Tunisia said it inspected a Turkish plane headed for Libya with medical aid that landed at an airport near the border. The aircraft was authorised to land at Djerba airport in the country's south, the Tunisian presidency said in statements issued Thursday and Friday. Tunisia had...

The number of coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia exceeded 35,000 Friday as the kingdom struggles to get to grips with rising numbers of new infections. Officials reported 1,701 new cases , taking the total to 35,432. The country has recorded a daily average of around 1,500 new cases over the...

President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States was not behind a failed covert plot in Venezuela allegedly involving two Americans, but that if he did order an attack it would be an open "invasion." "If I wanted to go into Venezuela I wouldn't make a secret about it," he told Fox...

Lebanon has arrested the head of the money changers' union as it battles to stabilise the value of the country's nose-diving currency on the black market, a security official said Friday. "The head of the money changers syndicate, Mahmoud Mrad, was arrested (Thursday) at the request of...

Britain's Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden warned on Friday that the Premier League does not yet have the "green light" to resume but restated the government's hope that the season can be completed. Premier League clubs are due to meet on Monday to discuss the latest plans for "Project...

Thousands of refugees along Syria's border with Jordan are at risk of contracting the coronavirus and other diseases because of a lack of basic medical care and sanitation, Amnesty International warned.  Located in a no-man's land along the Syria-Jordan border, the Rukban camp,...

Spanish police have arrested a Moroccan man in Barcelona with suspected links to Daesh (ISIS) who they believe was planning a militant attack. The Guardia Civil force said it had arrested the man, described as deeply radicalized, after a joint investigation with security forces in Morocco...

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the coronavirus pandemic keeps unleashing "a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering" and appealed for "an all-out effort to end hate speech globally." The U.N. chief said "anti-foreigner sentiment has surged...

Israel said Friday it would discuss with its closest ally the United States a newspaper report that the U.S.-led peacekeeping force in the Egyptian Sinai may be drawn down, calling its nearly four-decade-old presence "important." U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is pushing to pull out...

The U.N. human rights chief Friday accused Daesh (ISIS) and other factions in Syria of taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to step up violence on civilians, describing the situation as a "ticking time-bomb." United Nations rights chief Michelle Bachelet lamented a surge in violence in...

Iran urged its citizens to take social distancing "more seriously" on Friday as it announced more than 1,500 new cases of coronavirus infection in the Middle East's hardest-hit country. Since reporting its first cases in mid-February, the Islamic republic has struggled to contain the spread...

China said Friday it supports a World Health Organization-led review into the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, but only "after the pandemic is over". The comments from foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying came as China faces increasing global pressure to allow an...

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal Friday, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact. The agency appealed for $93.4 million for the next three months to provide food and cash...

A continent devastated by the coronavirus will mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe Friday, as the economic destruction of the current global crisis was laid bare. Large-scale parades that had been envisaged to commemorate victory over the Nazis have been downsized...

China's new prototype spacecraft "successfully landed" on Friday, marking an important step in its ambitions to run a permanent space station and send astronauts to the moon. The spacecraft -- which was launched Tuesday -- arrived safely at a predetermined site, the China Manned Space...

In central Syria, factory owner Rashid al-Faysal watches his staff working tirelessly to churn out a controversial antimalarial drug that Damascus hopes can help treat the novel coronavirus. There is no proof yet hydroxychloroquine works to prevent or cure COVID-19, but Syrian doctors have...

Last April, on Palm Sunday, a Syrian refugee set himself on fire in East Lebanon as his landlord threatened to evict him. Earlier that week, a Lebanese citizen in the southern city of Sidon also sought to light himself on fire, as he was prompted to pay a fine after disrespecting the...

The United States does not support the offensive of Libya’s eastern-based military leader Khalifa Haftar against Tripoli and believes Russia is working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to transfer militia fighters and equipment to Libya, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday. “The...

 Saudi Arabia has formed a police unit to monitor violations of its coronavirus lockdown rules and has banned gatherings of more than five people, the state news agency SPA said on Thursday. The kingdom had already said gatherings of more than one family were prohibited. On Thursday,...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told senior ministers on Thursday the government would adopt "maximum caution" as he prepared to outline how lockdown measures imposed to combat the coronavirus outbreak could be eased. Johnson will address the nation Sunday evening to set out a...