More than 224,000 people around the world have lost their lives from the novel coronavirus as of Wednesday, according to data compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University. The university's study found 224,562 fatalities caused by COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, as...

Britain's ambassador to the United States Wednesday backed calls for an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus and the response of the World Health Organization, but said the first priority should be containing the outbreak. The comments came after Britain's foreign affairs...

 Turkey's official death toll from the novel coronavirus rose to 3,081, the health minister said Wednesday. In a tweet, Fahrettin Koca said 89 more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours while there were 2,936 new cases. The total number of reported infections is now 117,589, as...

GlaxoSmithKline, the world's largest vaccine maker, said the global push to develop an immunization against the coronavirus would not lead to widely available products before the second half of next year. "If things go right ... to get to scale of manufacturing in the hundreds of millions...

Iran must not give in to U.S. "provocations", Russia said Wednesday, following months of mounting tension between Washington and Tehran. "We are urging maximum restraint and caution, not to give in to provocations and aggressive rhetoric," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told...

Several hundred small business owners protested in Kiev on Wednesday, demanding the authorities ease anti-virus measures to save them from bankruptcy. Wearing surgical masks, demonstrators briefly blocked traffic outside a government building in the city centre in defiance of rules against...

Yemeni authorities reported multiple coronavirus infections for the first time Wednesday, after the United Nations said it feared the disease could be spreading undetected in a country where millions face famine. The five new COVID-19 cases were detected in Aden, a southern port which is...

Google on Wednesday made its business videoconferencing service free to all users, ramping up competition for Zoom as people flock online to stay connected during the pandemic. Google Meet had previously been reserved for subscribers to the premium G Suite software tools for businesses....

Lebanon's under-fire central bank chief Wednesday blamed a lack of government reforms for a spiralling economic crisis that has seen angry protesters spill back into the streets despite a coronavirus lockdown. Central bank governor Riad Salameh was speaking after two nights of street...

At least 36 people were killed Wednesday when one of South Korea's worst fires in years broke out at a construction site near the capital, officials said. They said the death toll could rise because more people were believed to be trapped inside the warehouse that was under construction in...

Turkey Wednesday accused Libya's strongman Khalifa Haftar of seeking to "create a military dictatorship" and vowed to "defend" the government in Tripoli. The oil-rich North African nation has been mired in chaos since the ouster and killing of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with...

Voices reverberate around the room in Turkey's busiest medical emergency hotline in Istanbul, where there has been a surge in calls during the coronavirus crisis. Wearing masks and sitting in front of screens where they have a list of questions, the center's employees are some of those who...

Tunisia will start relaxing its coronavirus lockdown next week, reopening parts of the food and construction sectors and allowing half of government employees to return to work, it said Wednesday. Its lockdown, in place since March, has stopped 25,000 cases of the virus and 1,000 deaths,...

Clutching bags from designer boutiques in their gloved hands, customers are back at Dubai Mall, one of the world's largest shopping havens that has reopened under strict safeguards against coronavirus. At a main entrance where customers hand over their sports cars and luxury SUVs for valet...

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday told the United States it "should not plot against the Iranian nation every day", amid fresh tensions between the arch foes in the Gulf. Tehran and Washington have traded barbs over a spate of incidents in the past year involving their forces in...

Arab foreign ministers are to hold talks on Thursday on Israel's US-backed plans to annex key parts of the occupied West Bank. Concern has mounted since Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- an outspoken advocate of annexing large parts of the Palestinian territory --...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday became a father again when his partner Carrie Symonds gave birth to a healthy baby boy, just weeks after he himself was hospitalised with coronavirus. The news came as a surprise, as Symonds, 32, was not thought to be due for several weeks,...

Iran reopened for business despite its persistent coronavirus outbreak as there was no end in sight to the crisis, its president said Wednesday, as 80 new deaths were announced. "Due to uncertainty about when this virus will end, we are preparing for work, activity and science," said...

Like the rest of the world, the month of Ramadan lacks festivity in the Palestinian territory of Gaza in the wake of quarantine and self-isolation to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. But for many residents, the lockdown is like an extension of the crippling siege...

Contracting the novel coronavirus at the very first days of his life, Syrian baby has recovered from COVID-19 after treatment in Izmir, on the Aegean coast of Turkey. Syrian baby Aziz was diagnosed with the disease just five days after opening his eyes to the world, and he was...