 0.2 percent over 24 hours. The rate of increases in reported deaths also slowed a little, with 83 COVID-19 fatalities in...

The Libyan Army on Thursday entered al-Asabaa downtown after clashes with warlord Khalifa Haftar's militia. Libya Al-Ahrar TV channel cited unnamed military source as saying the army launched an attack on the remnants of Haftar's militia, who had escaped from the al-Watiya airbase. On...

The global tally of coronavirus infections surpassed 5 million Thursday, according to a running tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University. The university's data showed worldwide deaths reached 328,172 while the number of people who recovered stands at 1,899,350. The US is the...

The International Monetary Fund Thursday approved $396 million for Jordan to fight the coronavirus pandemic, a disbursement equal to about a quarter of its projected need amid the global economic downturn. The funds are the latest from the IMF's Rapid Financing Instrument, which allows...

Iran is slowly pulling out of Syria in response to Israeli strikes, as well as growing domestic discontent linked to the economy and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the Israeli military said Thursday. Israel and Iran have for years been engaged in a shadow war that has recently...

Tunisia will reopen places of worship, restaurants and hotels from June 4, authorities announced Thursday, more than two months after closing them over the coronavirus pandemic. The reopening could be delayed if there is a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, the ministers of major projects,...

A wave of coronavirus infections among residents returning to Gaza has more than doubled the number of cases in the strip in recent days, raising fears of a bigger outbreak. The impoverished Palestinian enclave had managed to limit the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to no more than 20,...

More than 2.4 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week in the latest wave of layoffs from the viral outbreak that triggered widespread business shutdowns two months ago and sent the economy into a deep recession. Roughly 38.6 million people have now filed for jobless...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Two motorbike bombs have killed three civilians, including a child, in the Kurdish-held areas in eastern Deir Ezzor province, local activists said Thursday. Fifteen more were wounded when the booby-trapped motorbikes exploded in the town of al-Bsairah in the eastern...

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned Thursday of a worsening crisis in northeast Syria, where water cuts, food shortages and depleted health services are proving as dangerous as coronavirus. Home to sprawling displacement camps hosting tens of thousands of people, including...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The rift between Syria’s telecom tycoon Rami Makhlouf and his maternal cousin Bashar al-Assad has marked a turning point in the boiling political scene in the war-torn country. Syria experts say the row could mark the first major rift in decades within the family that...

Bethlehem is struggling back to life just in time for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, nearly three months after it became the first town in the West Bank to be sealed off because of a coronavirus outbreak. Although the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, remains...

Olympics chief Thomas Bach agreed that 2021 was the "last option" for holding the delayed Tokyo Games Thursday, stressing that postponement cannot go on forever. Bach said he backed Japan's stance that the Games will have to be cancelled if the coronavirus pandemic isn't under control by...

Turkey's foreign ministry warned Thursday of grave consequences if General Khalifa Haftar's forces attacked Turkish interests in Libya. Ankara has provided military support to the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya, which has been battling to fend off a...

When Jamil al-Saboot and his family were told by a Yemeni aid agency to self-isolate to stop the spread of coronavirus, he knew he would not heed the advice. For the 40-year old father of ten, uprooted by civil war and living in a tent on a hillside above the southwestern city of Taiz,...

Doubts were growing Thursday over whether ambitious plans by European governments to use contact-tracing apps to fight the spread of the coronavirus will be able to be implemented with any real effectiveness soon. In contrast, there appeared to be some movement forward in the sprint to find...

Many Israeli websites were hit by a coordinated cyber attack Thursday, with the home pages replaced by images of the country's commercial capital Tel Aviv in flames. Israel's National Cyber Directorate said private companies using a particular operating system were targeted, but said the...

Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab pledged Thursday to stem devaluation and introduce subsidies on food imports, as his cabinet marked 100 days since it was formed to redress a free-falling economy. Lebanon is facing its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, now compounded...

Global coronavirus recoveries crossed the 1.9 million mark on Thursday, according to a running tally by the US’ Johns Hopkins University. The university's data showed a total of 1,901,079 million people won the battle against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus....